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Help! I am nauseous morning, noon, and night. Is there anything that I can do to relieve these awful symptoms?
Approximately seventy percent of all pregnant women suffer with morning sickness in one form or another during their pregnancies. Some find that they feel sick first thing in the morning; others feel great until it is time to cook dinner every evening, and some feel sick morning, noon and night. While mommy-to-be nausea is far from pleasant, rest assured that at some point throughout your pregnancy it will end, and with any luck it will end soon. Most pregnant women find that their morning sickness begins around the sixth week of pregnancy, peaks around week eight or nine, and then tapers off between weeks twelve and fourteen. In the mean time, here are a few tricks of the trade that might just help make these next few weeks a bit more tolerable.- Track your triggers...then avoid them. The sudden increase of estrogen in your body is now making your nose extremely sensitive to the everyday smells that surround you. Try and make a note of the odors around you and other things that seem to be occurring during the day when you feel most sick, and then do your best to avoid these upset tummy triggers. Do you experience most of your nausea when stuck in the morning elevator with that co-worker whose hygiene is a bit suspect? Maybe you should consider taking the stairs. Is the aroma of your partner's pot of coffee in the morning, not the "best part of waking up?" If so, ask him to stop brewing at home and swing by the local coffee shop for his morning cup of joe for the next few weeks. If, like me, touching any type of raw meat when preparing dinner leaves you without an appetite, consider asking your partner to help with dinner prep or pick up some pre-cooked entrées at the grocery store that simply have to be re-heated. As some odors, or social situations are simply unavoidable, you may also want to consider packing an orange, lemon, sprig of mint, or other fresh smelling herb in your purse so that you can non-chalantly sniff something pleasant when a normally non-offensive scent wages a surprise attack and leaves you wanting to run for the restroom.
- Find foods that work. As you deal with your nausea, find foods that work for your system and stick with them! Many women find that high carbohydrate snacks such as crackers, pretzels and dry cereal are easiest to keep down. Others swear by a good old fashioned grilled cheese sandwich and a coca-cola. If you feel fine in the morning, but sick as a dog come supper time, why not eat a larger breakfast complete with eggs and bacon and all the fixings and then gingerly snack during the evening hours when your tummy is most upset? As your diet may not be completely balanced during these weeks, do your best to continue taking your pre-natal vitamins everyday to help make-up for any nutritional deficiencies you may be encountering.
- Gingerly try some ginger. The ginger root is known for helping to alleviate nausea naturally. Many pregnant women find that sipping flat ginger-ale, drinking ginger tea, or munching on ginger snaps, gingerbread or ginger candy seems to help their tender tummy feel better.
- When in doubt...work out! Many mommies-to-be find that exercising really helps them deal with their morning sickness symptoms. Whether it has something to do with the natural endorphins that their bodies release as they work out, or the simple distraction of being forced to focus on something other than feeling sick, several women swear that exercise alone helped them survive the early weeks of pregnancy. As always, be sure to contact your health care provider before beginning a new exercise routine while pregnant.
- Stock a survival kit. Since it is hard to know when exactly the morning sickness monster is going to rear its ugly head, be sure to pack a survival kit that you can carry with you in the car as you head out each morning. Consider including a toothbrush and toothpaste, mouthwash, a clean shirt, and some hard candies (in a flavor and with a smell that doesn't make you want to puke!) You might also want to throw a few plastic produce bags from the grocery store into your purse. These can be used in case of an emergency, when a restroom is too far away and your morning sickness madness is at its peak.
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