On Friday, I hit 39 weeks pregnant and will be checking back in to the hospital for a second attempt at inducing labor.  The first attempt, last week, was unsuccessful.

I’m still dealing with nausea from HG, although it has eased up a bit.  If I don’t go anywhere and take it easy, I can manage with two 50mg tablets of dimenhydrinate, but I still get incredibly motion sick in the car and have to take an addition two if I want to go anywhere.

Because the baby is so big, the doctors wanted to induce at 37 weeks.  We ended up waiting until last Wednesday to check in to the hospital for the induction.  I knew there was a possibility that it wouldn’t work, but was hopeful.  The first day of medication gave me fairly light, regular contractions, which built over the second day to being pretty strong contractions every 2 minutes by the second evening.  When the doctors examined me, however, my cervix hadn’t lowered or effaced at all and as soon as the medication ran out, the contractions would begin to subside.

I came home Friday, still having strong contractions about every half hour, but they gradually stopped and there have been nothing more than Braxton-Hicks contractions since.

I felt decent Friday morning, but by Friday evening I felt the two days of contractions in every muscle in my body (and most painfully in my cervix, which I’m sure was battered and swollen after two days of being pressed upon by the baby’s head).  Even my arms and legs were sore, which I found surprising.  I had problems sitting and standing and even rolling over in bed, on Saturday, but by Sunday I was feeling well enough to venture out for a large ice cream sundae (although I demanded an ice cream shop that we could park directly in front of — no walking for me!).

I’m back to “normal” now, I suppose, and feel ready to give it another go.  The doctors all tell me this time should work, that the second induction is almost always successful when the first fails.  I’m not sure what will happen if it doesn’t work.  The OBGYNs at the hospital say they won’t let the pregnancy go beyond my due date.  The baby’s head size is off the charts, so I’m a little nervous and hoping the birth won’t be too difficult and I’ll have a quick recovery.

I hope you’ll keep me in your thoughts on Friday and this weekend and that I’ll have some great news to share next week.

You may also be interested in reading:

• Leo's Birth Story (9)
• When it's not just morning sickness: Living with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (17)
• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 33 Update (2)
• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 29 Update (3)
• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 23 Update (14)

I had thought I was improving. I’ve thrown up a couple of times since my last update (when I had gone almost a month without vomiting), but I have been doing a lot more recently.  I had thought that my increased activity meant I was doing better, but I went back and reread all my postings on living with hyperemesis gravidarum (excessive nausea and vomiting in pregnancy), and found that I’ve been steadily increasing my dosage of anti-nausea medicine when I had thought I was taking the same amount now as I was back in January.

Now I think my body has just adjusted to the side effect of fatigue that I, at first, had with dimenhydrinate (aka Dramamine), allowing me to take enough to be somewhat active.  In January, I wrote that I was taking 2–3 50mg tablets a day.  Now I’m taking 5–6 on good days, up to 8 a day on bad days.

I can generally manage doing stuff like going shopping, or maybe some light housework or gardening every other day, with a day of rest needed in between to recuperate.  I’m managing to cook most of the time, so I’m off my steady diet of ready-to-make meals (thank goodness!), but I still can’t drive more than a mile or so and get really motion sick in cars (despite 5–6 Dramamine a day!).

The baby continues to be very large.  I was a large baby, so the docs think it’s just genetic (I was born at 36 weeks and was 8lbs, 4oz).  They’re planning to induce me at 37 weeks because the baby is so big (it’s estimated at 8 lbs right now).  I’m really looking forward to an end to the nausea and fatigue and motion sickness.  I can’t wait to have my freedom and mobility back (something I think most new moms aren’t thinking when it comes to giving birth, but that’s HG for you).  I’m looking forward to not being dependent on others pretty much all the time and being able to get back to being myself.  So, unless the doctors change their minds, I’ve only got 3.5 weeks to go.  The end is in sight.  Phew!

