Morning, Noon & Night Sickness...

If only this took the place of the temper tantrums, the terrible twos and adolescent attitude...but alas, the challenges of parenting only begin with "morning" sickness which is more of a 24/7 ordeal it seems. At this very moment, I'm in one of the worst waves of the day so forgive me if poor grammar plagues this post.

Yes, I am definitely in full sickies mode...without, knock on wood, the need to pray to any porcelin idols in the bathroom. As is the case for many moms-to-be, I have been given many tips on how to help myself through this time. Because I know a few moms-to-be stop by here, I'll share!

First up - the things I'm plan to try or have tried but haven't yet decided on their effectiveness:

• Frozen red grapes sans skins - Supposedly you just nibble on them like a squirrel. I've had a couple and they're quite tasty, but I don't know about their effectiveness yet. This came from one of the doctors at Mark's school.
• Preggie Pops - a tip from Angela. These are available at Babies R Us and must work given who recommended them. I have nothing to complain about after hearing about Angela's morning sickness - 4 trips to the hospital and 14 lbs. lost - ay carumba!
• Ginger Tea - I tried this back in the "false" pregnancy days. It's vile to me since I'm not a fan of straight ginger, but I'll probably give it another chance anyhow. It can't hurt. This came from the doctor who is responsible for the false pregnancy problems (he's been fired, of course) and so it's lower on my list of options.
• Tortilla Chips - a substitute for saltines suggested by mom. Tried these with the false thing but haven't tried them really since we've been truly pregnant.

Second on the list - Things I Think I'll Pass On:

• Seaweed - Anyone who knows me knows this just isn't going to happen. The smell alone will ruin my record as far as "praying" goes.
• Flat Soda - We don't drink soda very often anyhow. The ginger ale I have been drinking isn't flat, but the bubbles seem to help ever so slightly.
• Saltines - This is always the first recommendation out of every person's mouth...but I'm allergic to wheat so they aren't a good choice. :)

Next Up - Things That Seem to Work for Me

• Ginger ale - I've not decided between cold or warm, but it seems to calm the angry stomach quite well.
• Oatmeal cookies - yep...believe it or not, one cookie has done wonders on several occasions...more than one usually cancels some of the benefit. We're out. I need to make more and plan to do so with a bit less sugar to try to up their healthy quotient.
• Fruit - strawberries and peaches seem to be the favorites right now.
• Eating small meals - this one isn't a food, but it has been very helpful. I eat a little somethihg about every 1 to 2 hours (not much at all!) and it seems to keep things a bit less grumpy...

And now, because it's rather amusing to me, the foods which I normally go gaga over that taste less than stellar:

• chocolate - say it isn't so!!!
• toast with cream cheese - even adding cherry jam made no difference
• dried apricots - vile to the highest degree
• pizza - which is not like the pizza most of you eat, but nonetheless it was a favorite and is not simply tolerated
• green olives - they taste like campho phenique. They are vile. And, they used to be snack food.
• sugar - amazingly anything with too much in it is less than appealing.

Finally, a list of foods I simply can't get enough of:

• cottage cheese - we bought some on Sunday and had to buy more yesterday which is unheard of.
• cucumber - I never grow tired of these - it's too bad they aren't more nutrient filled.
• chicken broth with chicken, rice and peas - of all the combinations, this is a favorite...soothing, soup-like (I miss the days when Campbell's was an option), easy on the tummy and very comforting

I'm sure there will be more revelations such as these as we go along....and now it's time for a nap while I can still take them.

I don't think I've mentioned that I'm probably going to be returning to the corporate world quite soon. The doctor wants me to take it easy and devote more time to things like accounting and what not rather than running all over for weddings and the like. The wedding and event business is still up and running, but it will be sort of "on hold" until probably September of next year. I'm ramping down a bit.

What is funny is Mark and I had decided prior to even going to the doctor or even suspecting that I was "with child" that I would try to rejoin Safeway since he's doing well and we believed it would be good fiscal policy for us. I even called my old boss on Sunday evening...so we'll see what happens, but hopefully they will let me return very soon! If not, I suppose I'll have to find another position that I can assume that will be low stress...but hopefully, everything will work out with this.