What the First Trimester is Really Like
For those of you without a uterus, or those who may never have children, those who have forgotten these significant 3 months of your life from long ago, or who may not have experienced it quite yet:
Allow me to introduce you to the first trimester: symptoms, expectations, and full-blown disclosure.
According to my experience this time around, which was slightly more horrible than my first pregnancy about 6 years ago, as well as all of the web-searching I did to confirm what I was feeling was ultimately “normal” and expected between week 4 and 12 (errr…15), the first trimester involves a spectrum that may include all of the following symptoms if not more. It’s unlimited, really.
Imagine that for approximately 4 to 8 to 12 weeks, feeling mostly car sick - most of the time. For portions of the day, if not for your entire waking hours, you feel like there is an excellent chance you may throw up at any moment. Particularly when you smell anything. Good or bad. Or if you stand up, walk, breathe, or blink. Sometimes you feel this way overnight in-between sleep cycles. Again, it may or may not be limitless.
In addition to the multitude of remedies that I found (which I’ll share with you shortly), the 3 things that will ultimately support your survival are sleep, staying hydrated, and eating. The last two of the three become quite difficult, as you can imagine when you’re feeling nauseous. Some websites and physicians will advise eating every 2 hours, others will say every hour, to keep nausea at bay. Although eating “healthy foods” is advised prior, during, and after pregnancy, eating anything is also advisable as long as it doesn’t pose a risk of illness or toxicity to you and your baby (in my opinion).
Sip water, coconut water, and herbal tea continuously, but only a little at a time, to keep yourself hydrated. Sparkling water is great too if it works for you. Bubbles can create gas, which can make some people feel bloated.
Speaking of digestive confusion, in the first few weeks of discovering that you’re pregnant, you may also experience constipation, diarrhea, headaches, dizziness, emotional instability (my words, not Google’s), weird dreams, a decrease in appetite, an increase in appetite, and an excessive amount of needing to pee. Yes, even before your belly gets big. Don’t forget that as you abruptly remove things like caffeine or alcohol from your diet, you may even experience withdrawal symptoms on top of everything else. So, if you’re planning to conceive, it’s a good idea to clean up those habits ahead of time.
Now, imagine being so constipated and bloated, you barely want to eat, and so nauseous, you don’t think you can eat, while also knowing that eating is the only thing that will get you through the next hour without getting sick, and you can’t even think of anything that sounds remotely appetizing. Oh yeah, and you need to eat every 1-2 hours on top of it. It’s a really creative and unique combination of feelings.
At one point, I was eating 9 times a day. That’s insane. I didn’t even care about calories, I just couldn’t think of what to eat, and I was running low on ideas. I ate a lot of apples, bananas, rice cakes, toast, rice, smoothies, and then occasionally would find some amazing meal that I wanted to eat all the time for a week.
One week, I wanted veggie sushi from Whole Foods, every day. Then I wanted a certain sandwich from my local bakery, every day. I ate a few local, grass-fed cheeseburgers here and there, which helped. And my homemade French toast was always a win (Ezekial bread, berries, organic maple syrup). For me, sometimes I needed a real meal…as nibbling on crackers didn’t get rid of the hunger feeling, and that was what triggered nausea. Also, I quickly figured out that sucking on “Preggie-Pops,” eating rice cakes, and sipping sparkling water did nothing but spike my blood sugar and bloat my belly, so be aware of your food combining and use some common sense. Old-school ginger ale and chicken soup might be all you need.
I’m not a doctor, so take this lightly as I share these anecdotes as my experiences only, not medical advice, but below was the protocol I put together on my own (it’s a lot of steps, as someone who does not “do well” with sickness, vomiting, or missing out on life, I was determined to do whatever I possibly could, sparing no expense, to improve this morning sickness.)
My Personal Morning Sickness Protocol - no judging (or you can go eff off, because this shit is brutal):
Chiropractic Adjustments twice per week - if you’re in Orange County, ET Chiropractic is the best! (In Santa Monica, I worked with Arash at BodyPro Chiro)
Acupuncture Treatments 2x per week when it was bad, and then tapered to 1x per week, and then less and less as symptoms improved. If you’re local to Newport Beach, I recommend Life Point Acupuncture. (In Santa Monica, I worked with Sarah at Meraki Wellness)
Nux Vomica 30c, as directed on the tube, 3x a day.
Vitamin B6, up to ABOUT 100 mg per day. So get a pill that is a smaller dose, like 10-30mg per pill, and take it throughout the day. Like this one, you can take 3-4x per day, instead of all in one dose.
Balance that with Preggie Pops that already have B6 in them, pay attention to how much you have each day.
Watch your sugar, as caffeine and sugar can make nausea worse, so try to avoid it.
A good, food-based prenatal vitamin. I was shocked at the nasty ingredients I found in most conventional prenatal vitamins, even those suggested by my OB (or what you’ll find at the drugstore/grocery store. A food-based vitamin will NOT upset your stomach. These are my preferred ones: MyKind Organics, New Chapter, MegaFood, Thorne Research.
Be sure to pay attention to how many you need to take per day. Read the bottle, they’re all different.
A prenatal probiotic - I liked both Mary Ruth’s and MegaFood’s Prenatal Probiotic (but it’s hard to find sometimes).
Snack before bed and upon waking. I kept crackers/rice cakes by my bedside for a few weeks when it was bad. It makes a difference - when you think you can’t eat, try to nibble. If you have to wake up and eat in the middle of the night, that is ok too. Do it.
Having easy-to-digest smoothies or protein shakes was a lifesaver for me. My absolute favorite-tasting powder (after trying lots of shakes for years and years) is Juice Plus Chocolate Protein Powder. Contact me if you want to order some. It’s delicious enough to mix with almond milk in the middle of the night without a blender, like when I was breastfeeding, or even better in the morning with a banana and some nut butter in a blender. I still have one most mornings now and I share with Grey, my 5-year-old.
Essential Oils - but use with caution, as not all brands are the same. Lemon, peppermint, lavender are cure-alls and safe for inhalation while pregnant. Lemon, lavender, eucalyptus, and a few others that I purchased from Sacred Scents Aromatherapy really helped my symptoms. I use many of their oils daily while pregnant, right on my skin. Ask them or contact me to talk about your concerns specifically. Just holding lemon or peppermint under your nose can help you get through a tough few minutes of nausea. I liked to put the peppermint behind my ears and it always helped.
Enlist help. Get a sitter, ask a friend, or communicate with your partner to help you during this time. I was in bed for hours a day for weeks and weeks, and I relied on my husband for help. It wasn’t easy. I was sad, I felt fat and gross, I felt like I was missing out on time with my son. I didn’t look forward to the next day. I felt horrible for every sick person on the planet. There were days I couldn’t even go for a walk. But for me, it did pass. For some women, it lasts much, much longer. Talk to your doctor if you’re losing weight or having depressed thoughts, there are medications that can help, and I was really close to going that route but was lucky enough that my morning sickness became tolerable between week 10-12.
I also did as much meditating as I could for wellness. You can google meditations for morning sickness or wellness. I didn’t do this a lot, but in some moments, you do whatever you can.
More fun pregnancy stories to come, hopefully, some of this will be helpful for you and your friends, send them over for more!