You may also be interested in reading:

• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 23 Update (14)
• When it's not just morning sickness: Living with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (17)
• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 29 Update (3)
• Leo's Birth Story (9)
• Waiting for the Birth (5)

Before getting pregnant, I’d always heard about “that pregnancy glow.” Little did I know that the “pregnancy glow” is caused by increased oil production due to hormone fluctuations. For women who have oily or combination skin, pregnancy can mean a return of acne like you haven’t dealt with since high school.  For some women, pregnancy can be the first time they’ve had to fight acne.

There are a lot of wives’ tales about how to deal with acne, as a clinical trial statistician, I thought I’d help weed through those tales and give you some tips on what has actually been proven to work.

First, you need to know what you are dealing with.  Blackheads (open comedones) and whiteheads (closed comedones or milia) are caused by oil trapped in clogged pores.  Blackheads are exposed to air, causing the clog to oxidize, while whiteheads are covered over with skin.  Pimples are clogged pores where bacteria has entered the clog and is feeding on the oil and dead skin cells, causing pain and irritation.

The main thing needed to fight acne is gentle cleansing and exfoliation.  Harsh cleansing and exfoliation can actually increase oil production in the skin, causing the acne to worsen.  Many cleansers claiming to fight acne actually contain irritating ingredients to make them “feel” like they are working.  Skin care products should not cause your skin to tingle, that isn’t a sign it is working, that is a sign that your skin is irritated.  After cleansing, your skin should feel clean and normal, not dry, tight, or tingly.

Everyone reacts differently to ingredients, but common skincare ingredients that are irritating include: ethanol, denatured alcohol, ethyl alcohol, methanol, benzyl alcohol, isopropyl alcohol, sd alcohol, ascorbic acid, camphor, eucalyptus, menthol and peppermint.

Another common misconception is that eating chocolate causes acne.  There is no evidence to back this up, but there is some recent evidence that high glycemic index foods may increase acne.  If you find excluding a certain food works for you, then it may be possible that you have a sensitivity to that food.

Eating well and staying hydrated improves skin function, which can have an affect on acne, so it is important to drink enough water and eat a healthy balanced diet high in antioxidant rich foods.

Recommended skin care routine:

1. Use a gentle, water-soluble cleanser. I recommend using cleansers formulated for sensitive skin rather than for oily or acne-prone skin, as they tend to not include irritating or harsh ingredients.  I don’t recommend bar soaps, as the ingredients used to keep the soap in bar form can clog pores.  A few cleansers I recommend are: Boots Expert Sensitive Gentle Cleansing Wash, Olay Foaming Face Wash for Sensitive Skin, Paula’s Choice One Step Facial Cleanser for Normal to Oily/Combination Skin, and The Body Shop Aloe Gentle Face Wash for Sensitive Skin.  These aren’t the only good cleansers out there, look for fragrance– and dye-free cleansers without irritating ingredients.  If you have body acne, use a wash cloth to wash the affected areas morning and evening.
2. Exfoliate. Topical scrubs are often harsh, look for a gentle one, or just gently massage skin with a damp washcloth.  BHAs, or salicylic acids, are the best chemical exfoliants for acne-prone skin.  Some people may be concerned because BHAs are related to aspirin (which is verboten during pregnancy), but the amount absorbed through the skin into the blood stream is negligible.  I like Paula’s Choice 2% Beta Hydroxy Acid Liquid because you can buy a pump spray from the site to screw onto the bottle, allowing you to spray the liquid onto hard to reach areas like the back.
3. Topical disinfectant. There is no need to use a topical disinfectant if you only have blackheads or whiteheads, since there is no bacteria involved in these blockages, but if you are fighting pimples, you will want to include a topical disinfectant in your skin care regime.  Benzoyl peroxide and tea tree oil have both been shown to effectively disinfect the skin, with benzoyl peroxide being found more effective than tea tree oil.
4. Remove blockages. Gently removing blackheads, whiteheads and pimples manually is pretty much the only way of quickly getting rid of them.  The key word in that sentence is gently.  You can get a facial from a licensed esthetican who does extractions.  You can also buy a comedone extractor tool to do this yourself at home, or you can cover two fingertips with tissues and gently squeeze the pore to release the blockage.  Just be sure not to be too overzealous removing blockages.  If it doesn’t budge with gentle pressure, it should not be removed.  You don’t want to damage the surrounding skin or cause an infection in the pore.
5. Sun exposure. One of the treatments German doctors recommended for fighting acne is 15 minutes of unprotected sun exposure every day until the acne gets under control.  Light therapy is a legitimate treatment for acne, although in the US, it is generally done with lasers.  During my last pregnancy, while gentle cleansing and exfoliation helped, it wasn’t until I tried the sun exposure treatment that I completely rid myself of body acne.  Germany is at a fairly northern latitude, so if you live nearer the equator, I would recommend lowering the time of unprotected sun exposure. Only you can decide if you’re willing to risk sun exposure.  Personally, I felt, given that I am of southeast Asian descent, have a medium skin tone, don’t burn hardly at all, and given the limited time I would be doing it (just a few weeks), that it was an acceptable risk for me.

