I talk about barfing, OK?

So far the pregnancy experience hasn't been much beyond feeling varying degrees of crappy. The initial sickness, the one that tipped us off that hmmm, maybe there's something going on here, THAT sickness lasted over the next few days until we got back home to Toronto. It eased off pretty considerably and I was feeling quite all right for the next week or so. For the last two weeks, though, I've been feeling awful. And when I say awful, I mean siiiiiiiick. Constant strong nausea, the kind that makes your blood run all hot and cold. I've never been a 'good' barfer, if there's any such thing, and fight having to throw up with everything in me.

So, I attempt to cope by staying very still when it's really bad, trying not to let my stomach get empty and eating the most inoffensive things I can manage. One of the weird things about morning sickness (which I always point out is a total misnomer as for me so far it's constant, all-day, try-to-get-through-the-next-second sickness) is that eating helps. All the advice articles, books and websites tell the sick preggo in her first trimester to eat soda crackers to help with nausea. Keeping them by your bed and eating a few before you even sit up is supposed to be beneficial. I guess it is, although so far I haven't been very consistent with what I can and can't bring myself to eat. What goes down easy one day seems like poison the next.

As far as having actually barfed? I have a few times (as of this writing), but like I said; I fight it. I'm very practiced at trying to zen myself through the most severe nausea. I often suspect that just letting go and ... letting go might actually help me feel better, but the prospect of what has to happen to get there is too much for me and I can't just go and do it. So when I do, it's because my body has given me NO OTHER CHOICE.

Awesomely I actually, no word of a lie, found a page that advises eating salty potato chips (SALTY POTATO CHIPS) as a way to cope with nausea, especially before a meal. I can guarantee you that the writers of the horrific book What To Expect When You're Expecting had zero to do with this article or website and their heads would pop completely off if they read those words.

And no, I'm not eating a bag of Ruffles before each meal. Just one a day.

(You're unsure whether or not to believe that, aren't you?)