Experiencing morning sickness on any level? Not the most fun thing in the world….so I hope you can find relief with implementing four simple, tried and true ways to fight it off as much as possible.
1. Snack consistently throughout the day
- A lot of times the last thing you want to do when your nauseous, is to eat something. Knowing this, you can eliminate extra suffering by eating small portion sizes consistently throughout the day instead of fewer larger meals. Eating larger meals and less often throughout the day can overwhelm your stomach and in turn make you more sick. To accomplish snacking consistently throughout the day, you can plan ahead and stay prepared. A few examples on how to make this easier is to keep healthy, bland and light snacks on your nightstand, in your purse, in your desk as well as in your car. I was a lot more sick during my second pregnancy and found that saltines were a life saver. I don’t know if it was because of the salt or the light cracker, but snacking on those specific crackers helped a lot.
- Have crackers on your nightstand for the morning before getting out of bed. From the very moment you wake up in the morning and before the nausea hits too hard, it’s a good idea to put something light and bland in your stomach. There were days, more in my second pregnancy, that upon waking up, I started to feel nauseous. Getting out of bed and walking to the kitchen was often miserable and then eating breakfast seemed like a chore that made me feel worse. I quickly found that eating something light before I got out of bed helped curb the nausea and quickly gave me substance before moving about during the day. Another great thing about having crackers on your nightstand is so you can be reminded to eat as soon as you wake up and it’s super convenient having the snack right by you instead of walking to the kitchen to grab something. Some days you intend to eat something quickly to help the nausea, but life hits (helping your other child, getting showered or dressed, etc.) and you forget to eat until the morning sickness gets worse.
2. Stay hydrated
- Getting enough liquid intake can be more important than your solid intake. Especially if the morning sickness is bringing vomiting, your body is losing a lot of liquids that need to be replenished. That being said, for me and my pregnancies and even without being pregnant, fluids tend to make me more queasy so I needed to look for ways to stay hydrated without getting more sick as a result.
- Sipping on water with squeezed lemon or lemon juice helped curb my nausea. I couldn’t drink a lot at a time, but sipping on small amounts of lemon throughout the day seemed to do the trick.
- Grapefruit juice was also very helpful, in small quantities throughout the day. While reading through pregnancy books and doing research online, I found that citrus foods can relieve morning sickness symptoms so it makes sense as to why they helped me through my pregnancies.
- If you find that drinking and eating meals at the same time creates nausea, you can try drinking in between meals.
- If you are vomiting often, electrolyte fluid or coconut water may be helpful as well.
- Other ways to stay hydrated is by eating smoothies, soups, fresh fruits and vegetables
3. Eat with a good diet in mind, but also eat what sits well with your stomach
- For both of my pregnancies, it was hard to eat well through different waves of the nine months. I knew of people who ate healthily throughout their entire pregnancy, which is great! That however, was not me. I wanted to eat as well as I could, but being sick didn’t make it easy at times. I knew I needed to keep substance in my body so I found foods that sat better with my stomach and got me through being sick. Gingerbread cookies were my favorite go to dessert. They helped my morning sickness so much!
- The temperature of foods can be triggering morning sickness as well. I found that I had a better time eating cold foods instead of hot. For some reason, I would get more sick with eating hot foods. It might be worth paying attention when you are sick, the time of day and what you are eating to see if there are any patterns or if you can tell if hot or cold foods may be triggering sickness.
4. Listen to your body and talk with your provider.
- Take it easy when you can. That’s so much easier said than done, but try to look for opportunities to put your feet up, meditate, or lay down for a few minutes. Your body is doing a lot! It can be hard to put yourself first sometimes and life gets busy. but you are doing an amazing thing by having a baby grow inside of you! You need to give your body and mind a rest when you can so you can stay as mentally and physically happy as possible. You’ll find that taking moments to sit down, relax, etc. will hopefully help with the morning sickness and your body not go into overdrive.
- Your provider is also there to help you. With each of my pregnancies, I became very close to the nurses and doctors. I realized there are no stupid questions and it’s their job to make sure you feel as comfortable and prepared as possible so don’t hesitate to reach out and ask questions. They may have other options and solutions to your morning sickness that will work well for you.
You are doing an amazing thing by having a baby grow inside of you for nine months! Morning sickness is no fun and can be debilitating at times depending on the level of the sickness. There are usually things that can provide some sort of relief so I hope what I listed above can be helpful!
Snacking consistently throughout the day can curb the sickness and help ensure that you don’t have morning sickness on top of the pain of an empty stomach. Staying hydrated is important to keep your body regulated and working properly. As I mentioned earlier, your body is doing a lot while pregnant! Getting enough fluids help form good amniotic fluid, build extra blood and tissue as well as carry all the nutrients you are absorbing through the foods and prenatal vitamin you consume each day. You also want assistance washing out any toxins or waste and staying hydrated can do just that! Try to get the needed nutrients each day, but also eat what sits best in your stomach which may take some trial and error. Also, don’t forget to listen to your body and talk with your provider! There are a lot of great resources out there so I hope you found comfort with reading this as well as found some relief from the not so fun nausea that sometimes occurs with pregnancy.
It’s easy to get discouraged, but a baby is developing within you! That’s pretty amazing! Try to focus on the positive and turn to healthy solutions, your provider, and friends and family to help provide that needed support!