The Nausea Games Have Begun

I thought I might not be forced into play this time around, but thankfully, I didn't get my hopes too high. It did feel good the last two weeks knowing I was pregnant yet not feeling any sensation of morning (and afternoon and evening) sickness. Sunday morning it hit.

When I was pregnant the first time, with the child who is turning 11 today, smells and nausea started early. Shane and I used to split those little Lipton noodles & sauce packets for dinner, eating them with garlic toast. Well, when I got pregnant, those things repulsed me (good thing, they're terrible for you!). I had to rid my pantry of them. They haunted me though, and Shane started smelling like them. One day we were sitting on the bed, he leaned over to kiss me, I got a whiff of Lipton and without missing a beat, swung my head to the opposite side of the bed and threw up.

I threw up non stop during that pregnancy, until about 12 or 13 weeks. Same story with pregnancies number two and three except that each time I rode the nausea roller coaster two weeks longer. When pregnant with Jaybird, I knew I'd throw up until 18 weeks finally rolled around. Thankfully, I had a lot of people praying for me and I only threw up a few times, but fought nausea non stop until about 12-14 weeks.

So, the smells are crazy. Yesterday while at Wal-Mart, I mistakenly walked through the detergent aisle. It didn't make me sick, but wow, it was florally overpowering. I had walked through the bait aisle a few days before and could smell the fishy food flavored stuff through the packages! What made me sick though, was walking out the doors (which usually makes me happy). There was a circle of smokers at the other entrance and I, unfortunately inhaled. I stepped quickly to get a fresh breath only to breath in diesel exhaust. That almost did me in!

Shall we even talk about cravings? I think I have condiment cravings...with my first pregnancy, Jen R and I would make frequent trips to Dairy Queen for nachos with jalapenos on the side. The jalapenos were the important part, the nachos were just because I couldn't eat the jalapenos straight. The next time it was mustard (which sounds good right now). I bought those frozen pretzels just so I could dip them in mustard. Last time I needed sweet & sour sauce and Jen F was my enabler :) She brought me egg rolls on more than one occasion because it's not lady like to eat sweet & sour sauce out of the jar. Jen, last night I realized I had loved my sweet & sour chicken I'd eaten for lunch-and connected it back to my old cravings... and then decided I need egg rolls today for lunch!

While it's all funny now, really, in the middle of puking all day, with laundry piled to high heaven, dishes left undone because caked on food is a powerful vomit trigger, kids who've gone unschooled for the day (week...) it gets hard. I recall telling Shane I didn't want to live anymore during my pregnancy with Beth. If you think of me throughout your day, I really would love your prayer. I don't want to get to that point of despair again.

You could also pray for Shane; even though we've done this a gazillion times, he still thinks pregnancy nausea is all in the head. If I didn't need him to help raise this gaggle of children, it'd be off with his head!

The great Christian comedian, Mark Lowry, says his favorite verse is, "And it came to pass." The next four or five weeks will come and go and I'll forget all about this part. I do it every time. I even write in my journal, "Don't ever do this again, it's miserable, whatever you do, don't ever, ever, ever get pregnant again!" I guess if Shane would use Lipton sauce packets for cologne, that advice might be easy to follow. In the mean time, I've got to hook up with some egg rolls!