Pregnancy Series: Morning Sickness

For me, weeks 5 to 12 were an emotional roller coaster. It had nothing to do with feeling ill prepared to be a parent or deciding how to tell family or wondering how this would change my career path - my emotional turmoil was entirely food-related. Let me explain.

For those eight weeks I experienced some pretty intense nausea. This didn't mix well with the fact that I was, for the first time, a university-educated nutritionist with a nutritional-need-blackhole growing inside of me. The requirements seemed astronomical. I'm supposed to get my recommended daily intake of calcium while being entirely sickened by the thought of dairy? I often called Calvin crying on my lunch break, over a plate of quinoa or lentil soup begging to know why God would want me sick when my food intake is at its most important. No reassurance from friends would help - I felt like a failure.

Well here's the truth: you can only do the best you can and your growing baby's needs are much greater father along into pregnancy when you're mostly likely feeling a lot better. These tips helped me immensely:

1. You feel the most sick when you're the most hungry: eating something (even small) will make you feel better. I kept a box of saltines beside my bed to munch when I first woke up and it worked.
2. It's actually nutritionally preferable to eat many small meals during the day (keeps your blood sugar more stable) so rather than attempting a giant plate of lasagna with salad and garlic bread, plan out your day with some salad here, some veggies and hummus there, and see how much your day improves.
3. Ginger! This is nature's greatest nausea remedy. Try it in any form - fresh or ground for cooking, tea bag for steeping, lozenge... I will even suggest cookie.

For 99% of mamas-to-be this won't last long, so buck up and think of the positive side of things. My prayer was constantly: "Despite my sickness may my little one grow and be happy."