12 Tips For Relieving Morning Sickness (What Worked For Me)

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If you’ve read my first trimester recap post, then you know that morning sickness has played a significant role in my pregnancy. I know it’s not a particularly enjoyable topic, because no one likes talking about getting sick, but I’m actually excited about today’s post!

It’s still a little surreal to think that I’m on the other side of that first trimester morning sickness! (There was a good amount of time there when I thought I never would emerge from it!) I’m grateful to say that it did not last forever for me!

RELATED: First Trimester Recap

A little background: I want to say that I did not have the worst case of morning sickness ever. I could, for the most part, still work during those months. Although I felt awful, I decided not to use any meds for my morning sickness. I know that for many people, morning sickness hits so hard that medicine provides much-needed relief! In my situation, I had times of being quite ill (think: bad stomach flu episodes – one of those episodes, I got sick 14 times in one night!), and the rest of the days involved walking around feeling like I had the flu and couldn’t ever recover 100%, haha. It was NOT fun.

At the end of the day, though, I’m oh-so-grateful. I’m thankful for our growing little one. I’m grateful for what my body can do. And I’m grateful for how God has already grown me and shown me His faithfulness throughout this journey.

Today I wanted to share with you the things that I’ve tried and what helped me through the morning sickness phase of this pregnancy!

I know I didn’t have the worst case of morning sickness, so this post isn’t written to address those extreme cases. Also, I should note that this post isn’t meant to function as medical advice. I am not a medical professional by any means! This is just a list of what I tried and what worked for me in my own pregnancy journey! 

What Helped To Relieve My Morning Sickness – 12 Tips:

1 // Citrus-scented everything! I love my J.R. Watkins Grapefruit Hand Soap so, so much!! And having citrus-smelling products around me really helped, because of my crazy-intense sense of smell at the start of this pregnancy! I bought a lot of that hand soap, but since we do our dishes by hand, I knew I also needed a citrus-scented dish soap. I opted for the J.R. Watkins Lemon Dish Soap and I was immediately hooked! I’m still obsessed with the Lemon dish soap they make, and use it every single day! So, when in doubt, I’d lean towards citrus scents for things you will be using every day!

2 // Jolly Ranchers. I did order and try Preggie Pop Drops (which many pregnant women love), and they worked okay… but I seriously preferred Jolly Ranchers! (And they’re a cheaper option, too!) I sucked on Jolly Ranchers all day long while I taught my small groups. The kids looked at the candies a little longingly, but they soon grew used to the sight of Mrs. Olson’s “teacher candy.” Haha. I think it’s the sour taste of the Jolly Ranchers that really helped lessen those feelings of nausea! Definitely give them a shot the next time you feel icky!

3 // Eat something BEFORE you get out of bed in the morning. I did this for months! Even BEFORE I sat up in bed at 5:40 each morning, I’d reach over to my nightstand, rummage for my bag of Cheerios and Saltine crackers, and throw a handful in my mouth. Having even just a little bit of food in my stomach helped to settle things enough so that I could get “vertical” without grabbing my bucket immediately.

4 // Sit up slowly with deep breathing. I know people differ on this subject, but I did choose to “baby” myself extra during those first couple months of pregnancy. I took things slow, and made sure to sit up and walk around in a more cautious way. I’m super in tune with my body (for better or worse), but that allowed me to really read myself and choose to slow down whenever nausea resurfaced again.

5 // Eat simple foods that’ll still (attempt to) fill you up. The topic of food is super different for each pregnant woman, but I stuck to bland foods like my beloved Belvita Breakfast Biscuits, and sometimes incorporated these Nature Valley Chewy Protein Granola Bars. Things like rice or noodles (and soup) became a big part of my diet, too, although I’d say crackers and those granola bars made up the majority of my diet for a while! 🙂

6 // Don’t let your stomach get empty! Seriously. Eat constantly. I know that food sounds like the worst thing ever during this morning sickness season, especially if you keep getting sick to your stomach, but it’s important! Luckily, my doctor told me that baby generally won’t be harmed by me not ingesting a ton of food during the first trimester. But – it’s especially important in terms of YOU getting enough nutrients and calories in you!

