Tips for getting through morning sickness

[Bumperlicious]

Firstly, let me caveat this with the fact that I know I am very lucky and my MS is not nearly as bad as many peoples. Mine is more like a hangover or travel sickness, I'm not actually sick but it is more of a heady nausea. It hit with a vengeance yesterday, dead on 6 weeks.

Last time despite pre-pregnancy smugly trilling 'I don't understand these people who eat for two, when I am pregnant I am going to eat healthily and exercise' once the more sickness hit, and remained for much of my pregnancy I resorted to stodge and sugar, thinking nothing of quaffing four donuts in an afternoon at work.

My biggest problems are that I am ravenously hungry every two hours and not eating makes me feel sick, and I am now very particular about what I fancy eating. Today I took a lovely Philly and ham wrap into work, which I have been happily eating for a few weeks, but by 12.30, starving hungry, managing to persuade my trainer (on a course this week) to let us off for lunch I raced to the canteen for a jacket potato and beans. That's not so bad, but I will get fed up with that soon, plus I can't afford to eat in the canteen every day. I have access to a microwave at work, and I think sandwiches and wraps and the like are out of the window for now. As is my lovelt sultana bran, which has now been replaced, as last time, with coco pops.

I don't want to eat crap like last time, I need to get through the day at work and I am on a rather strict food budget. Please can you give me your tips for getting through this. I have been wearing sickness bands today, and they have helped, until I get hungry, which is as I said every two hours.

no idea but oooh congratulations, I didn't know
When are you due? (sure if I had half a brain I could figure it out...) September? Lovely month to have a baby

Bumper It seems to be the nature of the beast - the carb/stodge cravings. At 13 weeks I caved and went to the doctor begging demanding something to help me get through the day. At around 14.5 weeks I started craving my "normal" diet again, you know, leaves, fruit, proteins and I've dropped 3lbs.

You are allowed to moan; even if some people get it worse, it's still tough to have to go through!

To get me through at work I tried to have portable snacks that were either high carb or high protein, but that wouldn't stuff up my blood sugars too much. What worked for me at work for a while was:

• some sugar, in my case a bottle of full fat coke, that I would sip regularly
• dried apricots
• breadsticks
• chunks of cheese on wholewheat biscuits
• not so healthy crisps
• oranges / clementines
• apples

And I tried to drink plenty of water.

I did manage to have a sandwich for lunch though (usually cheese - and I ate so much philly!).

In reality, this stuff might turn your stomach, it seems really personal about what works or doesn't. And I always had a pack of malted milk biscuits as an emergency standby!

Thanks stealth, I will be due end of September, hopefully. Actually the sickness is a good sign as things have been a bit rocky, have had bloody cervical mucus (see my thread 'fuck - pink tinged cervical mucus!' . So sickness is a good sign, I should embrace the sickness

I have literally just finished wolfing down egg and chips. I almost never buy chips, in fact the last time I did was when we were all getting over D&V, so there is obviously something in this sort of food that I crave when feeling ill. I also bought last night battered chicken breasts and chicken dippers. I can honestly say I never buy 'freezer food' as I call it, except for when feeling sick! Cheesy pasta is another comfort food for me, sausages etc. Can you see a pattern!

I have bought some fizzy haribo and mints to get me through some of the time at work, but I have no idea how I am going to deal with meal times. It sounds so pathetic but it is really frustrating. In my last pregnancy I cried in Waitrose because they didn't have the pasta sauce I fancied and could face any thing else. And in my last pregnancy I made DH drive around town trying to find KFC as that was what I fancied after seeing an advert and I had no idea where it was as I usually hate KFC! Apart from the time and money issue, I don't want to eat too much crap as I aleady 10lbs heavier at the start of this pregnancy than I was last time. I'm loathe to exercise either as a) I feel to sick, b) because of the bloody mucus and c) I never had any time to anyway with a nearly FT job and a two year old!

Following on from apuski's post - here is my packed lunch menu and believe me I would NOT have lasted all day at the beginning on a wrap alone!

Yoghurt with berries & honey
2 rounds of sarnies OR home made pasta meal for microwave
fruit
Another yoghurt
Pot of cherry tomatoes/celery
1 small cupcake sized treat

There were days when I was up at 4am for weetabix and hitting up the chocolate machine at 4pm too. It'll pass.

My evening meal choice plummeted to about 5 things that I could tolerate, which we then rotated (and DH largely cooked otherwise I'm not sure I could have eaten anything!). God I was bored with tomato sauce pasta by the time the first trimester passed!

I'd say plan a little on trying to find foods that are not too bad for you that you can tolerate for snacks and meals, and then beyond that relax and go with the cravings when they appear. The most important thing is that you are able to feel better.

