I grew up with stories of how sick my mom was when she was pregnant with first me and then my sister, and I knew that someday that could be me. When I found out I was pregnant that was one of the first things that popped into my mind. However, as a few weeks went by and I had not gotten sick I was hoping that the curse my mom had would skip me. Week six of pregnancy came with a bang though and the toilet became my best friend. We were not telling people about the pregnancy yet because we had not heard a heartbeat but I was already having to call into work sick, which I never do, because I was so dizzy from lack of food and water that I could not walk from one end of the house to the other. I am a junior high teacher and for two weeks my students were so worried about me because I was running out of the classroom to throw up every single period. Sometimes multiple times. 

By the time I got to my eight week doctor appointment I was miserable. Hearing that heartbeat for the first time though was the most incredible feeling in the world. I had been determined to go through my pregnancy without any medication but I realized that I needed nausea medicine if I was going to help this incredible little person grow. I was given two different prescriptions to try and went home with the orders to eat whatever stayed down. Even if that meant ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Which lets not lie sounded like a great plan to me. 

My medicine combo worked for about a week and then the nausea was back. My insurance would not allow the new medicine my doctor was prescribing so while I waited on a different one to get in I was left to try anything I could. I tried peppermint which worked some. I tried chicken broth, ginger, lemon, sprite and 7 up. I even read to try room temperature coke and even that did not help.

It got so back during the summer that I was balling into the toilet, while having and ice pack rubben on my back, terrified of losing my baby because I could not keep anything down. I know that was not logical now because my baby was so little that she was surviving off me just fine. I even ended up in the emergency room needing an IV for fluid because I got so sick on a weekend that I was not able to keep any food or even water down for about two and a half days.  

About week 26  I was a little better and I found that going with my ever changing cravings helped. Cheese was a staple. I have no idea why but cheese anything helped food stay down better. Taco Bell, which was a favorite already, was a necessity during pregnancy. Orange soda for some reason was helpful for me. I was lucky that during the time I was the most ill it was summer and I was able to just be in the pool while I was really sick. For some reason the weightlessness of being in the water seemed to ease my nausea. Ice packs also helped by keeping myself really cool. While my nausea never went away. 

I was able to get it down to only throwing up in the morning when I woke up and took my medication. While I was not able to get the medication free and totally healthy pregnancy that I wanted because of how sick I was, my precious baby girl was completely healthy and born at only one ounce away from being ten pounds. 

My mother in law asked me if I would ever have another baby after what I went through. Honestly, I absolutely would. Everytime I look at my baby girl and I see her smile and hear her laugh I realize that it was absolutely worth it. I would feel sick for another nine months just to give her a sibling and feel the same joy with another child as I do with her. I feel like the sickness did not take away the joy of being pregnant and feeling her kicks and movements. Instead it made all those moments even more precious.

XO, Kalena