For advice fighting non-pregnancy related outbreaks, there are other options available, I would recommend reading Paula Begoun’s advice on fighting acne at any age.  She also has a great blog post on how to correctly pop a pimple.

Are you dealing with acne?  Do you have any advice?

You may also be interested in reading:

• When it's not just morning sickness: Living with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (17)
• Waiting for the Birth (5)
• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 33 Update (2)
• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 29 Update (3)
• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 23 Update (14)

I haven’t thrown up in 24 days!

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about, I have been suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum this pregnancy (I didn’t have it with my first), which causes excessive nausea and vomiting.

I had thought that a lot of the fatigue I felt must be caused by lack of nutrition, but it’s apparently a separate symptom entirely, because I still am pretty tired all the time and don’t have a lot of energy or endurance.  I also still have plenty of nausea and dry heave regularly.  I’ve tried seeing if I can cut down on the amount of anti-nausea medicine I’m taking, but I haven’t been able to lower my dosage at all.  The motion sickness is still there, and I still wouldn’t trust myself to drive further than my local supermarket (which is walking distance, but would be a long walk, okay well, not walking distance for me right now, but when I was healthy).

Following the drastic 20 pound weight loss of the first trimester, I’m now gaining weight and am currently 16 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight.  I think my body must be in post-famine mode, because I am always hungry.  I can eat a huge meal and an hour later I’m hungry again.  I’m craving fatty, high calorie foods, and I was pretty shocked to find out that between my doctor’s visit this morning and the visit two weeks ago, I actually lost 2 pounds, because I feel like I should have gained at least 5!

The baby is huge.  I know ultrasound measurements aren’t super accurate, but the average fetus is 2.5 pounds (1.13 kg) at 29 weeks and this baby is being estimated at 5.5 pounds (2.5 kg).  It’s measuring overall at 34–35 weeks.  I’m being monitored for gestational diabetes, but my pre– and post-eating blood sugar levels have been fine over the whole pregnancy, as has my blood pressure (averaging 90/60) and my hemoglobin A1c test (plasma glucose concentration over 3 months), which turned out well within normal levels.  The levels of amniotic fluid are good too, another indicator against gestational diabetes.  My doctor says she’s not worried because the baby is big overall, not just carrying a lot of extra weight in the abdomen.  Maybe this means he’ll be born a few weeks early?  I can hope, right?  (Just in case you wonder if the estimate of ovulation is off, I was using an ovulation monitor when we conceived and know the exact date of ovulation, plus early ultrasounds all matched with that date).

I’m finally feeling like the end is in sight, and that, along with the coming of spring, has lifted my spirits considerably.  I still spend a lot of time in bed, but at least I’m not all that miserable anymore.