Thanks for the tips. Have cracked open the haribo! Am going to try and bake this weekend, wholemeal scones, and granola to have with yoghurt. I thought I might make something like a big tortilla to have for a couple of days next week (essentially just egg and chips again!). I may also make some cheese sauce and freeze it. The problem is the hunger comes out of no where and is overwhelming and if I leave it too long I feel too awful to prepare any food.

Would it be really grim to cook a few jacket spuds and heat them up at work over a couple of days?

i had a handbag full of cereal bars at all times when i was preg last year. to the point where are some brands i cant even look at i ate so many! jordans ones are nice though
re the sickness i ended up drinking soda water with squash in it - really quite effective and much less fattening than pop and when the ms was really hardcore ginger beer can give it a beating - like you i had nausea all the fecking time but rarely any vomiting.
good luck

Chocolate Nesquik was all I could manage for about 7 weeks

Funny you should say that lineky, at the place where I am training they have free coffee machines and I started on this grim drink they call 'chocomilk' today, last pregnancy I craved it when I was training but normally I can't stand hot chocolate or anything like that. Just had a lovely cup of tea with two sugars though, that helped!

I'm not sure cereal bars will hit the spot as much as kit kat chunky caramels , but I will give them a go. The only ones I can really stand are the chocolate Geo Bars, which are basically just rice crispies, raisins and coco, which give me an idea, I could make some rice crispie cakes, they're not as bad as a kit chunky are they? Especially if I put some raisins in them.

felt sick all day eery day untill about 13 wks. All I could face was tea with buttered toast for breakfast. cheese sandwich with salt and vinegar squares for lunch, and oven chips with loads of salt for tea.
Didn't want to snack and if no one else made it for me, I could have gone without!!
Did try chippie chips, but they made actually sick?
I did find though, that nibbling on a dry cracker or ginger biscuit now and again did ease the sickness for a while?
Different story now though - 20 wks, and just want to eat eat eat!!

make sure you keep hydrated - not drinking enough water will make you feel worse.

You have my sympathies, I lost over a stone this time in the first trimester through being sick - it is horrible!!

Suck cut lemons or, if you feel awkward doing that in the office, then drink traditional lemonade the still stuff that really makes your cheeks suck in. It really helps.
I also agree that sour fizzy sweets can help.
Constant munching of things helps but if you want to avoid it, sucking on sour things will curb the craving and maybe it's something to do with the saliva production when you eat sour things but I can vouch for it as a good tip(actually got the cut lemons tip from MN years ago with ds2 pregnancy)

Bumperlicious I feel your pain! I'm only 4 weeks but already feel like utter crap. Didn't eat anything at all today until lunchtime - had a wander round Waitrose and the only thing I could find that looked edible was sesame prawn toast They were horrible when I ate them though! What a waste of £1.99 eh.

I managed some mashed potato and pork for dinner, but am totally off sweet things - we made cakes today, but I couldn't even lick the spoon. Not like me at all...

Last time round I ate a lot of Milky Jelly Babies and wine gums. Oh, and drank milk by the gallon!

salted popcorn' hula hoops and chewits. Got me through 32 wks of it with four of them

Thanks for all the tips. Sounds familiar NinthWave - except for the sweet stuff.

Cut lemons? Really? I love lemons and have recently been drinking lemon juice in water, didn't realise it's supposed to help with MS. Have also been drinking lemon and ginger tea, it's an acquired taste though.

my theory is sickness = boy!

thanks for this thread - I too am feeling sick pretty much all day but not physically being sick. Its six years since I was pregnant with dd and I'm sure I didn't feel this bad then (although I do remember having a stash of bananas and geobars by the bed!) I don't really care because its so fantastic to be preggers but could do without it.

Bumberlicious - I like you am having to eat every two hoursish as otherwise I feel dreadful - toast and cereal bars are my friends and ginger beer has worked too.

I'm sure the lemon thing works but my stomach just flipped over with the thought of sucking a lemon!

hi all..

what is it with jacket spuds its the only food i actually feel like i can eat lol... i have been bein sick not continuously since i was 4 weeks.. i'm 16wks now and still feeling nauseous and sick once or twice a day.. i am not sure if anything sets it off but 1 min i can be fine then eat next min i lookin in2 the toilet lol.. but when i feel sick i am not actually sick?? i'm confused..
with my other 2 DC the sickness ended about 14wks..
i plead not to be sick b4 every meal
down to 7 1/2 stone now but still eatin even tho i have no appitite.
i look in fridge n theres nothing i want.. i hope this stops soon so i can enjoy eating again.. kids eat great foods and i end up with a plain sarnie or a jacket spud..

the thought of suckin lemons makes my tum churn but then eating in general makes my tummy churn.. yet i'm constantly feeling hungry... i h8 this bit of preg.. hope u all feel better soon