Category Archives: Parenting

Aug 24
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Organic Mama’s Top Ten Tips for Managing Pregnancy Nausea part two

By | Birth Week, Natural Health, Pregnancy | One Comment

Yesterday, we explored remedies for pregnancy nausea (AKA morning sickness). Today, we’ll look at a few more.

Feeling sick twenty four hours a day is disheartening when you’d rather be happily anticipating a new baby. Discouragement is not my normal approach to life. But there have been more than a few days this time that I’ve succumbed to tears of exhaustion and hopelessness from feeling nauseous non-stop.

These tips have not erased the feeling of nausea but at least their keeping the lunch losses to a minimum!

5. Try a more alkaline diet. My friend Busca over at Birthfaith.org writes that alkalinizing the body may help with “morning sickness“. While it’s advisable to do this prior to pregnancy, I’ve still been boosting my intake of veggies vs. greasy or starchy foods. The latter might seem comforting at the time but they often pack a wallop after dinner, if ya’ know what I mean.

6. Mingle with friends. Schedule visits with understanding and compassionate friends to enjoy the benefit of encouragement and having a little different energy in the house. It will lift your spirits.

7. Keep the toilet clean. You may not have the energy to clean much around the house right now but clean this. There’s nothing more gross that having to lose your breakfast in a dirty bowl.

8. Laugh as much as possible. Watch a funny movie, listen to a great comedian and laugh. You’ll be surprised how nice your lips feel when they’re curved into a smile!

9. Distract yourself with something you love. Notice the great antics of your kids, play the piano, read a book, watch a great movie, take a bath, enjoy a maternity massage. I’ve noticed that being stressed about anything can make nausea seem so much worse. So RELAX.

10. Drink small sips of water (or herbal tea) all day long but avoid it at mealtimes. Drinking just a little at a time will keep you from experiencing that sloshy feeling you get when you discover your stomach has been pushed up between your breasts by an enlarged uterus. For me, not drinking during meals helps with indigestion and nausea.

In my  first pregnancy, I was so overwhelmed by the unexpected feeling of constant nausea, I complained to my OB, “It feels like there’s some kind of alien sucking the life force out of me!” She was not amused and chastised me with, “That’s a sweet life sharing your body.” Me: “HUMPH!”

Now, when I feel like an alien is sucking out my life force, I remind myself  strong nausea is usually a sign of raging hormones, a good thing in pregnancy!

Treat yourself well in these early days of pregnancy. You’re growing a little person. Enjoy a rare excuse to pamper you! Remember that you’re not alone. Lots of women have felt this way.

As my mom used to say…

“Hang in there. This too shall pass.”

If you have any other great anti-nausea pregnancy tips, share them below and let fellow sufferers enjoy the benefit of your wisdom!

Aug 23
0

Organic Mama’s Top Ten Tips for Managing Pregnancy Nausea

By | Birth Week, Pregnancy | 4 Comments

The person who named pregnancy nausea “morning sickness” must have been a man! Ok, maybe that’s unfair. At least it was someone who’d never actually suffered a severe case of being sick in pregnancy. It’s more like “ALL DAY sickness”, the “curse of the first tri” or “the wretchedness“.

Whoa. Little bit of angst going on over here. Sorry, it’s just where I am right now. Unfortunately, some of the remedies we often hear prescribed for nausea – like saltine crackers (gag, gag, choke, choke) – often fall short of the mark.

A lot about you changes when you’re pregnant. Organs get shoved around, metabolism speeds up while hormones slow digestion down and increase saliva. Yuck! Is it any wonder we feel funky?

The third time around, I’ve found a few tips that at least make nausea manageable (meaning less vomiting), though I  haven’t figured out how to get rid of it!

