Find out my top tips for how to survive morning sickness! These natural remedies can help keep nausea at bay throughout your first trimester.
Morning Sickness. Bleh. Just writing about it makes me feel sick all over again. Trying to survive morning sickness is one of the most trying times in a gal’s life. So today I’m paying it forward with some super doable tips on how I made it out alive from that generally miserable first trimester.
You know, when you’re pregnant, there is an abundance of information on what you shouldn’t eat and then of course there’s a litany of bad rom-com pickles & ice cream cravings.
But let’s get real here, when you’re nauseous and/or vomiting in your apartment’s parking lot at 6:30 at night proclaiming “morning sickness” to the neighbor walking by, you just want to shake someone and say “what will make me feel better…and please, while you’re at it, will you go to work for me so I can go die now? K thanks.”
You just want someone to tell you how to survive morning sickness, and friend, I will be that person.
How to Survive Morning Sickness
Here are my best tips and a list of foods that helped me get through the day:
- Number 1: NEVER let yourself get hungry. Even if you don’t feel hungry, snack all day to avoid an empty stomach
- Always, always, always keep saltines in your purse and by your bedside
- When possible, be the driver – not the passenger. Sea Bands were also a real lifesaver in the car
- If you have to get up with an alarm at let’s say, 6 AM, set an alarm for 5:45, 5:50, 5:55, and sit up slowly in bed each time. In other words, don’t try to just hop out of bed with your alarm. Take a sip of water and nibble a cracker in bed, then slowly get up and get ready
- Sit in bed or on the couch with your feet in front of you and your knees up. Place your hands on your knees and then your head on top of your hands. Have someone put a cold compress on the back of your neck – this worked wonders for me in moments of extreme nausea
- If gingerale makes you feel more nauseous or is too sugary for you, try La Croix. The lime flavor worked for me – even better than gingerale. I would drink one first thing in the morning while eating some saltines and it often helped to settle my stomach
For a person who LOVES food, going through 24/7 sickness (did I mention it lasted for 4 months?) was devastating. I missed my favorite foods, I missed craving sweets, and worst of all, I missed pumpkin spice season entirely.
So what did I eat?
- Plain Triscuits and Cheddar Cheese
- Whole Fruit Lime Popsicles (I had a strong sour craving)
- Late July Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers
- Plain Pasta and Tomato Sauce (mixed with butter to reduce acidity)
- Plain Pasta with Butter & Parm
- Plain Toasted Bagel with Horizon Organic American Cheese Slices – this was a weird one for me as I don’t typically care for American Cheese
- Cucumbers and Carrots with Ranch (when I was eventually able to even consider veggies)
- Plain Dry Cereal (such as Special K)
The truth…
During this stretch of general awfulness, I couldn’t even think about eating anything sweet, eggs or meat, and most fresh veggies or fruits.
In general, it will make you feel like you’re depriving your growing baby of nutrients, but the midwife assured me that between nature doing its thing and my prenatal vitamin, little eggplant (as she was affectionately named) would be just fine.
Just know that one day you’ll wake up, and literally, like magic, you will feel like yourself again. You will see someone eating a cinnamon bun at a bakery and you’ll say: yes, yes I will have one of those. And just like that, you’ve survived morning sickness.
More Tips & Resources
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Your article is spot on. Morning sickness makes you want to avoid food (all day long!) but eating a little throughout the day really helps. An empty stomach does make the nausea worse.
It know, right? It seems like not eating would make it better, but it totally doesn’t!
My morning sickness lasted just as long, but nothing-nothing helped! Didn’t matter if I ate, what I ate, or what medication I took (natural or pharmaceutical). I figured I would have Chewbacca by the amount of morning sickness I had! My son didn’t come out quite that hairy, but close…
It’s weird because my baby had no hair – and still has very little hair! But I feel you. Some days nothing helped either except lime popsicles made it bearable 🙂