1st Trimester Advice Needed

[Anonymous]

I'm 5-6 weeks along and the nausea/exhaustion has kicked in. I really need advice on how to get through the work day like this. I work in a very small office far from a bathroom. Ideally, I don't want to tell anyone until the 2nd trimester but I imagine they'll start suspecting soon (if not already). Any advice would be appreciated.

Also, any tips on getting through bumpy metro rides? Luckily, I am not throwing up, but have had some bouts of uncontrollable gagging on the metro. I started carrying a plastic bag in my purse, just in case. What have some others done?

[Anonymous]

I have nothing but sympathy for you, both of my pregnancies were brutal with first trimester nausea, the second where I vomited all of the time, everywhere. I was working part time and would bring bags, puke into them, and then bring the, home so no one would know (I had my own office).

You do the best you can...but you cannot worry about it. You cannot stop any of this, so hopefully your fellow workers will be too busy to notice your frequent trips to the bathroom...

[Anonymous]

How busy are you at work? Is it possible to come in late, and stay late?

I found the metro was much more tolerable when it was less full...so if it's possible for you to show up at 10:30 even if you have to stay late, that might be an option.

For me, bread and starchy foods helped the most in terms of settling my stomach, but I know it's not fun.

[Anonymous]

Oh geez, for me the dry heaving was the worst. I couldn't wait to get over the hump of the fist 12 weeks.

Ginger ale, crisp cool apples, and whole milk (I know, strange, but the creaminess in the whole milk seemed to coat my stomach and probably worked like a pseudo-mylanta) were my best friends.

I worked in a laboratory environment so even certain smells would set me off. I forced myself to put on a good disposition and tried to distract myself as much as possible from feeling sorry for myself.

I think a few collegues suspected (like you OP, I didn't want to reveal my pregnancy so early), but when I started feeling better and my normal self, those colleagues seemed to forget their suspicions.

hang in there...

[Anonymous]

I had about a week - beginning right at 6 weeks - where nothing helped with the nausea, but after that figured out if I ate a little bit of something fairly often, I felt a whole lot better. Toast with half a Coke first thing on getting out of bed. The rest of the Coke to get me from home to work. A handful of crackers of some sort - mostly parmesan Goldfish crackers every hour or two. Basically anything crunchy and slightly salty would stay down and calm the nausea. Fruit on an otherwise empty stomach was not good at all; after a while, I also associated ginger/ginger ale with feeling sick so switched to caffeine-free Coke. Emetrol helped a bit - it's basically the equivalent of Coke syrup and coats your stomach. Accupressure bands helped a little, but not dramatically so. It's a bit of trial and error, but hopefully you'll figure out what works for you.

Also, hard candies, preferably sour. My husband went out and bought me Preggie Pops/Drops from a maternity store - they worked for me, especially when I was in the car or couldn't get a snack right away, like in the middle of a meeting or conference call. The drops have better flavors, so I'd just get them. They're kind of pricey, though, and Lemonheads worked nearly as well.

I carried a couple of the bags we usually use for picking up after the dog in case I did have to throw up in public - they're not translucent and they're biodegradable, so seemed like the perfect solution.

Try not to worry about everyone at work figuring it out (although I know that's impossible, as I hated that thought too). If they do, hopefully they'll all be polite enough not to say anything while quietly sympathizing!

[Anonymous]

You poor thing. Does your office allow telecommuting at all? That saved me and a couple of my colleagues during the first tri. I also know people who just fessed up early on to at least their immediate bosses about the pregnancy, so the green-faced dashes out of meetings and increases in sick days could be explained. If it's really bad, you can also ask your doctor about Zofran, and anti-nausea drug that can be taken during pregnancy.

[Anonymous]

Agree with the sour candy suggestion. Sour Jolly Ranchers were my go-to item. And strange as it sounds, imagining that I was sucking on a lemon (really thinking about the smell and the sourness) also helped in situations like Metro when no escape was available.

[Anonymous]

Go to CVS and buy seabands. They are like tennis wristbands which have a bead embedded in them so it pushes against your anti-nausea pressure point. I was hooked on it during the first trimester. Could not have survived without it. They are used for seasickness, morning sickness, as well as for chemo patients. I read the reviews in amazon and there were many many raves. You can wear them under a long sleeve shirt and nobody will notice. They cost only around $10 and you can find them where they sell stomach, nausea related medication. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Zofran, zofran, zofran.......if it doesn't get better you might want to ask your dr about as a pp mentioned. I'm in wk 20 of pg #2 and I am still vomiting every morning, but zofran gets me through the work day. With pg#1, I vomited until the day I delivered. I feel for you because it sucks and is totally exhausting. It is much better once people in your office know what's going on becuase I would dash out of a meeting room to throw up.

I agree to try everything that pp's have mentioned. Another thing to try (which I don't think was posted) was taking more B12 (?) - check with OB. I think that's what he recommended. None of these things completely work for me, but some make it a little better. Good luck and I got through by constantly telling myself that it can only last 9months!

[Anonymous]

What helped me was eating throughout the day, small amounts. I felt bad if I was hungry or if I was really full. Also, I kept a bag of ginger snaps at my desk. A few ginger snaps when I was really feeling nauseous helped a lot.

[Anonymous]

I found that decaf green tea also helped with the nausea.
When talking with another mom after my first trimester she mentioned that she had set her alarm every night to get up at 3 or 4 am to have peanut butter and crackers. Apparently many people get nauseas when their stomachs are empty and by keeping a little food in it at all times it can help. She said her nausea was much worse upon waking when her stomach was empty and by getting up for a snack in the middle of the night it helped keep her nausea at bay. It was too late for me by the time she told me this as (luckily) my nausea stopped at 11 weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I found that decaf green tea also helped with the nausea.
When talking with another mom after my first trimester she mentioned that she had set her alarm every night to get up at 3 or 4 am to have peanut butter and crackers. Apparently many people get nauseas when their stomachs are empty and by keeping a little food in it at all times it can help. She said her nausea was much worse upon waking when her stomach was empty and by getting up for a snack in the middle of the night it helped keep her nausea at bay. It was too late for me by the time she told me this as (luckily) my nausea stopped at 11 weeks.

Yes, the nausea is much worse on an empty stomach - hence the name "morning sickness" because your stomach is typically in the morning and the nausea seems to rear its ugly head even worse.

I found small constant snacks/meals help, but not too much because then I would feel even more ill.

[Anonymous]

You've gotten a lot of advice ... none of which helped me, although the Zofran at least made it tolerable. Because I was so sick, and it was becoming visible physically (lost weight, dark circles, general exhaustion), I told my work long before I would have otherwise. Everyone was very understanding, and it made life sooo much better because I didn't have to worry about people suspecting anything or wondering why I was acting so strange. Although I did get the "delicate flower" treatment for the rest of my pregnancy.

As for the Metro, I just couldn't take it, even with the Sea Bands. Don't know whether driving is an option for you, but I started taking a cab in to work and having DH pick me up in the evening. Before I started driving, I found the only way to make due on Metro was to stand near the door, and if need be, get off and go sit on a platform bench to give my body a break from the motion and to regain composure. Then I would get on the next train. When it got to the point that I could only go one stop at a time, that's when I quit driving.

Good luck - hopefully you nausea won't last too long!

[Anonymous]

I pretty much ate crackers non-stop, that helped stave off the nausea. Hmm, tell work you have some stomach issue or are taking some medication (make something up like allergy stuff) that's giving you these side effects.