1. Keep blood sugar stable. This tip comes from my midwife. She suggests breaking meals into snacks spaced every 1.5-2 hours. Start when you wake and don’t put off eating. The snack should include a carb and a protein. Some of the snacks I’ve been enjoying are:

  • Fruit and nuts (or nut butter – like almond, peanut, sunflower etc).
  • Salads with chicken or cheese (my current fave)
  • Chicken, cheese and veggies wraps
  • Cottage cheese and fruit (thanks for the tip, Jeanette!)

I would love to eat only fruit all day, but experience speaks. It boosts blood sugar really fast and leaves me reeling from nausea when my blood sugar drops. This is true of most sugary foods. They’re best avoided when you’re nauseous. Try increasing veggies in your diet. They will, ahem, keep things moving and possibly help you avoid some of the other tortures of pregnancy – constipation and hemorrhoids – that may be a result of slowed digestion.

2. Exercise. I know you’re tired (me too!), but a little exercise in the morning can reset your system for the day and get your energy moving. And, if you’re not used to it, try starting with twenty minutes. Biking, swimming, walking, etc – even briefly – can be a huge help!

3. Change your toothpaste. The toothbrush can become a torture tool when you’re nauseous and minty flavor seems to make it worse. Thankfully, there are lots of other flavors out there to  choose from like Cinnamon, strawberry etc. Try it!

4. Rest. I know. I know. You have a million things to do and if you don’t do the housework, no one else will. But, trust me, it will still be there in just a few months when second trimester energy and nesting kicks in. A nap or slightly earlier bedtime makes a huge difference between a day spent gagging from nausea and a day when nausea seems manageable.

5. Minimize offensive odors. Pregnancy nausea is often tied to super hero smelling powers, which seem to have no purpose other than letting you smell every disgusting thing on the planet. Try these tips.

  • Switch to safe cleaners that won’t leave a smelly residue or potentially harm your growing babe
  • Cook outside. It’s summer! Use the grill.
  • Switch to cold brew coffee. If you’re like me – married to a coffee addict who’ll drink hot or iced coffee, teach him how to make a cold brew coffee. It tastes AMAZING. He’ll be hooked and you’ll be spared the smell of brewing coffee every morning.
  • Let your husband change the poopy diapers (when possible). I know it seems unfair but he benefited from the, er, “joy“ of your fruitful union and now you’re paying for it. Just remind him if he’s forgotten already.

Here’s Day 2’s tips for managing pregnancy nausea.

If you have any great tips I missed, please share them for fellow readers in the comments below!

Aug 17
0

Facing Fear and Finding Joy

By | Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Spirit | 16 Comments


Life has a way of making us face our fears whether we want to or not. For those who don’t know, I had a life threatening miscarriage in February 2011. The surgeon who performed my emergency D&C said there is nothing wrong with me and encouraged me before I left the hospital to get pregnant as soon as I’d had a few normal cycles.

I was just so happy to be on my own two feet, I banished the discussion from my mind until later. Banished it because being cleared physically for pregnancy after miscarriage and being emotionally ready to become pregnant are two very different things.

After returning from the hospital, I took my time recovering, enjoying my children and doing some things for me that I wouldn’t have done were I still pregnant. I didn’t want to dwell on the possibility of pregnancy too much yet – until several weeks ago. That’s when I realized that after five months of studiously avoiding pregnancy, my husband and I had enjoyed a grand ole’ reunion with each other (he’d been gone for almost three weeks) for nearly a week – SMACK DAB in the middle of that week of the month.

You know what I’m sayin’.

Suddenly I had to face the strong likelihood that I was pregnant and I discovered, upon retrospection, I was terrified at the prospect. Flashbacks of blood soaked towels between my legs and the feeling of the bathroom floor as I lost consciousness haunted me. I did NOT want to go through that again!!!

I spent almost a week in that breathless, scared place before I could even test for pregnancy. Thankfully, my sister, a good friend and my strong husband were sounding boards for me as I carefully explained my feelings, hoping I didn’t sound too selfish. They encouraged me to face my fear and choose hope.

After letting myself freak out for those few days, I pulled myself together and decided to remember the lesson I learned in February when I realized I might not have come home at all.

