The first half of my pregnancy with my daughter was Queasy City. When the morning sickness got going, it was like the walls of my stomach would just quiver like jello on a train. It was not a pleasant feeling, especially when it would go off and on ALL DAY. That low-level nausea is annoying at first, then distracting, then just exhausting. Some days I would barely eat, afraid that I would hurl or I was just tired of a wavy stomach.

But the smell of many meat took my nausea to new levels…and to the toilet. Needless to say, cut down a lot on meat and my husband, bless him, did a lot of the cooking. But Thanksgiving at my sister-in-law’s was horrible. We traveled just under 2000 miles so it wasn’t like I could just go home. The aroma of the turkey and ham and gravy that Angie was cooking–things I normally love–sent me retching in the bathroom. Angie, her sister and her mother spent the evening trying to help me out. I tried to nibble crackers, sipped tea, iced the back of my neck, elevated my feet, everything they’d ever hear of to calm my stomach. Nothing worked. I ended up holing up in the basement bathroom, as far away from the ‘fumes’ as I could get, alternately dry heaving, crying and napping on the floor.

Eventually, Angie’s Aunt Georgia came over. Thank you Aunt Georgia. She came downstairs with a handkerchief bulging with something and said “Hold this over your nose and mouth, honey”. “What is it,” I asked. “Just lemon peelings. Just breathe through it and see if that stops the smells.” So I did.

My stomach was still quivering, but I ventured out of the bathroom. At the base of the stairs I got a little meat whiff and the stomach started to roll over. I mashed the lemon scarf against my face, breathed slow, and…the stomach stopped rolling. Eventually, it even stopped quivering, and we got it down to periodic trembling. I could live with that.

I kept that scarf smushed to my face all evening (as I watched TV laying in the den–there was no way I was going to risk sitting at the table), until I convinced my husband it was in his best interest that we stay in a motel that night.

My daughter is now 6 years old, so it’s been a while since I’ve had to deal with morning sickness. But I thought of this story when talking to my cousin who is pregnant with her first and having the worst time with nausea. She’s tried the teas and crackers too. She even tried the lemon I suggested, but that didn’t help. When she told me she was desperate and actually considering medication like Zofran, for help.

I showed her a book I found some time ago called End Morning Sickness Now with natural remedies for morning sickness for her to try. We both are of the mind that medication is good and well, but as a last resort, during pregnancy at least. And she found a remedy that worked for her, one that neither of us heard of or would have thought to try. But out of respect to the author, I have to leave it in the book.

Some natural morning sickness remedies are old wives tales of nonsense, but many others do work. And there is a reason why natural cures work. Sometimes we know the chemistry and anatomy behind why they work. For instance, some studies show that citrus scents like lemon, send completely different signals down the olfactory tract, a direct connection for sending smells to the brain and sympathetic nerves, nerves that respond to things like stress. Sometimes we don’t know exactly why a remedy works, we just know that is works for many women.

If you are suffering from morning sickness, if you can, try natural remedies first. They are not harmful for the baby, usually don’t have side effects for you, and are mostly cheaper than any prescription.

Technorati Tags: early pregnancy symptom, First Trimester, Morning Sickness, morning sickness remedies, morning sickness remedy, natural remedies morning sickness, nausea, nausea pregnancy, pregnancy

All dampened one afternoon as you wonder if you can keep lunch down. How can something that only measures four millimeters be making you so ill?

If you are like most, you are not looking forward to this part, however, the dreaded morning sickness. Anywhere from half to 90 percent of pregnant women experience nausea and vomiting with pregnancy, otherwise known as morning sickness. This is not uncommon. In fact this could even be one of the first symptoms you experience that lets you know, you are indeed having a baby.

Doctors are not sure what causes it, but it may be attributed to a higher level of estrogen as well as the rapid expansion of the uterus.

Technorati Tags: Morning Sickness, nausea, pregnancy