surviving all day (morning) sickness

In case you missed the news on social media, I am pregnant for the third time! We are so grateful for a healthy pregnancy so far. Meanwhile I am in the thick of morning all day sickness and want to share with you how I am dealing (or not dealing). With my first two pregnancies I became extremely nauseous and developed serious food aversions at 4 weeks pregnant and did not have any relief until 20 weeks pregnant. This pregnancy has been similar. The nausea came on a little more gradual than the other two pregnancies but I am 14 weeks now and there has not been any relief yet so I think I’m in it for at least another 6 weeks. I seriously envy women who do not experience morning sickness. It makes me angry when women complain about throwing up once in the morning and then feeling fine the rest of the day. I know it shouldn’t but I can’t help it. For me, just the thought of food makes me nauseous, ANY kind of food. But eating constantly is the one thing that keeps me from continually puking and gagging the entire day. It’s like a sick joke.

Almost everything I normally ate causes me to gag or vomit with just the thought of it… green smoothies, salads, vegetables, vegan cheese. I can’t open the refrigerator or freezer without gagging or puking. It’s awful. Not only that, drinking water makes me nauseous and the one liquid I have been wanting is matcha but the caffeine affects my milk supply (I am still nursing my 13 month old) which I am fighting for. Needless to say it’s been really hard to stay nourished and hydrated. This is one reason why I stress the importance of getting yourself really healthy BEFORE you conceive that way you know you have a good reserve for the really important fetal development that happens before you even know you are pregnant. I wanted to round up all of my coping mechanisms for you all in hopes that if you’re also dealing with the same thing maybe some of these tips can help! So here’s a general idea of what food looks like for me lately.

BREAKFAST – I have been living off of homemade breakfast cookies or muffins and so have my kids. My amazing husband has been making sure I have a steady supply of them. He isn’t home much but he stays up late to make them for me, he is my hero. My two year old can even get them out of the fridge for me so I don’t have to go in there, woohoo. After I have my breakfast cookie (or two) I am really thirsty but can’t handle water, so I make a smoothie. The only one I have been able to handle during the first 20 weeks of any of my pregnancies is this berry one. I can’t even put spinach in it with out puking. If my husband is home he makes me smoothies and puts the spinach in without telling me but I can’t do it myself. PS. I have actually puked multiple times making this smoothie, but most of the time I can handle it.

LUNCH – Earlier in my pregnancy I was able to get take-out Chipotle or Cava but lately I can’t stomach either of those. My go to most days is Amy’s low sodium lentil soup in a can with a piece of fruit. It’s been stone fruit since it’s summer here (peaches, nectarines and plums). Watermelon has been making me even more nauseous. Cantaloupe, honeydew and berries are also usually a go. I can often eat salad if I buy a pre-packaged salad from Whole Foods or the health food store near where I live, but I can’t even handle making my own at the salad bar.

SNACKS – As I mentioned I am pretty much just eating constantly to keep myself from getting so nauseous that I vomit. Some things I have been able to stomach are tamari almonds, wild rice cakes or whole spelt bread with nut butter, cashew butter, fruit, these new bars from Epic and plant based yogurt like this one. My husband has been making these super easy 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies for me too.

DINNER – I don’t even know how to answer this one. My husband is rarely home for dinner, and feeding my kids, never mind myself, has been so challenging since being anywhere near the kitchen makes me sick. One night my kids ate organic corn chips and cucumbers… send help! I’ve definitely been buying a lot of Once Upon A Farm squeeze packs for my baby, she especially likes the green kale and apples. My husband will often get home at 9pm and I’m like “our kids haven’t eaten dinner, make them a smoothie.” This is real life right now. Then he will pack all kinds of good stuff in the blender… veggies, fruit, avocado, ginger, pumpkin seeds, and they will have that for dinner. I’ve had pizza, like real pizza, 4-5 times and can eat greens on that as long as I’m not the one making it. One night I had take out pad thai. When my husband is home, I can usually eat what he makes, roasted veggies, sometimes wild salmon, the other night he made spaghetti squash and I actually enjoyed it! Usually by the time dinner comes along I’m just so exhausted and nauseous that I will often run out to my local health food store and buy a smoothie that I could easily make at home, but just putting the coconut milk in the blender usually sends me to the toilet. Oh and after 10 months of not eating meat, I started eating it again. I had a burger, twice. I was never a professing vegan but after my husband “processed” our rooster (because we can’t have one crowing where we live) I was really bothered by the whole thing and decided to stop eating meat for an undetermined amount of time. Before this happened, I was barely eating meat anyway so it was not a big transition for me and I was still very occasionally eating eggs and wild fish during the 10 months with no meat. Anyway, during this pregnancy, I kind of wanted a burger, and so I had one. Up until this point I really never had a desire to eat meat, but since I felt like my body wanted it, I had a little. I still keep animal products to a minimum for health reasons but it is OK to have a little if you want it!

LIQUID – Plain water has been nauseating me. I do force myself to drink it every time I get up at night to pee and nurse my 13 month old. During the day I drink smoothies, kombucha (with no sugar added), iced herbal tea, and sometimes I can handle ice cold water if I’m really thirsty (which is so weird because normally I hate ice cold water). My milk supply is very sensitive to caffeine so I stay away from matcha or coffee.

Buying pre-made food has been a life saver for me as well as my husband keeping some nutrient dense baked goods in the house all the time. I am probably spending a little more money on food since I’m not making as much from scratch, but I really don’t know how I would get through this any other way. My best advice is to do the best you can with what you can stomach. Staying well nourished and hydrated is so important for your health and baby’s development. Find creative ways to get your vegetables and beans in. With all my pregnancies, I pretty much had veggie soup every single day (made by someone else) because that was one thing I could stomach. If you can handle greens on a pizza, do that! Try to choose a whole grain crust to add more nutrients and fiber and stabilize blood sugar. If you can have someone sneak greens in a smoothie for you, do that! Get creative. Raw nuts sound awful to me now, but I can handle raw cashew butter and tamari almonds. I’ve also been able to (or have my husband or local juice bar) add nut butters, seeds, and avocado to smoothies to make sure I’m getting enough good fats. These are things that have been working for me, they may not work for you, and you may have different food aversions than me, but hopefully this gives you some ideas of how to survive all day nausea while still nourishing your body and baby!