Life is short. Live it!

There are no guarantees that life will go a certain way or that the end won’t come earlier than we planned. So, we should consider every breath we take a gift and be unafraid to take chances. I want to be the kind of person who faces down my fears and takes a leap of faith toward my dreams of having a larger family and being a courageous woman.

So, I took a leap. I lifted that little stick . I turned it over – and saw –

TWO PINK LINES.

Yep. It’s good news. While it might be better to wait to share because we’re not past the first trimester yet, I wanted to encourage those of you who have been where I have been this year. In a few weeks, I’ll be as far along as I was when I had my miscarriage and that carries with it an understandable stress. There is no guarantee that this baby will be ok but I am choosing to face my fear and find joy in this moment and this baby. Even though I’m feeling pretty nauseous.

It’s a good sign, right?

Please this if you know of someone who it might encourage.

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Aug 04
0

Recovering from Miscarriage; Overcoming “The LIST”

By | Miscarriage | 8 Comments

If you’ve had a miscarriage before, you know about “The List”. After miscarrying a baby you’ve been dreaming of holding, it’s only normal to compile the list. On that list go all the things we worry might have contributed to our baby’s demise.

We compile the list because we wants answers and a way to avoid pain in the future. But the truth is, a lot of pregnancies end in the first trimester and even after because the baby isn’t developing properly. My pragmatic side accepts this truth but my “that was my baby!” side doesn’t accept it.

That side of me created this list.

1. I worked to exhaustion the week before I miscarried. I had a list of housework to complete and kept going till my feet couldn’t hold me anymore.

2. I ate too much Chocolate. ‘Cause of its caffeine-like affect on our bodies. On my list of things to do the weekend I had my miscarriage was making a huge chocolate cake from scratch. Not only was I worn out but I worried that eating this might have caused my miscarriage.

3. I carried my two year old in a backpack while hiking (yes, all in the same weekend). But, I was in the habit of hiking regularly (and carrying my daughters too).

These were the items on my immediate list. Of course, the list has another side as well. It’s where you list all the things you think should have told you this pregnancy might not be a healthy one.

I only had a few…

1. I didn’t feel as sick. The 15-18 weeks of my first two pregnancies were miserable because I was sick 24/7. I woke nauseous, spent the daylight hours wishing I could be asleep to escape it and went to bed nauseous. This time, I started feeling better around 10 weeks, which made me nervous.

2. I wasn’t as emotional/exhausted this time.  My husband is a trooper and handles my crazy pregnancy mood swings very well. But, he even noticed that this time, I seemed my normal self.

I think every woman who has miscarried creates some version of the list. It is a normal part of the grieving process to look for answers.

But Mama, I hope you realize as I did, that you probably didn’t do anything to cause your miscarriage.

One thing that helped me to regain perspective and put the list behind me was to remember that moms in third world countries who have terrible diets have live babies.

Moms on crack have live babies (though often severely challenged).

If my baby didn’t make it through the first trimester despite my healthy diet and lifestyle habits, it probably wasn’t meant to be. Our womanly bodies are wiser than we recognize.

That doesn’t mean I won’t have a healthy baby in the future and that goes for you too. I decided to take the time to recover – physically, emotionally and spiritually. I cried when I needed to and I was silent when I wanted silence. I also made myself seek the company of others who reminded me that life is good.

Since I was pregnant 3 months, I gave my body at least three months to get back to normal. A pregnancy that ends in miscarriage takes as much out of us as a live birth and our bodies needs to recoup the reserves before we try again. I ate fresh, unprocessed foods, took my chinese herbs, prenatal vitamins (mainly because of the extreme blood loss) and exercised.

And, I trust that my body will carry a baby to term again when and if it’s time. I hope you trust yours too.

Recovering Physically from Miscarriage & Hemorrhage

Recovering Spiritually from Miscarriage & Hemorrhage

Share this if you know of someone who it might encourage.

Don’t miss updates from Organic Mama Cafe. Subscribe. 

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