How I Survived Horrible Morning Sickness (7 Things that Worked for Me)

Every pregnancy it gets worse. The morning sickness that is. I actually think the term “morning sickness” is a joke. More like stand-over-the-toilet-lay-on-the-couch-all-day-sickness that renders you unable to do much more than close your eyes and try to block out all smells that may set you off one more time.

Don’t get my wrong, I greatly enjoy it when new life comes into this world and my children are so dear to me and a blessing from the Lord! But the pregnancy part is not my favorite time of life.

Sadly, I’ve gotten sicker with every child (and it lasts longer every time too). This fourth baby had me quite sick until 20 weeks.

Over four pregnancies, I’ve learned a few things about what works and what doesn’t for managing morning sickness. All solutions don’t work for everyone but I just want to encourage you with what has helped me through the tough weeks in the hopes that it can help you as well!

7 Morning Sickness “Coping Mechanisms” That Saved Me

1) Praying/Devotions – Spending time in prayer doesn’t necessarily make you feel better, but it really strengthened my relationship and dependence on the Lord. I’m not the picture-perfect Christian though! Many times I prayed in the midst of my tears, begging God to take away my constant sickness.

The time of day I felt best was when I was sleeping and I often fell asleep praying for relief. One of the passages I really hung onto was 2 Corinthians 12:8-9, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it would leave me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” {P.S. I never got to the point of boasting about my weakness, per se, but I was able to bear it with more grace.}

2) Juice fasting/Detoxing – I actually began a juice fast/detox and mostly raw foods diet shortly before I got pregnant. I was guided through it by someone who was very experienced. It was really interesting because once I found out I was pregnant, I didn’t get sick until 8 weeks (I usually get sick almost immediately after getting pregnant)!

This was huge for me and the lady who was helping me said that because juice detoxing and raw foods cleanse your liver, it kept my hormones from overwhelming my liver at the beginning. Unfortunately, I still did get really sick eventually but it kept things at bay for awhile. There are a lot of options for juice fasting/detoxing and you should really do research and consult someone with experience and a doctor before you try it.

3) Eating before getting up – You know how they always say to eat before you get up in the morning? It really does help, although not by eating saltines!

I ate Nut Thins, an almond cracker each morning because they actually have some nutritional value. I couldn’t stomach nuts so this was my best alternative. I also laid in bed for about 5-10 minutes afterwards and my mornings seemed to start off better.

4) Laying down during the day – Many days I let my children get into more than they should have simply for the sake of lying down. I’d be on the couch in our open-floor plan upstairs and would keep an eye on the kids while I rested.

I wasn’t actually that tired this pregnancy so I only fell asleep once or twice while on the couch with the TV on for the kids’ Netflix time :) Yes, they did watch more TV than they should have, but not a ton. And I knew it was just a short time of life so I let it go.

We also read a whole bunch of books and played board games (during games, our youngest would play with toys next to me and wander around the room). I wasn’t the most intentional mother during that time but we spent a lot of time together just interacting and it really helped me cope and passed the time.

5) Eating protein – When I was sick I didn’t even want to walk into the kitchen. Any thought of any type of food made me feel even worse! But I would literally force myself to eat protein like eggs and hard cheese.

During my first three pregnancies I tried eating a lot of saltines and bland foods and that was okay but I found much better relief this time around by eating protein, even if I didn’t always keep it down. I was also able to eat some steamed vegetables and green apples but any other raw foods made me throw up immediately.

Here’s an interesting, more detailed post about the protein/morning sickness relief connection at Raising Arrows.

6) Increasing my magnesium intake – This actually works better if started before you’re pregnant, but thanks to this post and this other post at Wellness Mama, I was able to increase my magnesium levels by alternating between soaking my feet in epsom salts and using a magnesium spray for sensitive skin, letting it absorb for a few minutes before my shower each morning.

I started this at about 12 weeks, knowing I still had quite a few weeks of sickness ahead of me, and my nausea level was noticeably lighter between weeks 15-20. Increasing magnesium can also help with headaches and those awful pregnancy leg cramps!

7) Diffusing essential oils. There are some oils that are safe for pregnancy and some that are not. You can safely diffuse lavender, lemon and orange (if you can tolerate the smell).

Lemon was useful to me because citrus smells and tastes helped me feel better during early pregnancy.

What Didn’t Work for Morning Sickness (for me)

• Drinking straight water – Dehydration definitely makes your nausea worse, but then you’re so nauseous you can’t keep liquids down–it’s a vicious cycle! For my last three pregnancies, I haven’t been able to drink water by itself, I immediately throw it up. Sometimes water with lemon helped but even better was Sparkling Ice Mountain lemon spring water. It settled my stomach and was a better choice than 7up or Sprite. At one early point of pregnancy, I did have to re-hydrate with Gatorade because otherwise I would have ended up in the hospital on IVs.

• Eating bland foods – Not only are saltines and the like worthless as far as nutrition, the usual recommendation from the pregnancy book for “nausea diet” was worthless as far as making me feel better. So also was toast, popcorn and other crackers, unless combined with protein like cheese or eggs. I don’t know why it took me 4 pregnancies to figure out that this wasn’t the best solution, but it just doesn’t work for me!

• Sea Bands – These are little pressure point bands that go around your wrist and supposedly help with nausea but unfortunately they did nothing for me. It could be that if you have very light morning sickness they would be effective, and a lot of people seem to think they work, so you could definitely give them a try!

• Chiropractic adjustment – Let me start by saying that I LOVE my chiropractor and I’ve actually had a much better pregnancy physically because I’ve been going more often this time around but adjustments and pressure points did not help my morning sickness. My chiropractor (who also does acupuncture) is hesitant to try too many acupuncture/acupressure points as some of the points for nausea are the same ones that stimulate labor, so if you have a acupuncturist who feels more comfortable using those points, it could very well be helpful.

What remedies have you heard about for times of morning {or all day} sickness?

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