New Mom Vibes

After the excitement ( or should I say shock) died down after finding out I was 5 weeks pregnant, the typical first trimester symptoms began to kick in. My boobs were so sore, I could barely keep my eyes open and oh yeah, that morning/all day sickness that everyone talks about creeped up as well.

The day I turned 6 weeks was my first morning sickness experience where I barely made it to the bathroom at work to toss up my breakfast. Although my first bout of morning sickness did give me reassurance that I was actually pregnant, the whole being sick all the time thing got old really fast.

My first trimester was pure and utter hell! I had to pretend like I was a normal person at work while I was literally creating a human that was already sucking the life out of me. I couldn’t sleep comfortably because my boobs felt huge and the enhanced sense of smell made me not want to go near the kitchen.

As I look back on my first trimester, here are the essential items that I had in my survival kit to make my first trimester a little easier:

1. Peppermints

These served two purposes. The first is obvious; after throwing up all of the food that you barely wanted to eat anyway, you’re going to need a peppermint for your breath. You don’t want to go around talking to people and have barf breath

The other purpose of eating peppermints to soothe your stomach. When my nausea wasn’t too bad, I could pop one of these babies in my mouth and my nausea and heartburn would almost instantly go away. If you are worried about the sugar, try looking for sugar free peppermints.

2. Antacids

As mentioned in my previous post, my first pregnancy symptom was really bad heart burn caused by hormone changes. Tums are safe to take as directed and are very helpful but be sure to talk to your doctor before taking them.

3. Body Butters and Oils

Now I’m not sure how effective this is yet but according to other blogs and forums, you should start using coco butter or other moisturizers as soon as you find out you’re pregnant to reduce your chances of stretchmarks.

After doing research I opted for African Shea butter and bio oil since they had very good reviews and high success rates. I honestly don’t know if using moisturizers will reduce your chances of getting stretchmarks but at least I can say I did my best to avoid them (and my skin looks radiant)!

4. Barf Bag

I know it sounds gross but always carry around a barf bag. As my all day sickness began to peak, I could not control my vomit and didn’t know where and when I was going to barf! It was really sad actually.

I always had a bag with me everywhere I went just in case I felt sick. If you’re using plastic bags from the grocery store, make sure there are no holes in the bag (that’s another story for a different time).

5. New bras

My boob hurt so bad and were growing a lot faster than my baby bump. During the first trimester, try to avoid wearing underwire bras if possible since they’re so uncomfortable.

Many people choose to wear those cute bralettes but I went straight for the nursing bras. Since my boobs kept growing I didn’t want keep purchasing new bras and the nursing bras are stretchy enough to grow with me.

6. Scented Plug-ins

One of the worse things about my first trimester was my superhuman sense of smell. Everything and everyone smelled so bad to me. I couldn’t even walk into my kitchen without getting sick from the smell.

I ended up purchasing a bunch of Wall Flowers from Bath & Body Works for my home. Compared to the other plug-ins, I think the scents are a lot stronger and last longer. It was well worth the investment.

7. Vitamin B6 and Unisom:

I put this last because this was the last thing I found out about but my biggest life saver. Take three 25mg doses of vitamin B6 in the morning, afternoon, and night and 1 Unisom tablet at night. Make sure the Unisom tablet is the Doxylamine succinate sleeptab which doesn’t cause drowsiness.

I don’t know how this beautiful concoction works but it does! After taking it for one day, all of my nausea went away and my energy started coming back! I felt like a normal human being again who could take care of themselves. Please PLEASE make sure you check with your doctor before taking these tablets.

What are other items that you would add to your first trimester survival kit?