You may also be interested in reading:

• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 23 Update (14)
• When it's not just morning sickness: Living with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (17)
• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 33 Update (2)
• Waiting for the Birth (5)
• Leo's Birth Story (9)

I thought for my 26-week pregnancy update, I’d tell the story of how, because of hyperemesis gravidarum, Oliver and I ended our breastfeeding relationship.

While much of the first six months of breastfeeding Oliver was spent trying to make it week to week, I always had the WHO guideline of breastfeeding for at least two years as a goal in the back of my mind.  When he turned two in July of 2009, neither of us were ready to quit.  Oliver was still quite dependent on breastfeeding for comfort, and I was happy to continue.

When I got pregnant again in September of 2009, breastfeeding started to become uncomfortable as my nipples got more and more sensitive.  Oliver was still nursing frequently, so I kept going, keeping in mind the difficulty I had getting my supply going in the beginning with Oliver because of his sleepiness and BFAR (breastfeeding after reduction surgery).  I knew that if I had trouble with breastfeeding this baby, I wouldn’t have to spend hours a day pumping to get my supply up if I had a toddler, a nursing toddler is way more efficient at increasing supply than any pump.

Unfortunately, first trimester morning sickness progressed to hyperemesis gravidarum (excessive nausea and vomiting) and I cut back a lot on breastfeeding sessions as I became fatigued by my lack of nutrition.  By the end of October, my supply was gone.  I wasn’t getting enough calories to produce milk anymore.

I don’t remember when our last nursing session was.  I was too exhausted to notice.  Oliver took well to weaning.  If he asked, I told him I didn’t feel well enough, but he didn’t really ask a lot.  Since then he has only asked once or twice, when he was sick and feverish.  He said, “Booby?” and I said, “No honey, I’m sorry,” and that was that.  There was no disappointment on his part, just acceptance.  I was a little surprised by the ease of weaning, given how dependent on breastfeeding he had seemed.

I don’t really have any feelings on weaning.  There was nothing I could do about it.  I guess I wish I remembered that last time, but I know a lot of moms don’t remember the last breastfeeding session.

We cuddle a lot, as much as when we were breastfeeding.  His favorite place to sit is in my lap, we’ll have to see how that goes as my lap gets smaller and smaller.

Apart from that, not much has changed in my condition.  I’m still tired and nauseous almost all the time.  I’ve been trying to do more recently, and that has caused me to vomit more than I had been over the last couple of weeks.  I’m trying to stay positive, but mood swings sometimes get the best of me.

You may also be interested in reading:

• Breastfeeding after reduction surgery - the second time around (0)
• Pumping (3)
• Breastfeeding After Reduction: One Year In (13)
• Breastfeeding After Reduction Surgery - 19 months and counting (5)
• Breastfeeding after reduction - 2 years and still going strong (3)

Yesterday, I hit 23 weeks pregnant.  Just over halfway.  For most of that 23 weeks, I’ve been suffering from the excessive nausea and vomiting that goes along with Hyperemesis Gravidarum, or HG. It doesn’t feel possible that I’m only half way through.  It feels like this pregnancy has lasted forever.  This has easily been the longest five months of my life.

Luckily, the vomiting I described in my first post about living with HG has lessened quite a bit.  I’m not sure if it’s lessened on its own or if I just have it under control now with medication.  In the first trimester, the of nausea and vomiting of HG caused me to lose 20 pounds. While at home with my family for the first half of the second trimester (first six weeks), I managed to gain 29 pounds, but my weight has been constant over the 3 weeks since returning to Germany.  Being surrounded by family to help out and having a mom cooking for you all the time helps a lot with weight gain.

I’m still taking the antiemetic dimenhydrinate, the active ingredient in Dramamine. I take about 100-150mg (the equivalent of 2–3 Dramamine a day, 2 is a good day), which is down quite a bit from the 400mg I was taking at the worst of the nausea. While I’m vomiting less (maybe once a week), I’m still dealing with excessive nausea and exhaustion, pushing myself physically usually ends in tears and 5–10 minutes of dry heaving.

