Morning, noon, and night sickness « Back to Group Discussions

[peacefire]

This is my first pregnancy and I've just entered my 13th week.  I have been nauseous since week 7 with very little relief.  I have tried all of the suggested natural remedies - ginger, ginger ale, ginger tea, mints, crackers, etc. to no avail.  I have also tried to stick to the small meals throughout the day plan.  I find it so difficult to find that balance between too little and too much food.  The only relief I have is sleep, which is not an option while at work.  Anyone have any magical suggestions other than my husband's "tough it out"? 

[at_the_hip]

if you are in Canada, Diclectin is available and is the most widely studied medication for pregnancy (class A).  In the US, Drs will often suggest taking vit B6 and half a unisom at night for the same effect/ingredients.  I have never taken it but have been tempted...I too get the unrelenting 24/7 nausea.  If I ever started puking I wouldn't hesitate to ask for the medication though.  I've never found a magic cure for mine...although I have figured out that mini wheats and milk go down really well before bed and I get a pretty good sleep without heartburn.

[knittinmama82]

I totally sympathize with you! I have been nauseous since week 6 and it tends to get worse in the evenings after dinner.  All I do at night is lay on the couch and whine about how crappy I feel!

[1babysmom]

Just out of curiosity, have you tried d-limonene?  It helps us with anything tummy related (nausea, aches, pains, heartburn, reflux, etc), and while I never took it for nausea specifically this time, I wonder if it might help with it.

[Oliver's Mama]

Originally Posted by at_the_hip 

if you are in Canada, Diclectin is available and is the most widely studied medication for pregnancy (class A).  In the US, Drs will often suggest taking vit B6 and half a unisom at night for the same effect/ingredients.  I have never taken it but have been tempted...

This is my magic cure.  It's totally worth it.. just try it for a few days. I was hit with debilitating 24/7 morning sickness at week 5, no vomiting, but I couldn't even stand up on my own.  It was a serious problem because I honestly could not take care of my children, so I couldn't just tinker aorund with ginger and crackers again, so my midwife suggested  the B6 and unisom-  I can't stop talking about it enough on this forum; it is an absolute miracle. I'm so mad at myself for thinking I had to suffer through months of morning sickness with my first 2 pregnancies, I had no idea there was  a total cure.

It's just a basic vitamin and a small dose of a fairly useless sleep aid; it does nothing in terms of it's sleep aid intentions, at least not for me, so no worries about grogginess.  Only problem is, I'm too nervous to try going a day without it to see if my morning sickness has left on its own yet (12w3d now).  

I take 50mg of B6 in the morning, then 50mg more in the evening with the half unisom (has to be original unisom, not the meltaways or geltabs- those have a different active ingredient)

 I don't think you have anything to lose, other than maybe $15 at the drugstore.

Edited by Oliver's Mama - 9/26/12 at 8:23pm

[brooklyn_warbler]

This is the kind of sickness I've had for all three pregnancies, though now at 12w I can feel myself starting to see the light -- I get a nice stretch in the afternoon where I feel almost normal although nights are still awful and mornings aren't great.

I do "OTC"/American diclectin.  It just BARELY helps take the edge off, but I am incapacitated without, so it's something.

Hang in there!  It really, really sucks.
 

[at_the_hip]

what's wrong with me that i won't ask for the medication?? i feel horrible so why can't i do it? 

[velveeta]

Hugs to all of us, it is so awful! I used the homemade diclectin with my second pregnancy, and it helped somewhat, but I found I had severe rebound nausea every time I tried to get off of it. Also, it dried up mu milk (only a concern if you are currently nursing). I still have milk (though it is diminishing) at 14 weeks, so I hope it will last awhile longer.

[brooklyn_warbler]

Originally Posted by velveeta 

Hugs to all of us, it is so awful! I used the homemade diclectin with my second pregnancy, and it helped somewhat, but I found I had severe rebound nausea every time I tried to get off of it. Also, it dried up mu milk (only a concern if you are currently nursing). I still have milk (though it is diminishing) at 14 weeks, so I hope it will last awhile longer.

That's awful!  That didn't happen with me with my second but I'm still not off of it this time. Fingers crossed that that doesn't happen!

[cyclamen]

Hugsto you OP and everyone else!  Morning sickness SUCKS.  I ask myself all the time how this could possibly be adaptive, even though I know there are studies on how it is a good sign and good for the baby.

I tried the unisom but I generally react really strongly to any antihistamine (which is what it is also used for) and it made things worse for me (I also took it at the wrong time of day), so I've been scared to try again.  I've heard so many good things about it though, I wish it had worked.

