Oh, what I wish I had known about pregnancy…

As my frequent readers know, I’m currently 34 weeks pregnant with my first baby. Prior to getting pregnant, I admittedly hadn’t done much research on the whole process and was woefully unprepared for morning sickness – what it truly meant and how to cope with it.

I’ll never forget waking up around 5.5 weeks pregnant, reaching for my morning coffee and feeling absolutely and utterly repulsed by the notion of drinking it. Here we go, I thought, this must be it – morning sickness. I was prepared to feel not so great in the mornings. I was prepared to eat a few saltines and go about my day. I was not prepared for the reality of the situation which – for me – meant being debilitatingly sick for 8 weeks straight. I spent my days confined to the couch, praying for mercy. The time that wasn’t spent praying or crying was spent hunched over the toilet. It was truly nothing short of awful and challenged me physically and mentally more than anything ever had in my entire life.

I recently wrote an article for POPSUGAR discussing my number one go-to for morning sickness relief: Vitamin B-6. That being said, there are actually four items I would highly recommend any woman have on hand should the thought of pregnancy be gracing even the furthest outskirts of her mind. Should Andy and I choose to have another baby, you can be sure that the first step in my pregnancy journey will be stockpiling these supplies so that I’m prepared for impending storm. While not everyone may need them, they’re all inexpensive and – trust me – it would be much better to have them an not need them!

Vitamin B-6 Tablets

These Vitamin B-6 tablets are first on the list for a reason. When I found myself at my second prenatal appointment, sobbing from the misery of constant sickness, my doctor recommended I take 25 mg of Vitamin B-6, four times a day. She suggested I start them right away as – this is very important – it takes a week for the vitamins to start having an effect. While a week may not sound like a long time to a normal, healthy individual, when you’re in the throws of morning sickness, a week can feel like a lifetime. Buy these before you get pregnant and – this is also very important – start popping them as soon as your doctor gives you the OK. You’ll be glad you did.

Preggie Pop Drops

These natural hard candies were a life-saver when I was on-the-go or between meals. Having something to suck on seemed to ease the nausea slightly and they were one of the few things that didn’t make my stomach roil – they’re actually pretty tasty! I would recommend keeping a stockpile in your purse, in your jacket pockets, in your desk at work – you never know when the nausea will strike and you’ll be glad to have these on-hand.

Sea Bands

Some people will roll their eyes at this holistic approach but there are plenty of women who swear by them. The theory behind these little wrist bands is that by using a small plastic bulb on the inside of the band, they employ acupressure techniques to quell your nausea. While I’m not sure they had a huge impact on alleviating my nausea, I will say I was willing to part with the $10 to give them a try. What did I have to lose? Buy a pair here.

Soft Gel Prenatal Vitamins

As medically recommended, I started taking prenatal vitamins before I was actually pregnant (Bonus: There are actually some studies that indicate doing so can also make your morning sickness less intense). At the time, my husband had picked up some prenatal vitamin gummies at the pharmacy (I asked him to buy them two towns over because I was paranoid about my privacy) and pre-pregnant me found them to be not good, per se, but tolerable. Things changed drastically when the morning sickness kicked in and I soon found consuming the daily gummy vitamins to be my own personal form of hell. I highly recommend stocking up on pill-form or soft gel prenatal vitamins to make getting your much-needed nutrients a less-horrifying experience. If you’re not good at swallowing pills, practice. The smell of the gummy vitamins still haunt my worst nightmares.

Just like pregnancy, morning sickness is different for everyone; but these items may just make your experience a little less tortuous. If you stock up on these remedies and don’t end up needing them, then feel good knowing you just won the pregnancy lottery.