Morning Sickness= puke, upchuck, hurl, throw up

Some very kind people who have read the blog and others who have known about my extremely intimate encounter with nausea have come up with suggestions as to how to alleviate the nausea. An extremely sweet and sympathetic friend bought me Preggie Pops and Oh Mama cereal bars. My sister in law went to a naturopath and got me raspberry tea that apparently helped her. Others suggested eating in bed and eating small meals. My doctor suggested ginger tea, eating in the middle of the night when I get up to pee. My mother feigned ingnorance and my mother-in-law suggested drinking milk.

Now that I think the worse is over (and I'm hoping that I don't curse it into rearing its ugly head once again by blogging about this), I figured it's time to take stock on what did and didn't work.

1. Preggie Pops- Not bad. It's also always fun to having a lollipop in one's mouth. You feel all of 5. Plus it's made from a natural products so it's not sugar, it's juice. Only thing, my mouth got very sticky from it. Marks and Spencers' sour sherbets did the trick equally well. I just couldn't eat that many.

2. Oh Mama Cereal bars- Extremely nutritious, fortified with prenatal vitamins and stuff. My only concern is that it was also fortified with Omega 3 which meant there was a slight taste of fish oil. Usually, a slight taste wouldn't be a problem but when the taste buds are hypersensitive, a slight taste is enough to work one's gag reflex.

3. Raspberry tea- it worked but I think it worked because it was mild and it was hot. But I found out from my doctor that it induces labour so really not a good idea. I've kept it for late June when I might be more inclined to want to use it.

4. Eating in bed- It didn't really work neither did it not work. The thing is that with me, I don't wake up with the nausea. It would set in about an hour or so after I'm up. Plus I was always concerned I would leave crumbies on the bed.

5. Eating small meals- That sort of helped, primarily because I found my stomach capacity had shrunk and eating more than the stomach could take meant the rest had to come out one way or other, so the extra usually flowed right out again. In my darkest days of nausea, a meal would constitute a boiled egg and dark sauce. I decided at that point, "screw the cholestrol, I'll worry about that later".

6. Ginger tea- It worked the same way as the raspberry tea except I got a sorethroat from drinking it at the beginning. Apparently, ginger is "heaty" and when one is pregnant, more "heat" is generated and that contributes to the succeptibility of a sore throat. When all this is explained to you in a British accent, it's even more entertaining.

7. Antacids- I never tried this. I was just very programmed to get out of bed, go pee and do the necessary and the climb back into bed, all half awake so I never explored the option of looking for antacids in the middle of the night. But one VERY good antacid to use, whether pregnant or not is Quikeze. It's an Australian brand of antacids that are chewy and taste like Mentos. I think the only place you can find it in Singapore is Candy Empire. If you are suceptible to heart burn, indigestion, gastric problems and know anyone going downunder, ask them to buy! It's a life saver! Plus the added bonus of being yummy.

8. Drinking milk- It sounds good in theory. Calcium, filling, high protein but seriously, when your stomach feels like you're on the Titanic in the middle of the Perfect Storm, not a good idea to down ANYTHING dairy. That's just asking for extremely stinky upchuck.

On my own, I discovered...

9. Gummi bears- small, tasty and sweet. It reignited my love for gummi bears and you could find them at 7 Eleven. But I did get called "aunty" because I carried a ziploc bag of sweets in my bag. I think I stopped the gummi bears even though it worked because of the sugar content and its addictive nature.

My conclusion at the end of the day was there wasn't really a fixed pattern of what worked and what didn't. And there were days where I was so depressed about the nausea it was not funny. I also discovered, something that worked today may not necessarily work the next day so there really isn't a set recipe. The only thing that helped for me right at the beginning was to take an anti nausea jab. Even anti-nausea medication after that had only a 50-50 chance of working. And I realised that exhaustion, a long day, bad weather and a whole lot of different smells just made the situation ten times worse.

So, bottom line? Even after going through the whole experience, I really don't know what works. I think it actually has a mind of its own. If the baby/ hormones feel particularly mean on one day, nothing short of killing yourself would work. And on other days, you're a happy camper because breakfast, lunch and dinner managed to stay down with just the occasional feeling green.

All I can say is I'm glad (I hope) it's more or less over and I wouldn't wish it on anyone, really.

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