Morning sickness is a unique kind of nausea that goes on well past the morning, and is supposed to go away after the first trimester of pregnancy. Unless you’re like me, and you have it for all nine months of pregnancy. Through my last three pregnancies, I have spent about two cumulative years of my life in miserable, gut-wrenching nausea. That’s ~700 days of throwing up and feeling awful all the time.
Morning sickness sucks. I could go into endless detail on just how sucky it is, but if you’re still reading this, I’m guessing you’re here because you already know how awful it is and you just want to know how to make. it. stop. I’ve been there. I’ve read all the websites and tried all the tips, and now I’m here to offer some of my own! Because even though I had a stash of bland crackers at my bedside and tried ginger everything, the nausea prevailed. So here are some tried and true tips (and my weird guesses at why it worked) for you to try!
- Get a ton of sleep. For me, that meant 8-10 hours at night, and a 1-1.5 hour nap in the afternoon. I only learned of this during my third pregnancy, when I was a SAHM and could actually nap in the afternoons when my toddler napped. Tiredness = nauseated.
- Don’t get hungry. All the websites say to snack frequently, but I needed to give myself a concrete number so I wouldn’t get lost in an activity and forget to snack. That meant no more than 2 hours without food.
- Don’t eat too much at one time. Eating up to 60% fullness was just about right for me. More and I’d lose it all.
- Proteins as part of breakfast! It will keep you fuller longer.
- After eating food, don’t follow with liquids (including water). I think it got all sloshy in there and made me throw up.
- If you must have liquids (to take pills, for example), then remember to do it before eating. This goes along with point #5.
- Wait 45-60 minutes after your last bite of food before driving anywhere. This is probably why I threw up as soon as I parked the car at work every morning when I was still teaching. I’d eat breakfast, hit the road, and get super queasy all the way to work and then lose it as soon as I parked. I also couldn’t not eat breakfast before driving (see point #2), so the best solution was to get up exxxxtra early, eat first, and then do the rest of my morning routine and make sure it was at least 45 minutes post-breakfast before getting on the road.
- Limit smartphone screen time. Looking at my smartphone for too long made me queasy.
- Don’t get out of breath. It made me gag and then vomit. Sadly, that meant no walks after meals. #outofshape
- Have fizzy drinks (ginger ale, coke) to help you burp (instead of vomit).
- The common wisdom about eating bland stuff was not true for me. I liked to eat crunchy and salty things. Think potato chips and a panini with a nice crispy crust. And cheesy bread (like pizza) also worked well for me.
Other things that likely helped:
- Taking 25mg vitamin B6 3x/day (talk to your doctor about this).
- Taking prenatal vitamins that didn’t have iron in them (talk to your doctor about this).
- Avoiding sugar (milk tea, cookies, etc.(SADFACE)).
Of course, talk to your doctor about any big changes you might try. Hopefully you will never need to do the things on this list… but if you do, I hope it brings you comfort to know that it does end, eventually. The day that baby comes out, you don’t have to worry about this discomfort anymore! Yes, you will be sleep-deprived and tired and feel beat up, but man, I’d take that exhaustion over the nausea any day.
Let me know if you have more tips for beating the nausea in the comments below (or if any of my weird tips helped you!).
12 responses to “Relief for Really Bad Morning Sickness”
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I had it just like you – 9 months, both pregnancies. HORRIBLE. Protein was the biggest help – i even had a little square of sharp cheddar by my bed for the first second i woke up. Sweaty cheese, didn’t matter – it coated my stomach. Candied ginger to chew at certain moments saved me. Protein bar in my purse, one bite at a time, though the sweetness sometimes turned my stomach. The only green vegetable i could tolerate was Japanese seaweed salad – I craved this like nothing else. Well, except for homemade white cheddar macaroni. Rituals like sipping carbonated water with a little cranberry juice throughout the morning in front of the paper…lots of deep breaths and fresh air…and old sitcoms that were very bland and reassuring. 13 years now past this chapter, but it is very vivid for me. It gets better as soon as the baby emerges! Miraculous.
Yes! It’s so awful! Words cannot describe it, and I still get nauseous sometimes when I go to places where I had an especially bad time… like a very specific spot at a very specific Target haha 🙂 I hope it goes away in 13 years though…!
Like Catherine, I also had nausea throughout my pregnancy — all day long, all nine months. I think what helps cope with the nausea is probably different things for different people. For me is was saltine crackers. The strange thing that I usually wanted to eat most often was canned spinach sprinkled with parmesan cheese. Nothing else ever sounded good to me. If you are going through this, find what works for you. These memories do stay with you for a lifetime — my experience with pregnancy nausea was 30 years ago.
Yeah, it’s definitely different for different people since a lot of stuff mentioned online didn’t seem to do much for me. But canned spinach sprinkled with parmesan cheese?? Never heard of that one! If I ever get pregnant again, I’ll have to try it out…! 🙂
Ginger tea worked well for me. It worked best really cold and without much sweetner. It was best made from fresh root: just grate fresh ginger root (peel and all) into warm water, let steep, and then strain out the root with a tea strainer. I took it with me everywhere.
Thanks for the tip!
Thanks for the helpful tips! Naps and eating every 2 hours has helped a lot 🙂 I also find that going outside or just letting in some fresh air seems to settle my stomach.
Hope it continues to get better! <3
Real ginger!
Raspberry leaf tea to prevent muscle cramping.
Eating every hour of activity.
Switching to maternity clothes early on.
Relying on food and not supplements. Or taking children’s vitamins.anon
Stretching the abdominal muscles.
Great ideas! Didn’t think of stretching the ab muscles or switching to maternity clothes sooner (though I did that anyway for comfort :)). Thanks!