8 Weeks Pregnant and Miserable

I had a prescription for Zofran to help with the pukiness but Zofran also contributes to constipation, so I had diffuct time on that end, but for me it was sooo worth that vs puking all the time. Also, I take over the counter Fiber Gummies to help with the constipation and Miralax is the best so far to help get a bowl movement going. It is tasteless and odorless.

Congratulations and Good Luck!!

You should get better in another month. Most women feel better after the first trimester. Try to drink plenty of fluid to prevent the constipation. Keep resting often. i found this helped reduce the nausea. AF

With BOTH my pregnancies... I had MEGA morning sickness... ALL day, PLUS I had migraines. For up to 4 months. I tried to endure it... but
The ONLY thing that helped me, and per my OB/GYN's suggestion, was acupuncture.
Just 1 half hour session, was all it took.
It does not hurt, and is in fact very relaxing.
I loved it.

See an Acupunturist, that handles pregnant women.

all the best, I highly recommend this,
Susan

Try and drink plenty of water to help with the constipation , I suffered the same way and it is hard to eat when everything turns your stomach , but you just need to find that 1 thing that sits ok. For me it was toast or dry bread , and I ate that for 5 weeks because I literally could not face anything else (or keep it down). I also found that dairy made my nausea and sickness worse , so I cut it out of my diet , I felt much better after doing this , not sure if your eating any dairy but it's worth looking into to see if that may be contributing.

Hope you feel better soon

Keep telling yourself that the first trimester is usually the roughest and you are over half way through it!!! For the nausea I would suggest that you eat just a little bit at a time...not a big meal. Just "Graze" on things...and keep it simple...not a lot of spices or grease. Ask your doctor for something for it if it is too bad, you definitely want to keep your liquid intake high so you don't become dehydrated. As for the constipation....go to your pharmacy and ask for some docusate sodium ( a lot of pharmacy's carry their own brand which is MUCH cheaper than the name brands!!!) it is a stool softener and should help some. Are you taking your prenatal vitamins? It probably has iron in it which is contributing to the constipation but keep taking it, it is really important for you AND for your baby!!
You might also want to go to a health food store and ask them what they have for nausea for pregnancy...a lot of natural products that can be very helpful as well.
Good luck...just keep telling you that all of this will end with a beautiful baby...it will make it more bearable!!!

You sound like my sister :( Her dr gave her zofran. It helps her for an hour or two. (she was throwing up every 15 monutes for a few days!!) Lately she has been hiding in her air conditioned room. She can't do much of anything. (she is 9 weeks) I was the same way. Some of us are the unfortunate few that have terribly sick pregnancies.

Remember to snack whenever you can. Letting yourself get hungry seems to make it worse. If you can... stay out of the heat. I wish you luck...soon you will have a beautiful baby and this will be all worth it :)

I was miserable with my first pregnancy. I threw up ALL THE TIME. When I was pregnant with my daughter I was terrified that it would be the same. And it was. Thank goodness my husband found these things called "sea bands" They are knit bracelets with a little plastic bead in them. They come with intructions on how to wear them and where to place them on your wrists, so they are pretty fool proof. They WORKED. They are designed for people who get motion sickness, but work through accupressure for relief of general nausea. They aren't like, super gorgeous or anything, but I tell ya, I didnt care. I took them off when I went to sleep because I could generally sleep through the sick feeling. They didn't necessarily help with the overall fatigue, but I didn't feel AS tired when I wasn't naseous all the time. I wore them into my fourth month and by then I felt fine without them. As a result when I was pregnant with my daughter I NEVER threw up and I felt all around better about the whole pregnancy. Again, "Sea Bands" you can get them at Rite Aid, Walgreen's, and online. IN fact, I think online you can get cool patterns. Medication free and natural. Good luck.

That sounds like both of my pregnancies! Sorry for you! I did get some relief from nausea by using Sea Bands wrist bands for motion sickness. You wear them like bracelets and you can get them at the drug store. They apply pressure to a spot on your wrist, and they actually helped me a lot. I never got over the tiredness though. It was debilitating throughout both of my pregnancies. Hang in there -it will be over eventually! Use the fact that your pregnant to not feel guilty or apologetic over frequent napping!

So sorry you are going through this, I had it with both pregnancies. I had one doctor tell me that the sicker you are, the healthier the baby. Not sure if he was just trying to make me feel better or not, but I'll take it.

I survived on mostly watermelon, strawberries, grapes and grits. I did have to go the Zofran route (I had to use an iv, but it also comes in pill form), but I would only suggest this if you are severely sick (and it doesn't help with constipation).

When are you taking your prenatal vitamin? If it's in the morning, switch to right before bed. Sometimes that will cause some nausea. Also, magnesium citrate helped me when I was constipated during pregnancy. It's gross, but I'd pour some into a shot glass and drink it quickly right before bed and by the next day I was able to go.

I've heard the Seabands works for nausea and there probably isn't much you can do about the fatigue other than maybe taking a B vitamin supplement in the morning because it could keep you up at nigh. :) Talk to your doc about all this, though. He might have other things you can do.

The constipation may be the reason you're feeling ill all the time and your stomach cannot stand anything. If you have food that you can't pass, it's sitting there...try a stool softener. Also don't eat anything fried or heavy. Try cool, juicy fruits, smoothies, juices and water. Take it from someone who was at home on an IV because I couldn't keep down anything but steak and fruit for the first 4-5 months with each of my girls..