What we want to avoid is “The Nausea Cycle” – something Bjorn was super adamant about me NOT getting stuck in! Especially since he’s seen me go through that cycle a bit. It goes like this: you get sick (you throw up), you therefore have no appetite, you skip a meal or meals, you start to feel shaky, your stomach is super empty so you feel sick again, you can’t distinguish between actual nausea and “I’m-so-very-hungry” nausea, you continue not to eat because you’re afraid of getting sick again… etc. etc.

Now, I normally LOVE to eat and eat all the time, but whenever I feel ill, I get so scared I’ll throw up. It took a whole lot of Bjorn talking me into it, but I eventually learned that it was really important to get food in me! Despite any fears of getting sick again (which would happen on and off), I knew I needed sustenance! Otherwise, I’d follow the cycle of spiraling into worse and worse nausea by refusing to eat.

RELATED: First Trimester Recap

7 // Enjoy a cool breeze! I got pregnant in January, so I started feeling sick during some of the colder months of the year. However, there were times when I just had to crack the window in our bedroom or in the car to get a blast of cold air on my face. For some reason, cool air made a difference and kept me from feeling sick for a few minutes.

8 // Try starting your day with dairy. I can’t remember where I read this suggestion, but whenever I remembered to try it, it worked. The idea is to line your stomach with something dairy in the morning before you begin to eat other things. I didn’t do this all the time, but I found it did help to eat dairy with my actual breakfast (not just the handful of Cheerios) at 6:50 each morning. I reached for things like cheese sticks or Greek yogurt.

9 // Know when to hold your breath or learn how to cope with icky smells! There are things in our day-to-day life that can act as triggers for nausea, especially when we get pregnant! For me, it was the kitchen trash, if others had bad breath (I know, that sounds so terrible, but that’s how it goes), or the silage pile we pass everyday in the country on our way to work. So, I learned to think ahead and hold my breath or breathe through my sleeve or scarf, depending on the situation. Bjorn actually handles the kitchen trash on garbage day for me, which is so nice! In case you don’t know what silage is, it is a collection of essentially fermenting corn or grass that can be fed to cattle in the winter. I learned to plan ahead while driving past the silage pile twice a day, and switch our truck’s air to circulate within the truck! Ha. Rural life isn’t always glamorous. But to summarize, it’s important to learn to think ahead about daily situations you’ll encounter and think about if holding your breath or sucking on a Jolly Rancher could help!

10 // Consider Sea Bands or other acupressure techniques. I ordered the Sea-Band Mama Anti-Nausea Accupressure Wrist Bands and used them some. They kind of look like old-fashioned exercise wrist bands and put pressure on a certain nerve area in your wrists.

I didn’t use these a ton, but funny enough, what actually worked for me was holding the (left and right) sides of one of my wrists tightly with the other hand as I fell asleep each night. Was it a placebo effect? Potentially, haha. But I didn’t care, because I believe it worked and it seemed to, so I was content. I’d say it’s worth a shot.

11 // Drink ice-cold water. I’ve never been a big water drinker, but boy has that changed during this pregnancy for me! (Hooray!) Every day, I’d pack a couple water bottles (that I’d refrigerated the night before) in a lunchbox with ice packs to keep them cold all day at work. Drinking ice-cold water made a big difference for me, and helped with my hydration, which is really important during pregnancy (and all the time).

12 // Watch the mental side of things with positive thinking. I know, I know, you may want to roll your eyes at this one. I certainly did at first. But with my nausea, many of my cycles of throwing up began with me being negative and starting to tell myself that I was going to get sick that day. Over time, I realized I needed to think much more positively and proactively, to breathe deep, and to tell myself I would be just fine, and that I’d do my best to get to work that day. I’m not saying that you can talk yourself out of getting sick each time. I certainly couldn’t each time. However, I do remember multiple times I literally had to talk myself out of getting sick, and then once I got over that hump, I was able to (albeit shakily) go about my day pretty well.

So, mamas (and future mamas!), I hope that these tips brought you some ideas – and hopefully, will bring you some relief in the days ahead!! Morning sickness is no joke, but hang in there! Do you have any morning sickness tips and tricks for other Just Bee readers??