Puke Days

ah, the puking has begun.

particularly bad in the mornings, and also in the night. mid days are the best.

i can't do milk anymore - it's one of the key foods that induces upchuck. plus it's pretty stinky coming back up. grossed out? who ever said pregnancy was glamourous?!

i've had countless people advising me to take milo to help with my hunger/ nausea. this does NOT work for me because:

1) milo tastes horrible to me now, as does 99% of all food.
2) milo alone is not enough to stave off my hunger & nausea pangs. I need solid CARB. milo may be considered as a side condiment, an addition to the main carb meal, barring (1) above.
3) liquids are not very good for getting rid of stomach acids (which is the primary reason behind the puking). In fact, if I'm already feeling puke-prone, taking liquids actually induce throwing up.

I've also got lots of advice on what to eat (some from people who have not been pregnant before) and while grateful for their concern, I am also mildly irritated because I'm already feeling so frustrated about this food thing and they want to offer me solutions not knowing what I'm experiencing:

99% of all food tastes gross to me.

+ You must understand. My tastebuds and sense of smell have changed DRASTICALLY. There is a nasty bitter (not exactly, but best I can manage) aftertaste to practically everything that I eat. The nasty taste in your mouth lingers and is rather puke-inducing. Holding a sweet in my mouth helps somewhat, but it's no long term solution.

Nothing tastes the same. You cannot make food decisions based on previous assumptions (i.e. how my tastebuds functioned pre-pregnancy) IF I felt exactly the same as I did pre-preg, I would be enjoying all my food especially because my appetite has increased. Case in point: Even my favourite-st food of all time is now retch/puke inducing. I have sworn off Tai Wah bak chor mee for now. I'm afraid that if I eat it now, I will hate it forever. That would be so sad!

Plain water tastes bad. Desserts taste bad. Ice cream tastes bad. Can't do pastries or cakes. Plain rice tastes bad. Nutella (which I used to love) tastes bad. Rich foods (laksa, nasi lemak) are puke inducing.

+ Something that I find OK to eat may be tolerated only for 1 meal. After that meal, that food item naturally goes into the puke-inducing category of food. A grand total of one time each: Ramen, chicken rice, soupy beef noodles, korean spicy ji-gae.

+ Snacks that I initially found palatable; after eating it like a %&%$ bazillion times, you would also be revulsed. E.g. initially found marie biscuits and table waters to help with the stomach acids, but now I can't stand the thought of eating them. (Leftovers have gone to Kisu. His particular favourite is the marie biscuit)

+ let me repeat: I have NO cravings (damn I wish I did). Food is only categorised into 2 groups: stuff that revolts and is puke inducing, and stuff that can be tolerated.

My only saving grace - grapefruit with a little honey. of course, this does NOTHING for nausea and hunger, but so far it's the only thing that tastes OK to me, like how it would taste pre-pregnancy.

puking is not the worst part

I've been told that I'm lucky cos I'm not puking (at least, so far so good) like some unfortunate mummies who throw up all the way into their 7 month. Let me say - I find that puking is not the worst part. For me, I actually find relief in throwing up. This is better to the previous weeks where I suffered acidity and loads of discomfort throughout the day. It's a cross between (1) your stomach churning, (2) a lot of gas but being unable to burp and (3) the feeling that you get just before you wanna throw up. Yup - imagine that feeling throughout the day. I've had friends who had pretty bad nausea, but at least the food they ate didn't taste weird to them.

For me, everything tastes bad, but I still have to eat a substantial amount every 2 hours. Remember, eating does not make the bad feeling go away. It just maintains the delicate balance and prevents things from getting worse.

The one plus point - I am able to keep a substantial amount of food down, so I have been gaining weight for the 1st trimester. Have come to terms with the weight gain. Was so freaked out first, but it has plateaued out for a bit. I imagine this will be so until I hit the 2nd trimester where baby is supposed to grow more exponentially. So far have gained about 1.5 kgs.

I think alot of what was disconcerting was that I felt that my body was no longer within my contrrol.

It wasn't something that I recognised or knew or was familiar with anymore. It had taken on a life of its own and I had no idea how it would react and change from one day to another. Every day was a new surprise/shock and I had a hard time dealing with it.

Dizzy spells

2 days last week I had the WORST dizzy spells. I woke up one morning, and just turned my head on the pillow from left to right. The entire room started spinning. I had to close my eyes and clutch at the bedsheets for about 5 seconds before it subsided. Was a terrible feeling. I felt like my body was spinning out of control. This continued throughout the day, for the next 2 days. It was horrific - I thought my body was degenerating, I was so afraid of what was happening to me. Now, I know that dizzy spells are quite common in pregnancy, but this bad? I wasn't even making what I would consider 'sudden' movements. I was just moving around normally, but it would strike at anytime. Plus the nausea that the dizziness brought on was unbelievable.

Thankfully this abated after 2 days. I read that it might be due to dehydration so I made sure to drink more after that!