I had such severe ms with DD that I was in bed from week 6 to week 15, around the time I realized that dairy was what was making me feel ill - I am totally fine with dairy when not pregnant, but apparently cannot eat it when I am pregnant.  This time around, I was in bed for close to two weeks.  I cut out dairy right away but I was still having such bad ms that for a while I was wondering if I was not really pregnant, but seriously ill.  I would get feverish, nauseous, chilly, and achy all over and it would last all day beginning from my first meal.  I would go to sleep in a daze, and wake up feeling pretty good, but hungry.  As soon as I ate, it was all over.  I had some relief from chewing small pieces of raw beet thorughout the day.  Adding a probiotic helped a great deal. I got one with acidophilus, bifidus, and reuteri.

I also have a few friends who are very knowledgable about ayurveda, so I've been following a diet for vata and kapha imbalance (although from an ayurvedic standpoint, ms with vomiting is usually considered a pitta condition, my symptoms were different - no vomiting, for one thing).  Mainly because I was feeling so wretched I was willing to try anything.  I have been drinking hot water with lemon all day long, having hot spiced almond milk and honey, eating small meals, but on a schedule, and mostly eating only carbs.  I have been living on tapioca and rice dumplings in broth, warm spiced apple sauce, gf apple sauce bread, and moong dal (soaked rice and lentils cooked into a gruel with garam masala and fennel - I also add some grated sweet potato). Heating all my foods has made a huge difference.  I feel like I have the flu if I eat any dairy or a lot of animal proteins or a lot of brassicas, so I don't do that.  I also started going to bed as close to ten as possible, waking up by eight, and not letting myself nap at all in the daytime.  All this seems to have helped enough that I can function at about 80% capacity.  I can baby sit and take DD to school and not let the house descend into total squalor.  I don't think  the ms is subsiding on its own, because if I eat something cold, something with a lot of animal protein, or something with dairy, I start feeling really awful again. 

Just putting this out there in case it could possibly help anyone else.  Everyone's body is different, and I imagine that this specific routine wouldn't work for everyone, but I do take ayurveda kind of seriously now and I totally didn't before.... 

[brooklyn_warbler]

Cyclamen, I TOTALLY can only eat food that's cooked.  Any time I try salad I regret it later.  From an Easter medical perspective (both TCM and ayuverda, as you mention) this makes a lot of sense.
 

[cyclamen]

Brooklyn_warbler - it's funny, I grew up with a sort of folk TCM perspective from my mom and she will talk all day about how important it is to stay warm.  We also visited western drs when I was a kid,, but I totally do believe in the importance of heat in the body.  I think that's why when my friends brought up the ayurveda, it wasn't such a big leap for me.  I think right now it's also getting cooler in a lot of places (at least it is around here) and staying warm is something you have to do now instead of just being warm in the summer heat.

[mayday]

I'm pregnant with my first, and the nausea started at 6 weeks (really mild) and I started puking several times a day at 7-1/2. I tried unisom/b-6 (no help), then phenergan (no puking, but intense diarrhea and cramping), and finally zofran (only puking once a day, but nausea all day long). My doctor says that's as good as it gets.

And then, at 11w6d, it started to let up! Still throwing up once a day, but way less nauseated, and I'm finally able to eat real food!

at_the_hip, I'm not generally a fan of drugs AT ALL, but goodness--puking all day I could not handle. You don't have to ask for them, but they could help you enjoy a bit more of your days!

[SplashingPuddle]

When I called the Nausea and Vomiting in Pregnancy hotline, I found it very interesting that a lot of nausea is caused by acid in pregnancy. During my first pregnancy, I was sick all the time and it lasted most of my pregnancy.  I didn't do anything for acid, because it just didn't occur to me as a cause. I didn't have obvious reflux or acid symptoms.  Well, I started with nausea again really bad this time, but now I've been treating the acid, and it has been such a difference. There are natural things to treat acid, but I am taking proton pump inhibitors, and they've cut my nausea by about 80%.  It happened so suddenly that at first I was worried about something happening to the pregnancy. I still do have nausea but it is quite manageable. 

I definitely suggest the nausea and vomiting in pregnancy hotline for tons of different ideas. 

[boogiebearlove]

I've had hyperemesis for the first half of all four pregnancies. It is completely debilitating, severe nausea around the clock, vomiting 10-20 times a day, unable to keep fluids down, regular ER trips for IV fluids and medication. In one of my pregnancies Zofran worked well by itself to stop the vomiting, but the nausea lasted many more weeks. For this and my last pregnancy, though, Zofran only works when paired with Benadryl. I know that I have to take the medication or I would probably die. I don't have any control over my body, and eating isn't optional. But even I feel bad about taking such strong medications while pregnant and greatly look forward to the time when I don't need to any more. If someone can do without the meds I highly respect them, but if you're unable to eat well, the meds may be better so that you can get the nutrition you and your baby need to develop. It's such a difficult issue.