The Pregnancy Chronicles: Weeks 6-12

At the end of my fifth week of pregnancy, I went to the store and filled my cart with copious amounts of vegetables.  I was very motivated to eat healthy and treat my body right.

And then the next day, the morning sickness hit with the force of a thousand storms.  I couldn't even think about vegetables without gagging.  I checked my mail one morning, pulled out a produce ad, and started dry heaving.  Any time I had to go to the grocery store, I took a barf bag with me just in case.  ALL of those vegetables went bad.

I thought that I had morning sickness with my first pregnancy, but I had no idea what true morning sickness was.  I didn't throw anything up besides my prenatals, but eating most food was simply out of the question.  Vegetables and protein were out, along with various fruit and carbs.  This left me not many options.  I ate what I could stomach, even though a lot of it wasn't healthy.

I also almost completely stopped exercising.  I read a lot of places online that exercise is supposed to help with your morning sickness.

You hear me: I'm calling bull crap.  Most times I tried exercising, I had to stop because I felt like I was going to die.  So, once again I want to emphasize that every pregnancy is different.  If you are sick, try exercising.  If it helps, by all means, go for it.  If it doesn't, weigh the pros with the cons.  I love exercise but it just was not worth it to me at the time.

From weeks 6-10, I was in pure survival mode.  I ate what I could (and ate very often since having my stomach empty made it worse), and exercised sporadically when I felt I could (mostly walking and pilates).

At week 10-12, my morning sickness slowly lessened.  All vegetables were still out though, and the intense sickness was replaced by a desire to eat ALL of the things.  And eat, I did.

Looking back now, it is depressing to think of how much fitness I lost in those six weeks and and easy to wish that I had done more.  But really, I have to trust myself and trust that I had good intentions and that I did all that I could.  And even if I didn't do all that I could, what's done is done.  All I can do is try to do better in the future.