I do not know why it is called morning sickness since you feel queasy all day long. In my case, I did not have too bad of a sickness when I compare myself to others where women could not get out of bed, could not eat anything, lost weight and even had to get an IV put in due to risk of malnutrition. I never threw up, nausea would cause me to gag, I would go to the bathroom just incase and It would stop. I guess I was lucky.
I did not have any pregnancy symptoms until 6 weeks 3 days. It all started with onset of mild sickness, followed by bathroom visits every two hours. I had to continue to take my vitamins especially prenatal and folic acid tablets but they were also making me nauseous. Doctor prescribed me an increased dose of folic acid for my first trimester due to my sister being born with a cleft lip. He had to make sure we were preventing any genetic problems. Prenatal vitamins plus the folic acid added to about 8 pills a day. If you have difficulty taking one, taking 8 of them can be a huge challenge. Luckily, I was taking capsules where I could open them up and mix them with a median such as juice. I chose to purchase vitamin code prenatals and Bluebonnet Folic acid from wholefoods store.
Increasing my vegetable and fruit intake was not easy since I could not stand the sight of anything green. Therefore, I decided to make smoothies in the morning. I would put more fruit than vegetable to make the smoothie sweeter so it would be easier to drink. When you are pregnant, your heightened sense of smell and taste do not allow you to eat certain food groups. The best strategy is to trick yourself into eating them by mixing in the food that you like to eat.
My favorite recipe was:
- ½ banana
- couple strawberries- whatever you have at home
- ¼ of blueberries
- Spinach (eating spinach was impossible otherwise
- Chia seeds (great source of nutrition)
- Yogurt (most of the time strawberry yogurt)
- Milk
- Then open 8 capsules of supplements
Blend it then take it to the car with me, and I would finish it before I got to work.
Just like any other expecting mother, I started searching all questions or concerns that I had online. I also started reading the book,what to expect when you expecting. All the sources said eat small meals frequently throughout the day so I decided to follow the advice. Surprisingly, I started getting light headed when I got up too fast, it would get dark and start spinning. I suspected it was my blood pressure. My normal is 100/60. I started taking my blood pressure 3-4 times a day and realized that it was fluctuating between my normal and 125/ 80. At first, I thought it was just pregnancy, then I figured I was not eating enough. I used my fitness pal to track my calories and I was taking about 1300 calories instead of 2000/2200 calories a day. I decided to heck with online advice and started eating my regular portions, which immediately resolved my blood pressure problem. Interesting huh? I guess your body is much more sensitive when you get pregnant.
I would like to hear about your perspective. What do you think? Please comment and let me know!
Images retrieved from:
http://www.newhealthadvisor.com/images/1HT03416/morning_sickness.jp
http://www.images-iherb.com/l/GOL-11590-5.jp
http://scrumpscupcakes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/healthy-fruit-smoothie.jp
Babyhood: A to Z 