This inability to push myself physically has me worried how I will handle the birth.  I guess women have had babies after months of bed rest before, so I’ll manage to do what I have to do, but it worries me a lot that I’m not going in to this as prepared as I should be.  One flight of stairs is hard, two flights of stairs is my limit, any more than that and the tears start flowing.  On flat surfaces, I can usually manage 15–30 minutes of walking, depending on how slowly I go.  I know this is far from ideal shape to be in prior to giving birth.  But I guess I have four months to go still, maybe things will get better.

I forgot to mention in the last post, one of the symptoms that often goes hand in hand with the excessive nausea of HG, extreme motion sickness.  Car rides require doping up with anti-nausea medicine, making it impossible for me to drive any sort of distance.  I can make it to my local supermarket, and that’s as far as I would trust myself to go.  When I was in the US, I couldn’t make it to the nearest outlet mall on the first try (this was just before my husband left at the beginning of January).  We stopped halfway, went to a regular mall, where I spent most of the time sitting in the food court, then headed home.  I did manage to make it there with my brother shortly before returning to Germany.  Depending on people to drive you anywhere is frustrating.

The motion sickness even occurs with television and movies.  I went to see “It’s Complicated” in the US and had to close my eyes for much of the last 20 minutes because I wasn’t feeling well.  I didn’t go anywhere near “Avatar,” I figured that would not go well.  Any television show with quick cuts or a lot of motion is off limits as well.

I’m still struggling with feeling socially isolated as well.  At home I was surrounded by family, with my mother and brother even calling from work every day just to check if I was okay or needed anything.  It’s very lonely in Germany where friends have their own lives, families to care for, and problems to deal with.

I try to put on a brave face to the world, but sometimes I wonder if this is the best thing for me to do.  Maybe the brave face makes people think that everything’s hunky dory, when in fact I’m usually just barely hanging on.  Asking for help is maybe one of the hardest things for someone in need to do.  I don’t want to bother anyone, but sometimes even just an occasional phone call to chitchat or gossip would mean the world.

Facebook has been both a Godsend and a torture device. I can communicate with friends around the world and see what everyone is up to on there, making me feel like I’m still in the loop, still a part of the world, but seeing what everyone is up to is a problem as well.  I see that my friends are meeting up at a café, getting together for playdates, or just referring to a fun night spent hanging out, and I throw myself a little pity party because HG has made so I’m not up to joining in the fun. 

I don’t really know what else to say.  I want to post something uplifting, for others going through my situation, but I just don’t feel it in my heart.  HG is hard.  The hardest thing I’ve ever been through.  I know when I see my baby that I’ll feel it was all worth it, that these months were just a small fraction of my life, years from now I will probably barely remember this time, but it’s hard to feel that now.

I just keep in mind that there are a lot of other women in my same situation. We’re not alone.  And at the end of this, we’ll have something beautiful.  There are a lot worse things that people go through than this, and we should try to keep that in mind.

If you’re suffering from HG, hang in there, and check out Hyperemesis Education and Research website.

You may also be interested in reading:

• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 33 Update (2)
• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 29 Update (3)
• When it's not just morning sickness: Living with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (17)
• Leo's Birth Story (9)
• Waiting for the Birth (5)

I am a huge fan of Victoria’s Secrets Soft & Sexy Wrap.  It’s not marketed for maternity and nursing wear, but that’s what so special about it.  It’s a good wardrobe investment that you can wear for years to come.  I’m 17 weeks pregnant and it fits great and is cute, I expect I can continue wearing throughout spring and it’ll make a great nursing cover-up in the fall and winter.  Isabella Oliver Maternity carries a similar style in ivory and black that is on sale now for $122, and is not as versatile in the ways it can be tied because the sweater fabric is thicker.  The Victoria’s Secret version comes in 11 different colors (I’m wearing it in Coral Madness right now and love it!) and can be tied in many different ways.  Even better?  It’s on sale right now for $39 and Victoria’s Secret ships worldwide.  Take a look:

The above twist-front tie back style I think could work well during nursing.  Just put a nursing cami or tank top underneath and the part covering the breast can be lifted up to create a nursing opening while your tummy stays covered by the wrapped part.

