I’d love for this to have been an exaggeration, but it really wasn’t, at least not for me. My morning sickness ranged from a general mild nausea throughout most days to a severe reaction whenever I’d encounter certain smells. Living in a country with a vast tradition of street food didn’t exactly help, either. I also tended to get extremely nauseous after taking my prenatal vitamins, which seemed really counter-intuitive on my body’s part. I kept trying to convince myself “I’m taking this to HELP the baby! Don’t reject it!”

Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as some people have it. I didn’t need to be ready to run to a bathroom and throw up multiple times a day, like some people I knew. The biggest issue for me was how constant it was. I truly felt like there was never a moment when my stomach actually felt ok. It was always either mildly bad, moderately bad or really awful. No respite.

One of the tips I found helpful to ease my churning pregnancy stomach was to eat a small amount of crackers whenever I anticipated severe nausea coming on. This was especially helpful when taken along with my daily prenatal and just before I went to bed. Early mornings were another time for crackers, and I kept a little packet of them at my bedside table just in case I needed them when I woke up.

I also carried around a packet of extremely sweet candy, which I’d eat whenever I wandered into an area that had potentially stomach-upsetting scents. No matter how adventurous eating grilled squid had once seemed to my non-pregnant adventuresome self, now whenever I got close to a cart of it, I’d pull out the candy. I found that holding a hand over my mouth and nose ensured that the candy scent and taste would drown out any other potential problem smells lingering in the air around me. It got to a point where Justin would see a cart ahead and tell me “pop a candy” before we got too close.

Despite the problems of morning sickness, I actually got off pretty lucky in the end. When my second trimester rolled around, my morning sickness dissipated. Turns out this is fairly common, since at about 16 weeks the placenta takes over most of the hormonal functions that cause or add to morning sickness, so the mom’s body isn’t flooded with them anymore. For me it was like waking up from a constant nagging nauseous dream into a pregnancy that actually felt good!