Coping With Morning Sickness and Hyperemesis Gravidarum

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Someone really close to me has recently become pregnant and is suffering from an extremely bad case of morning sickness.

It reminded me of how sick I was myself during my pregnancies. In fact, I was hospitalized because I was diagnosed with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG) which is “extreme morning sickness”.

I was losing a lot of weight (I weighed less after giving birth than I did when I first got pregnant), and I was VERY dehydrated. The doctor’s eyes almost popped out of his head when he got the results back after testing me for dehydration. Apparently I didn’t “look” dehydrated. I must have some mad makeup skills and covered up the huge black bags under my eyes!

Anyway, there is medication available for morning sickness and HG called Diclectin, but it wasn’t successful for me. Instead, I relied on a few tips to help me survive those long, loooong months of vomiting too many times a day to count.

How I Coped With Morning Sickness

First, anything smelly was thrown out or stored far, far away where I couldn’t smell it. Walking past a Glade plugin would make me run straight to the bathroom. I also made my husband throw away his body spray because it would literally make me sick. To this day, I can’t smell that stuff or I start to feel queasy.

Second, I had my groceries delivered to me. Walking into a grocery store was unthinkable for me. All that food! All those smells!! Show me to the ladies room NOW.

The city I lived in had a cool service called Pic’n'Del. You could shop on their website and have everything delivered right to your door for 7 or 8 bucks. They aren’t in business anymore but your town may have something similar. One of my local grocery stores delivers for $25.

I’d much rather dish out $25 than vomit all over aisle 7 in the store, wouldn’t you?

During the odd times when I felt I could actually swallow food and keep it in my belly, I opted for fresh, raw foods. Fruit and cold stuff like ice cream or frozen grapes was the only food that I could handle. Cooking beef in my house while I had morning sickness was the worst possible thing you could do and would result in a very angry and sick pregnant lady!

I also avoided caffeine like the plague which pregnant women should be doing anyway. Warm beverages like tea or coffee did not sit well with me, even decaf.

In the end, you know your own body well enough to know what works and what doesn’t. It’s a bit of a game, trying different things until you figure out what keeps you from being sick.

For more practical tips on keeping morning sickness at bay and to learn more about it, read my article here:

http://www.babytipsonline.com/morning-sickness.html

P.S. I am a Final Fantasy addict. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a video game. While I was holed up in my apartment with morning sickness, I played Final Fantasy all day. Now when I play that game, I feel sick to my stomach. Weird hey?