What do you think of the Soft & Sexy Wrap?  Do you have any tips for non-maternity/nursing clothing that is versatile enough to work during pregnancy and/or nursing?

You may also be interested in reading:

• Review: Nursing Bras (7)
• Victoria's Secret has nursing bras (18)
• Review: Nursing Tops (4)
• Nursing in comfort (4)
• NordicKids.co.uk (2)

I’m currently in my 16th week of my second pregnancy.  With my first child, I was nauseous during the first trimester, but hadn’t thrown up at all.  I wasn’t surprised to find a few weeks in that I was getting nauseous this time around.  I wasn’t even surprised the first few times I threw up, about 8 weeks along.  I figured every pregnancy is different and this time my morning sickness was a little worse (not to mention it was usually dinner I was throwing up, so I liked to refer to it as “evening” sickness).

By week 10, I was throwing up pretty much every lunch and had stopped eating dinner.  I was trying all the home remedies against nausea I could find.  I made a super strong ginger syrup for making homemade ginger ale.  I tried meditation, blackberry juice, yoga, cumin seeds, peppermint tea, chamomile tea, pressure point therapy, apple cider vinegar, rice water.  Nothing helped.

Within a few days, I was throwing everything up.  Previously, I could at least count on keeping breakfast down, but that time was over.  I was even throwing up black tea and mineral water.  I was getting weaker and weaker, and soon I couldn’t leave the house except to visit the doctor and split my time between the bed and sofa.  I relied on the television to babysit my two year old.  I just didn’t have the energy to care for him.  He got microwave lunches and lots of educational videos.

My husband would take off half or full days whenever he could, and the neighbors would take my son Oliver whenever they could, but it was tough being an expat and living so far from family.  It was lonely being stuck in the house, not having contact with friends, and I struggled with depression and homesickness.

My doctor suggested I check into the hospital for a few days, but I hate hospitals and couldn’t bring myself to consider it yet.  She prescribed dimenhydrinate suppositories (the active ingredient in Dramamine), they helped me keep down food better, but I had problems with the side effects.  The doctor switched me to Nausema, a high dose tablet of vitamins B6, B1 and B12.  It didn’t have any side effects, but was also hardly effective.

Things got worse and worse.  I was losing about 3 pounds a week.  A pound is 3,500 calories, so if you think about it, I was undereating by over 10,000 calories a week.  I was looking towards the end of the first trimester as an endpoint, things would get better then, and I had planned a trip to go home to my family in the states at week 13 of my pregnancy.  I thought that things had to improve soon.

Then I discovered the H.E.R. Foundation website (Hyperemesis Education & Research).  It confirmed what I suspected, that common nausea remedies don’t generally work for HG (Hyperemesis Gravidarum — excessive nausea in pregnancy).  It also said that HG usually doesn’t stop at the end of the first trimester, it usually lasts into week 20 and can last the entire pregnancy.  I decided to check into the hospital.  Before going in, at week 12, I was 18 pounds below my pre-pregnancy weight.

This was the first time I’d been in the hospital that it felt good to be there.  I’ve lost my hatred of being hospitalized.  I was on an IV drip with dimenhydrinate and electrolytes.  I still felt lousy the first 2 days in, but by he third day I was feeling a little better, although I still threw up several times during my stay.  I was in for 4 days, until the day before flying to the US.  The doctors at the hospital didn’t really want to let me out, I think the doctors would have kept me there for weeks if I didn’t insist.  I lost 2 more pound while I was in hospital.

