According to an article found on the American Pregnancy Association website (http://www.american
pregnancy.org/pregnancyhealth/morningsickness.html):
“More than half of all pregnant women experience morning sickness. Morning sickness is the nauseated feeling you get during pregnancy. Morning sickness can be, but is not always, accompanied with vomiting. The nausea is often a result of the increased hormones in your body. Many health care providers think morning sickness is a good sign because it means the placenta is developing well.”
This past week, Rie, my wife, had been feeling a bit nauseated throughout the day, but nothing that kept her from performing her everyday activities. Our usual morning ritual entails her getting up about fifteen minutes before me (by matter of convenience, because she takes longer in the bathroom) and (in the case of it being winter) turning on the heater in the shower room (this works as much to her benefit as it does to mine because after I finish my shower, the room is nice and warm). Well, this morning she just kind of lay there. When my alarm went off, she was breathing fairly heavily. I asked if she was sick, and she said that she wasn’t going to go to work. I took my shower, got dressed, and checked to see if she needed anything. I then went to work.
When I got home, she was still feeling nauseated. She said her sense of smell was extremely heightened, and that almost everything she smelled made her sick. She went back and slumped onto the sofa.
From the time I came home (around 3:00) until about 11:00, she slept on the sofa. The thought briefly entered my mind that maybe this whole “morning” sickness thing isn’t so bad. I got to play my Wii, read some books, and surf the Internet for many hours (where I got into a great chat room called “JuzSpeak”, a room where EFL speakers can go to practice English. The admin was operating the room for the first time, but was doing a great job). Had I known the freedom that comes with this condition, I would have knocked her up years ago!
Since she doesn’t have much of an appetite, I’m trying to find foods that agree with her stomach. So far, toast with tuna fish and cucumbers seems to be her favorite. She ate three pieces of it today. Fruit is also something that she can keep down. We’re going to try and head off the sickness by having her eat some crackers before she gets up in the morning. From what I’ve read, this is a good way to curb morning sickness. One good sign is that she wants to eat soba (buckwheat) noodles. Tomorrow we will try to go into the city to our favorite soba shop so she can eat her noodles.
I finished my work for the year, so I can better help her get through this. She has been asking me how long I think she will be sick, but I don’t have the heart to tell her that every piece of literature I have found says about 14 weeks. She’s hoping to be over it by the end of the weekend. Must brace myself for distress, anger, or a combination of the two.