I was EXTREMELY starting around week 6 and lasting through week 16-17.
Even though I wasn't puking more than once a week, I just couldn't bear to even think about food, see food, or eat food. It was a constant struggle. After trying all of the other remedies others have mentioned (sea bands, hard candy, switching when I take the vitamin, etc.) I went back to the doctor for my regular checkup and found I had lost 8 lbs since my first visit (and I was not overweight to start). Doctor immediately prescribed Zofran for two weeks and wanted to see me back after that (instead of the month) to check my weight. It worked miracles!! I still had lots of food aversions and not much of an appetitie, but I could finally eat and function. (The doc also had me stop taking the vitamins until I had the nausea under control and then told me to switch to flinstones or some other kid vitamin that might be easier on my stomach -that helped too.) I ended up taking zofran for almost 2 months. The only problem was it did NOT help with the constipation, but made it worse - so then I was taking colace daily and peri-colace every 3 days or so (doctors orders again).
(This was entirely different than my first pregnancy, where I was nauseous alot and had some morning sickness - that was still manageable and I gained weight at a normal rate. Being sick the first trimester is normal.)

for the constipattion, try either bananas or dr. pepper ( hey, i gave up french fries when i was pregnant but, i refused to give up caffiene. more later baby just woke up
K. h.

I wrote myself a note during pregnancy #2 saying "do not ever do this to yourself again" so I understand how you feel. And yet I had a third child. You should feel better in four to five weeks. Meanwhile you can feel better now! As awful as it sounds, you need to eat more. My doctor had a diet that I wish I still had to share but basically it involved small quantities of protein foods every 2 to 3 hours and especially before bed. I wasn't much of a protein eater and never had peanut butter or nuts but once I started, it was much, much better. You should check with your doctor as some advise against nuts to ward off future allergies while others think you should have nuts.

I also found that if I followed the diet they give you for gestational diabetes that I was less tired almost immediately. The plan was for small meals and snacks throughout the day and I think all included a small portion of protein. I did have gestational diabetes with my first pregnancy. It is unusual not to test positive on subsequent pregnancies but maybe following the diet from early on made the difference. Once I remembered during that awful second pregnancy to get on the gestational diabetes diet (very similar to the plan I had to avoid nausea), I felt much better.

If you are taking pregnancy vitamins, you might ask for a vitamin without iron and that should help with your constipation and nausea. You can switch later to the iron version when you feel better.

It will be worth all this in a few months time!

K.

For being sick try the sea bands for your wrists, they worked really well for me.
Check Walgreens, CVS, Walmart ~ in the pharmacy dept.
Also have crackers and Ginger ale. = )

For being tired ~ that's normal. But you should have blood work done by the Dr. to check your iron level.

The best iron medicine for me is SlowFe. You can get it over the counter. It has a delayed release.

For being constipated, try drinking more water and eat plenty of oatmeal.

I wish you the best in feeling better.

At or around your 16 th week you should start to feel much better.

God bless.

T.:

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! But I do understand how you are feeling!!

I ate lots of spinach and broccoli when I was feeling tired. As your OB if there is a shot or a vitamin you can take to help you out.

You need to eat. Ritz crackers work to help ease the upset stomach.

Yogurt will help with the constipation. Drink plenty of water too. Keep fluid in your stomach to keep the acid down. I know if sucks to eat and then throw up - but you need to keep SOMETHING in there. An empty stomach with lots of acid only makes you feel worse!!

While I was pregnant with my first - the SMELL of tuna made me throw up - and I LOVE tuna!!! I had a serious dislike for dark chocolate and fell in love with it when I was pregnant with him.

Just take a deep breath. Enjoy your pregnancy - even though this first tri-mester can be a bear!!!

You poor thing! A friend of mine used to suck on sugarless hard candies; that really helped her. I would assume you've tried plain crackers........how about something like Instant Breakfast? For the constipation - have you tried prunes and/or prune juice? Miralax works well; I don't see anything that says not to use it when pregnant, but of course, I'm sure you would check that with your doctor. Probiotics & prebiotics really helped me when I had issues with IBS; Florify, in particular is what I used. How about Activia? Good luck to you!!!

the sea bands will help take the edge off. Acupuncture will definitely help to clear the problem. Look for a practitioner who has a Mac after their name, and call and speak to them to ask if they treat pregnant women. I send many of my doula clients to acupuncture for nausea. It is safe!
L.

T.,
I know this isn't what you want to hear, but that's perfectly normal. I'm 19 weeks right now, and my non-stop nausea and tiredness didn't stop until about week 14. I'm told it stops for most people around the 12th week. So far, after that, I just get randomly sick and tired with little to no warning; however, I do want to stress the frequency decreases significantly. I started eating reasonably and being able to do something other than work and sleep after the 14th week. People told me to try eating ginger snaps...that didn't have much success for me, but I have heard it's worked for others. My sister in law also told me sea bands (bracelets you wear and can buy at drug stores) worked for her, but I never had enough energy and time to go exploring the store for them...perhaps, I should have. If it is severe, there are also medicines that your doctor can prescribe. I never went that route because I'm paranoid about taking anything right now besides tums....I've been through a lot of tums, though! They help somewhat. I know this info isn't extremely helpful for you now, but the good news is it will get better very soon!!

Good luck!
H.