I dealt with Nausea all through 9 months

I’m writing about my wonderful journey of pregnancy for the #YummyMummy blogging activity at BlogAdda in association with Marico Bio Oil.

I was in Goa one morning of March 2010 when I woke up with a very bitter taste in my mouth. I don’t drink alcohol so it was unlikely that I had had too much the previous night and this was my body reacting to the overdose of Goan poison. Nevertheless, thinking that it may be a strange reaction to the shrimps I had hogged on the previous day I went to the loo to clear out the bitter tasting feeling from my mouth, by the time I had reached the loo I had a bile rising in the pit of my stomach and out came anything and everything that I had consumed in the lovely dinner at Britto’s. The butter garlic shrimps, the clamps, the crab cakes, and the lovely bitter chocolate sinful cake, all of it.

I told my husband I wasn’t feeling very well while he gargled with his morning kings beer, which he reacted to with a very sullen expression. I didn’t want to be a spoil sport and ruin the vacation so I dragged myself to a nice cold shower to start with my Goa road-side shopping fineries. It’s only when we sat on the hired activa and started roaming the Goa streets, that the soreness of the breasts all became evident. I still thought it was probably food poisoning. I resigned myself to watermelon juice and dal-rice for the rest of the day, though gobbled up some more bitter chocolate cake at Infantaria bakery.

Once we were back from Goa’s one week vacation I was already 10 days late, and it never happens, NEVER. So I knew. When I told my husband, I think his blood ran dry. Three double lined tests later it was finally established that we had initiated an unplanned human creation process. The cake was ready to bake.

Thus started my struggle with nausea; All pregnancies are different and one can never predict with certainty how would theirs be unless they experience it themselves. I was puking at odd hours, the ‘morning’ sickness didn’t really hold true in my case. It was all the time, anytime and anywhere.

In no certain terms, any food item would trigger the nausea, and off I would go the loo launch into a stomach ingredient blitzkrieg. I lost 3 kgs in the first trimester. But the nausea didn’t stop. I was then prescribed Dompan tablet thrice a day by my OBGYN to control nausea. And that’s when I could keep food in my system. Missing one tablet would mean throwing up the meal. My overall pregnancy was healthy. I was working out before I conceived and I continued with light work outs and walking in the first trimester.

Since my doctors were a little skeptical of gyms during pregnancy, so walking and dance was my only resort for work-outs during my second trimester onwards. I would walk to and from work (2kms) every day until 8^th month. This greatly helped me keep my weight in check and keeping the muscles from tightening.

The only food that my little baby in my tummy would let me consume happily without throwing up was bitter chocolate cake, pastries, bars and ice-cream. I remember in the first trimester one night at 3am all I could think about was bitter chocolate cake. I had harassed my husband all through the night for it, so he called one of his friends who worked in a BPO close by that had a 24 hours cake shop and drove down to fetch a pastry for me. It devoured it with passion and satisfaction not known to me before. From that fateful night onwards, my fridge was stacked with ½ kgs cakes and ice-cream buckets that would be replenished regularly to keep my nocturnal cravings in check. Since I was working through out, I use to make sure to carry different tiffins to work for healthy eating.

So what kept me alive was bitter chocolate all through my pregnancy, with intermittent cravings of a variety of things from pani-puri to aloo paratha to tandoori chicken. Though I couldn’t stand the smell of Chinese at any given time during my pregnancy, it is one of my favorite cuisines. I gave birth to a lovely baby boy in November of 2010, which ended my struggle with nausea.

Although bitter chocolate was the only food I could comfortably eat, I didn’t overdo it, and stopped after a few bites once the craving was controlled. I gained a healthy 14 kgs through my nine months, that’s including the 3 kgs I had lost in the first trimester. The medicines helped me keep my food inside and be healthy. Also, I didn’t eat for two; one doesn’t have to, until the third trimester. Then too, one can add one extra snack (Approx 450 calories) to the eating schedule and fulfill the additional calories the body needs towards the end of pregnancy. This can also be continued during the nursing period.

Pregnancy should be enjoyed as it is a challenging experience for a woman with physical and emotional changes. I didn’t follow a set regimen, but did what my body and mind felt comfortable doing. If some days I didn’t feel like walking, I didn’t. If some days I wanted to eat more, then I did that too. Feel good. Be good. Have fun.