Thursday, July 30, 2009

Morning Sickness Remedies

Since I was complaining in my last post about my awful morning sickness I thought it might be nice if I posted what I tried and if it worked for me or not.

Thankfully I am feeling a whole lot better, which is of course worrisome,but since I still feel a bit sick to my stomach I am just trying to take it that something is working.

So here is what I tried and what I thought of it,

Eating small meals all the time: Did not work for me. My nausea was made much worse by having food in my stomach. I think I also have some heartburn so that might have played a role as well. Basically anytime I ate more then a few nuts or pieces of popcorn I started to feel much worse. Although eating a lot also made me feel sick. For me I just had to eat very very little and very bland things to feel better. Many times I couldn't get through an apple before wanting to gag, so I didn't.

Ginger: Did not work for me. I tried ginger tea, ginger root, and ginger candies- the candies were gross (ginger is spicy), the tea tasted nice but didn't make me feel better,and the root was too spicy. Basically I felt exactly the same after taking these things.

Taking the prenatal at night
Not sure. I started taking it at night, and then switched to a Flinstones vitamin, and yesterday actually forgot it for the first time, and today I feel the best I have felt in over a week. Although I am not sure if they are related. I took a Flinstones this morning to make up for forgetting last night and so far only have very mild nausea.

Drinking lots of water:
I don't know that this does anything for nausea but since I haven't had to throw up I have been doing this without problem.

Eating something first thing in the morning: I often wake a few times in the morning and while I at first got up and ate a banana or some yogurt, now I have just been sucking on one saltine and then trying to fall back asleep. I think it is working.I have a feeling that there is just a lot of acid in my stomach right now and that the saltine and some water calms it down.

Tums: helped. Once again I think this is due to an acidity problem.

The anti-nausea wristbands:Didn't help. I just found them painful after having them on for the whole day. I don't think they did anything besides also making my wrists hurt.

B6: I think this might be the biggest helper. I went to the pharmacy and she gave me B6. I take it three times a day. I started taking it yesterday and today I feel a HUGE change so I think it must be what is working. It is water soluble so also perfectly safe for baby and me.

The crazy thing is already after just a few hours of feeling better being in a great mood and not even really remembering how awful I felt just hours ago. I just so want everything to be OK with baby. Not being sick means more brainpower goes to worrying. Hopefully next Wednesday I see a strong heartbeat that can ease my fear for a few weeks!

Monday, July 27, 2009

The fun doesn't really start until around 6 weeks

Nausea, constipation, diarrhea, more nausea, strong hunger pains, strong gas pains, constant gas, more nausea, and of course a good dose of worrying.

These are the fun things that my last week have been made up of. Before I was the one hoping for morning sickness - "I just want to know that everything is OK" I said, " and I heard women with morning sickness have lower rates of miscarriage"

Hmmm. These are the words of someone without a clue.

I wake up miserable at 4, 5, and 6 am. I am convinced I am NOT hungry, and want only to sleep. My body is convinced otherwise forcing me to get up and eat something. And not something small like a banana that might actually allow me to stay in bed and fall back asleep. No No. Something big and time consuming like oatmeal, a fruit smoothie, a bagel. Ugh.

I spend my days forcing myself to eat, since eating every two hours is supposed to help. Why doesn't it help me then? Of course I feel worse if I don't eat for five hours but the difference between eating constantly and eating at normal meal times is negligible.

I have to force myself to get out of bed and join the rest of the world but since laying down tends to be one of the most uncomfortable positions in terms of nausea it really isn't that hard.

Right now I must admit that enjoyment would not be the first word which would come to mind when describing this pregnancy. However I woke up this morning ( I believe it was the 5 o clock wake up) and for a few minutes felt good, and what was my first reaction -absolute fear- "come back nausea, come back!" I thought. "I love you and the baby, and you can stay as long as you want just as long as everything goes OK."

But not to worry a minute later it was right there waiting for me to get up and enjoy the day.

Friday, July 24, 2009

The 5 week 5 day ultrasound



Here is the ultrasound apparently the big black thing is my full bladder LOL. The little dark gray thing is the sac and the little white thing in that is the yolk sac. It was nice to know that 20+ pregnancy tests weren't wrong and I am in fact pregnant:D

Thursday, July 23, 2009

The first official appointment

We had the first appointment today and it went great. We are officially measuring at 5 weeks and 5 days. Which puts me at a due date of March 21st according to my doctor's circle of fun. This is also what I guessed due to my chart- which she -surprise surprise- actually looked at and agreed with!

The appointment was fast. She did the vaginal ultrasound said everything looked great and that I was right on target and told me to come back in two weeks. No heartbeat yet but when I asked her if that was OK she looked at me like I was crazy and told me it was too early:D She also told me to stop going on the internet because I was scaring myself and I shouldn't worry. Hubby definitely agreed with this advice!

In Germany people tend to be less interested in getting the hard facts on medical issues, their doctors tend to just tell them you're sick- take this. So I wasn't surprised that she didn't want to tell me much more then the basics of there being a sac and a yolk sac and it being on target. However it was comforting for me to see it on the monitor.

I have a picture which I will upload tomorrow. I'm starting to real enjoy being pregnant. Even though it is still so early and a million and one things could go wrong, and I feel sick to my stomach before, after and sometimes while eating, I am determined to enjoy this from beginning to end.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Week 5

Baby is probably about 5 weeks now. We will know for sure after our first U/S. I spend most of my time researching about babies and pregnancy, looking at baby products, and being terrified that something will go wrong.

Unfortunately the worries that come with the first trimester kick in pretty much immediately after getting a BFP. It is hard because internet forums bring me a feeling of connection and home here in Germany but they also make me very aware of just how many ways this can still go wrong. Thankfully, feelings of joy normally manage to overtake the worries as sometimes you just have to hope that everything will work out OK.

We were at my mom's house when we took the test so she knows. Besides her we have only told two friends, both of whom are sworn to secrecy.

We are planning on telling his parents tomorrow at breakfast. We wanted to wait until after our first appointment on Thursday but his parents will be traveling for the next few weeks so we decided to go for it now. I am very excited and hope that their response is a good one.

So far symptoms for me have mainly been peeing constantly, and having to eat a bit more often then usual.No real fatigue but I take naps when I am tired which probably makes a big difference.

I also ordered my first baby product. I will be making this counted cross stitch kit for the nursery:)

Saturday, July 11, 2009

So uhm hmmm

It's been awhile.

What have I been up to?

Well...

- Visiting with friends and my mom

-Getting married again in Minnesota (we got married in Germany in December)


-Helping our parents meet for the first time

-Organizing sightseeing trips in Minnesota for the relatives and friends who came to the wedding

-Going on a two week honeymoon in Mexico

-Snorkeling

-Seeing a crocodile

-Eating great food

-Speaking very limited Spanish

-Having a great time in the heat

- Flying back to Germany

-Oh and there was this one other thing that happened on the honeymoon