I requested dimenhydrinate capsules for the trip, the only side effect of the capsules was that I’d get tired, avoiding the problems I had with the suppositories (you don’t want to know about those, but if you use your imagination, I’m sure you could figure out what might have been the problem).  I was prescribed the equivalent of 8 Dramamine a day.  If anyone has taken 1 or even 2 Dramamine for motion sickness, you know how even that small a dosage can knock you out.

The trip to the US was torturous.  I was in tears by the time we made it to the gate of our second plane in Amsterdam.  I threw up during the transatlantic flight, despite massive doses of anti-nausea medicine.  But things have been improving in the US.  I’m surrounded by family, who help with my son and let me get all the rest that I need.  I’ve managed to gain back 8 pounds in the half month I’ve been home, although the calories haven’t been the most healthy.  I find myself mostly craving comfort foods, like hamburgers, ribs, Reese’s cereal, and Baskin Robbins ice cream.  I’m not worrying too much about eating right anymore.  I’m still nauseous, although I’m throwing up much less frequently.  I just eat whatever I have desire to eat.  Some days I’ll look at an apple and think “Yum!” sometimes I think “NO!!!”  I don’t force the issue.  Whatever looks appetizing goes.

Because of the dosage of medication, I spend most of my time sleeping, or zoning out on the couch.  I’ve managed to leave the house twice since arriving.  I went to the supermarket on Christmas Eve, and that was fine, although it took me 3 days to recover.  Yesterday I went to Target to try on some maternity clothes (I got a really cute dress), but it was too much and I ended up making two rushed, extremely uncomfortable trips to the restroom, which was full of moms and kids, and was just not a place I would ever want to be sick in again.

I’m waiting desperately for the nausea to ease up.  I try avoiding doses when I can, just because I feel more with it when I’m not on the medicine, but I also know I need to keep eating and I need to break the nausea cycle.

I have a few good days in between the bad.  The first few days after a good day are the worst.  The good day makes you think things are getting better, then it all comes crashing back.  The day or two after a good day, I often find myself in tears at the slightest provocation.

My husband and I canceled our vacation next week in New York.  My husband goes back to Germany on the 7th and my brother goes back to work after New Years.  I’m a little nervous about how the month of January here is going to go.  I wasn’t expecting to still be ill.  If I’m not better, I don’t know how I can manage the flight back alone with my 2 year old at the end of January.  I just hope I’m one of the women who feels better by week 20.

For more information on HG, I recommend the HER Foundation website.  If you have a friend or family member suffering from HG, there is a great section on what you can do to help them.

You may also be interested in reading:

• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 33 Update (2)
• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 23 Update (14)
• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 29 Update (3)
• Waiting for the Birth (5)
• Leo's Birth Story (9)

I find myself 41 weeks and 1 day pregnant today. As Delene was born 11 days after her due date, I had made up my mind since the very beginning of this pregnancy that this baby was going to be late too. I told everyone that too. I wanted to save myself the hard realization that came to me by the due date the first time… I have to say here that there was no chance that my due date could be uncertain.

All health professionals assured me that this time it would go faster. I believed them up to a point. I agreed that I was a lot more active this time around and a lot more fit. One day, when I was 36 weeks pregnant and cycling through the city with my daughter in the buggy behind the bike, I looked down at my gears and realized that I could not gear down any further… And that was on a down hill! That and the fact that my baby was kicking me quite a bit when cycling made me stop cycling.

At around 38 weeks, I had serious cramping. It was so heavy that I got quite exited! I even got a friend around to come help pack my hospital bag… It was just cramping. When I saw my gynaecologist that week, she said that I was 1cm dilated… I read about it and knew that one could be up to 4 cm dilated for four weeks, but I have to be honest and say that I did get my hopes up! Then at 39 weeks, I lost my mucus plug. I was so exited that I managed to draw blood whilst shaving my legs! Well, yes, they say that this too could happen long before delivery. When another friend went into labor on her due date and delivered the next day, I was green with envy. Then I realized that I had let go of my instinctive decision that I will not expect to have this baby on or near the due date.

