Morning Sickness

If you've never experienced morning sickness, I don't think there's a way for you to really understand how horrible it is. And if you've been pregnant and never had morning sickness, I am so jealous.

I have experienced miserable morning sickness with all three pregnancies so far. I have read every article I can find on morning sickness causes and cures and talked extensively with my midwife. I have tried everything, all with varying effectiveness but none that have taken it away all together. Luckily, I am the norm and my morning sickness fades before 14 weeks (as opposed to unlucky women who experience it their entire pregnancy).

With Ashtyn, I remember feeling just miserable. I would go through phases with what I could stomach--I would be able to eat bagels or orange chicken or tacos from Taco Bell, for a short amount of time, until, suddenly, I would no longer be able to stomach it. I was in school at the time, which made it more miserable, and actually ended up having to retake statistics because I missed a test and didn't realize it.

I'm sure that my diet affected me negatively. I just ate whatever I wanted. To a point, this is okay (in my opinion) when you're so sick, because you need to get food in you, but eating pizza or Captain Crunch cereal isn't going to get any nutrients in you and it will leave you feeling worse than before you ate it (I speak from much experience). In all likelihood there is a much better choice (even if it's a sandwich on white bread that gets some protein in you) that you can stomach. I say it's likely, because honestly, it might not be sometimes. I think in my case, though, I didn't try to healthier options my first pregnancy, I just walked through the store and bought whatever looked good at the time.

I tried a few things--ginger, vitamin B, orange juice--but nothing really helped me feel better until it passed. My morning sickness passed, right in time for me to start a new semester at school and start fresh and try to eat healthier the rest of the pregnancy.

With Parker, I was eating on my midwife's diet and taking supplements. I wasn't feeling sick at all and thought maybe I wouldn't get morning sickness this time around. Then it hit, very suddenly. I had made a ginger chicken stir fry for lunch (incidentally, Ben loved it but I haven't been able to make it again because of the morning sickness) and felt terribly sick. I couldn't finish it. It went downhill from there.

I could eat very little. Because of this, Parker's pregnancy was, by far, the worst for me when it came to morning sickness. I could eat green beans, popcorn, and our homemade ice cream. I also was still nursing Ashtyn at the time and trying to strictly follow the pregnancy diet (no flour, no sugar, no dairy). I remember just being hungry and sick all the time. I lost ten pounds before the morning sickness passed.

I tried everything with this pregnancy. I didn't eat any dairy. I tried all sorts of supplements, but the hardest thing was I couldn't eat protein. Eggs, chicken, meat in general, all made me feel sick even just smelling them. When I forced myself to eat them anyways, I felt worse after eating them than I did before. I even tried a plant based protein powder in smoothies, but I couldn't stomach it. When I didn't eat, I felt worse, and the worse I felt, the less I could eat.

It, too, passed. I remember waking up on Thanksgiving, dreading the day, and smelling the turkey cooking. It smelled wonderful to me (a stark contrast to my previous weeks) and I was able to eat that day. After that, my morning sickness passed until it was gone and I was able to eat again.

With this pregnancy, I decided I wasn't ready to start on the diet right away. It was Christmas time, we were living in my sister-in-law's house in the progress of moving into our house, and I just wasn't ready. I got slight nausea, but nothing too bad. I was hoping that meant I was having a boy and my morning sickness wouldn't be as bad this time. The day before we moved into our house, I started feeling horrible. It was hard to unpack, to do Christmas, to do anything. It got worse and worse and I got to the point where I was living off sandwiches and yogurt drinks.

Because I was also very tired, my midwife suspected low blood pressure, so I started taking two licorice root capsules a day. The next day, I was still nauseous, but I could get out of bed. I could eat more and that helped me feel better too. It was night and day.

Now my morning sickness is beginning to pass (I'm 13 weeks and a few days). I can eat pretty much anything now and as long as I'm careful of keeping enough food in me (or eating something sweet without a protein), I don't really feel sick anymore. It's so nice to be coming out of it.

Next pregnancy, I'm going to do all that I can before I get pregnant to try to prevent morning sickness. If it does hit, I'll eat what I can, take the supplements that help me feel the best and are most important for baby, and just survive again.

But who knows, maybe next time I won't get sick. Every pregnancy is different, right?

My 2018 Goals

I don't have a lot of goals for this year, because I know it's going to be a crazy year and I have quite a few small goals I want to slowly add to my life as I see that I'm ready. I do want to set some goals, though.

First, have a baby. That's huge. I know that while I'm pregnant, it's going to be a big job to stay on top of my diet and supplements and exercise and everything to stay healthy. I know this because, been there done that. I have other goals I want to work on as well while I'm pregnant, but my number one goal is to have a healthy pregnancy ending with a healthy baby. And when the baby comes, I'm ready (because, remember, been there done that) to let everything else go and just enjoy my baby and survive the first few months.

On top of that, I do have a few goals. I want to write a novel this year. I already have my idea, so I am going to spend a few months outlining it and then aim for 500 words a day. I'm thinking it will be about 40,000 words, so it will take about three months to actually write it.

I also want to continue with BookTube, doing two videos a week. I don't have two videos for this week, due to moving (I might have one), and I don't know how long it will take me to get back into videos after the baby comes, but my goal as of right now is 50 videos. That gives me a little leeway, but will push me to get content out.

