Surviving Twin Pregnancy: Morning (and afternoon, and evening and nighttime) sickness

10 Weeks of Pregnancy - 153 Pounds

So one thing that *almost* every expectant mom gets to participate in is the dreaded morning sickness. I believe mine started around 8 weeks. It seemed worse if I got hungry, so the best thing I could do to help it, ironically, was eat. Mostly I craved comfort food: Macaroni and cheese, Ramen Noodles (beware the MSG in the seasoning!), soda, or anything with lots of carbs. When I felt sick, I ate anything of the above to keep myself sane. And when I felt well, I tried to eat extra healthily to make up for it. The worst time for me definitely was in the morning. I got into the habit of waking up and immediately boiling water to make ramen noodles. It was the only thing I could stomach, but after I ate them I felt much better. Most of the day I still felt slightly off. I think this is really the worst time of pregnancy because you are so miserable and just want to keel over on the couch and watch old episodes of Friends from the season Phoebe is pregnant with triplets while sucking on preggie pops, but you can’t because most people probably don’t even know you are pregnant yet! (Or maybe because you have several little ones running around already trying to play in the toilet water and your long-abandoned maxi pad drawer). But nevertheless, you are stuck trying to live your day to day life in an honorable fashion.
Usually, for me, it got better as the day went on, though there were a handful of days that I was quite miserable and just threw up the white flag claiming illness and sympathy from my hubby. I never actually ‘tossed my cookies’, because I HATE throwing up, and resist it with my whole being. But I probably would have felt better if I did! My heart goes out to those women who can’t quit the vomiting. But especially for you twin and multiple moms, it is VERY IMPORTANT to keep food down and get lots of nutrition and weight gain a little earlier in pregnancy because twin, triplet + buns generally don’t get as much time in the oven. Talk to your doctor if you have a hard time keeping food down on a regular basis because they can prescribe drugs to help.
Also, one thing I did find helpful was this device that I already owned because I frequently get motion sick. It’s called a ‘Reliefband’ and works on the principle of emitting a small electric pulse through a pressure point in your wrist. It worked miracles for my motion sickness when flying. Unfortunately, it was removed from over the counter sale around 2005 or so and was subject to FDA approval. There is now a new version on the market called 'ReliefBand Voyeger' that seems the same, except it is considered disposable because you cannot replace the batteries. I only once replaced the batteries in my original Reliefband in years of use, so if the new ReliefBand Voyager is as high quality, you should get many good months/years of use before it is kaput.
The Seaband works on the same premise, so you could try that too, but knowing how much pressure I had to apply to my wrist when I forgot my relief band, I’m guessing the Seaband isn’t as effective, but it's cheaper and may be worth a try for the desperate. As for my second pregnancy, I did have morning sickness, but not nearly as often, nor as intense. On the other hand, I just had a constant sense of being slightly ‘off’ that could usually be controlled with eating consistently. So I got in the habit of keeping a granola bar or healthy snack in my purse every day, which seemed to help.
Do take heart that nausea is a continued sign that you are still healthy and still pregnant! In fact, if you had a very sudden drop the severity or frequency of nausea, I would give the doc a call, just to make sure everything is ok. The dreaded morning sickness did finally dissipate and get milder for me around 15 weeks, and milder and less frequent yet around 16 and 17 weeks until it was a mere memory! Good luck getting there! Be sure to post a comment if you have any tips or tricks that worked for you!