Still laughing about all the tales about things that could bring on labor, I started reading about them. There are so many! Some completely silly, but some I can see working. So when the due date came and went, I started trying some… I

• walked… a bit. Pain in my pelvis made it a bit hard to go too far.
• tried drinking raspberry leaf tea… Uggg! I don’t like tea in any way, but the stuff made me feel quite unwell.
• had acupuncture.  Three times. Once a week. The last one was 4 days ago.
• ate pineapple
• ate curry
• drank sparkling wine
• had warm baths
• had sex
• tried nipple stimulation
• got a gym ball and bounced around my home
• nested
• stop nesting
• got bored
• watched a weepy movie
• drank the verbena* tea the midwife told me about. Well, I have been drinking it now for 4 days.
• had some fresh dates

So, I have tried many things.

There are still some other things I could try, if I want. These are:

• drinking Castor oil with orange juice…
• Having a membrane sweep by your health care professional
• Homeopathy
• Evening primrose oil on the cervix
• Using the herbs blue cohosh and black cohosh
• Blowing up balloons
• Wearing my best underwear… sods law…

Trying these things made me come to the point where I realized that if the baby isn’t ready and willing to be born, trying these things may not help at all. So, should I continue trying these remedies until they do pay off or should I just relax and allow nature to take it’s course? I don’t know yet! I would like to have my baby soon and I would do just about anything to avoid being induced when my 42 weeks are up… But would it work?

Does anyone know of a different remedy? Has something worked for you? Let us know!

* Verbena Tea: Boil 1l water with 2cm of ginger, a cinnamon stick and 10 whole cloves for 15 minutes. Add 5g of Verbena tea leaves and stand for 10 minutes. Strain. Drink 3-5cups of this per day diluted with orange juice or apricot juice.

You may also be interested in reading:

• Waiting for the Birth (5)
• Leo's Birth Story (9)
• When it's not just morning sickness: Living with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (17)
• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 33 Update (2)
• Struggling with Hyperemesis Gravidarum (HG): Week 29 Update (3)

Congratulations to Tiffany and Stefan, and welcome to the world Mackenzie!  Tiffany, a Texas-born expat living in Germany, recently gave birth to her first child without drugs using the HypnoBabies method of self-hypnosis.  She writes a nice summary and review of the Hypnobabies program, which worked very well for her, on her site No Ordinary Homestead.

I think hypno-birthing can work for some people, so if you are interested, you should really go read her post.  I don’t know anything about the HypnoBabies program, but while pregnant with Oliver, I read a copy of HypnoBirthing: The Mongan Method that a friend had passed on to me.  While I found the method intriguing, I was really turned off by how the author seemed to promise that if her method was used properly, you would have a pain-free, relaxing, joy-filled, perfect birth.  I found this sugar-coating so hard to swallow, I only skimmed the last third of the book and quickly passed it on to another friend.

I think self-hypnosis can probably help in most births, but I think saying it will always work is setting moms up to blame themselves as failures if they have a difficult birth like I did. My water broke without me going into labor, so I had to be induced, requiring an epidural.  The cord was wrapped twice around Oliver’s neck, so he’d move down with a contraction, then the cord would pull him back up.  20 hours after induction, 30 hours after my water broke, he was born.  I’m a pretty relaxed person (several people commented that I was the most relaxed pregnant woman they’d ever met), and I’d read The Good Earth (the main character gives birth then goes back to the fields to work), so I don’t think self-hypnosis would have made a huge difference in my pain levels, but that’s not to say it wouldn’t be the perfect method for you.

Do you have a hypno-birthing experience?  How did you like it? What program did you use (or not use)?

You may also be interested in reading:

• Waiting for the Birth (5)
• Product Review - Epi-no Childbirth Trainer (12)
• Pregnant in Germany (3)
• Leo's Birth Story (9)