If you have never been pregnant and have watched a good number of bollywood and hollywood movies that somehow have someone pregnant, chances are that your expectations from morning sickness are very similar to those that I had. That classic scene: The woman feels slightly nauseous, pukes on her favorite chicken sandwich, eyeballs roll across the table, a pregnancy kit is bought, the pink line flashes, there are exaggerated expressions of joy or immense mortification (depending on the situation), and the tummy begins to blossom. Once in a while, in some rare true-to-life-swearing film might include extra shots of throwing up. But that's about it. And that was my naive understanding of the highly misconstrued term: 'morning sickness'.
And here's the truth.
First and foremost, whoever coined the term "Morning sickness" should be shot dead. It can happen anytime of the day - and all the time too. One fine day during my 5th week, I got up with a dizzy head and an intense sensation of nausea. That was just the beginning. After that for the rest 8 to 9 weeks, I was sick 24*7. There was absolutely no respite. When I went in for my second prenatal appointment at about the 3rd month mark, the doctor was shocked and so were we. I had lost 6 kgs! The slimmest I had been in decades - a mere 43 kgs - I swear to god, if it was not for the constant throwing up, I'd have done a chicken dance right on the middle of the road. I was size zero - all my clothes were oh so loose - But, all that elation was only momentary - the doctor said I needed to get back on track by eating just about anything - ice creams, desserts, anything to get the calories in. You'd think: wow! Just when you begin to wonder about a balanced pregnancy diet, here I was on a binge prescription.
The sad story: I could not bring myself to eat any of my favorite foods - no desserts, no Italian, no Thai, no spicy Indian street food, no Mexican - nothing would taste okay and nothing would smell okay. The faintest of smells like the rice boiling would trigger massive bouts of nausea - we stopped cooking at home - Vish had to give up on coffee. At one time, I thought I had become a lunatic because I could smell the running water from the tap and find it sickening. For a whole month, my diet included Gatorade, watermelon, sips of chocolate milk, an occasional yogurt parfait from McDonald's and some dhoklas from a nearby Indian shop. If about 20% would stay in, I'd consider that a lucky day.
Finally, when things refused to improve, the doctor put me on
Zofran. It only helped to keep my food in - did little with the "sickness" sensation. Plus, it was so strong it would just knock me off for hours together or I'd get those really severe headaches.
I had given up all my dreams of that Utopian pregnancy that involves good food and good shopping. We were struggling to keep everything sane and bracing ourselves for a full nine-month haul (yes, some women suffer from acute nausea all the way), when a week or two into the second trimester, I woke up one day to no nausea at all. It stopped as suddenly as it had started. And, I must admit after that everything was brighter, more cheerful, and more ballooned. I went on to not only regain those lost 6 kgs but gain another whooping 13 more - to be the fattest and hugest I have ever been. More about such "weighty" gains and losses in some other post :).