Those are my business goals. I do have some personal goals. Right now, I weigh about 130 and have some extra fat on my stomach. I want to spend my pregnancy only gaining healthy weight and then by the end of the year, I want to lose a couple inches off my stomach (as it is now) and weigh 125. I have a diet and exercise plan for this and am confident that I will be able to reach this goal.

I also have some smaller goals. I want to make reading scriptures a more consistent part of my day. I want to do more with homeschooling (activities and reading with the kids and working on specific things like teaching Parker her letters or helping Ashtyn learn how to write the rest of the alphabet). I want to get back to exercising as soon as my morning sickness passes and make it a part of my lifestyle again. But these are smaller goals that I want to take on slowly so that I don't burn out and that they become a real part of my life.

So there are my goals. What are your goals for the new year?

Books I've Read - December 2017

How to Manage your Home without Losing your Mind by Dana K. White 

This is a fantastic book! The author is so genuine and full of personality and has great ideas that have all worked for her and I can see how some will work for me as well. All Around the Town by Mary Higgins Clark  The writing was well done and the mystery was a good one, leaving me unsure until nearly the reveal. The ending wasn't my favorite, it was a little too "too good to be true" for me, not feeling like it had a realistic ending and was predictable. The story kept me engaged the entire time, though, and the pacing was well done. His Needs, Her Needs for Parents by William F. Harley Jr.  This was a great marriage book. I loved how the author focused on working together and how he gives specific things you can do to keep the love and romance alive. I also liked looking at strengthening my marriage through the lens of parenthood, because it is a lot harder once the kids come. Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson  Oathbringer did not disappoint. I am not a huge epic fantasy person, though I love fantasy, but I love the way Brandon Sanderson writes the Stormlight archive. I love the main characters and their character arcs and I love the way Sanderson leads up to a moral lesson that he delivers powerfully at the end. I also love how unbiased he is as he explores political ideas and how diverse his characters are. Hygge by Charlotte Abrams  I like the concept behind this book, for the most part. Hygge is basically feeling comfortable, which is good. The most interesting parts were when the author talked about happiness and the research on that rather than just Hygge. I also think that there may be too much emphasis on comfort for happiness (for example, Hygge says that if you want a piece of cake, to eat a piece of cake; having a treat sometimes is fine, but I also believe that to be happy, you should take care of your body and be healthy). I definitely got me thinking and gave me ideas for when I do want that feeling of safety and comfort. From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg  Going into this book, I had no idea what to expect. It was fantastic! I read it in one day. It's the story of a girl who takes her brother and runs away, but doesn't want to have to sleep in the woods or something, so they sneak into a museum. There, the girl is drawn to a mystery that she has to solve before she can go home. It was such an original concept and so interesting to read about. It was also a more philosophical book. looking at life and the meaning of life. I would definitely be interested in reading more by this author.  Simplify by Joshua Becker  I really like Joshua Becker (he has other books and a blog that I have read). He calls himself a "practical minimalist", as opposed to minimalists who only own 100 items or who sell everything and live in a trailer as they travel. Those things are fine, but for most people (Ben and I included), that's not what we want out of life. However, we do want a simple life that we can enjoy together with our family and we want to be able to focus on the most important things in life. Stuff can often get in the way of that. We're still working on finding our balance of minimalism, but this book was a great motivation/reminder of our minimalist goals.  Also, if you are new to minimalism or are simply interested in learning more about practical minimalism, this book is perfect. It's short, well organized, and explained very well.  The Rosie Project by Don Tillman  This is a book I picked up at DI. I didn't know anything about it, so I was relieved when it was pretty clean (it had some language). It's about a guy with Asperger who puts together a scientific project to find himself a wife, but things get complicated when he helps a woman (who does not qualify as a candidate in his wife project) to find her father and they begin to have feelings for each other. I loved the romance of the book, but I also loved the lessons on friendship and love that he learns along the way.     Keep the Happy in your Holidays by Cherie Lowe  I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The author's voice was strong and funny and her tips were useful and insightful. It's definitely a good book to read anytime of the year (as it has tips for January, etc.) but especially as you are preparing for and thinking about how you'd like your holiday season to be.  The Hired Girl by Laura Amy Schlitz  I cannot say enough good about this book, I loved it! It's about a young girl who flees her father's farm after he destroys any chance of her educating herself and becomes a hired girl for a Jewish family. She's christian, so the author explored religion and religious tolerance a lot and a strong theme of the book is respecting each other's belief. There is some romance, but it felt very realistic as to something like that would have happened in real life. The author did a great job of staying true to what a fourteen year old girl in those situations would have been like. I learned a lot and could hardly put it down.  A Fool and his Monet by Sandra Orchard  This was such a fun, well done mystery. I loved the characters, I loved how well rounded Serena's life was (outside of her job) and I loved the romance story line. I immediately had to buy the second one in the series. Another Day, Another Dali by Sandra Orchard  The second in the series, was very good as well.  Over Maya Dead Body by Sandra Orchard  The last in the Serena Jones series, this was actually my least favorite of the three. However, I still thoroughly enjoyed it and I did like how it all wrapped up.  A Holiday for Murder by Agatha Christie  I picked this up while staying with my parents over Christmas. I have yet to read an Agatha Christie book I didn't love and this was no exception. I had no idea who the murderer actually was (I had suspicions, but I was totally wrong) and there were several twists throughout that I either didn't see coming or threw me for one. It was a very enjoyable murder mystery read, perfect for the holidays.