my 1st trimester faves

I am so thankful to be in my 2nd trimester of this pregnancy! Even though I never did actually puke, the first 3 months were far from easy. I was tired all. the. time. There were days I would take a 2 hour nap after work and still go to bed early and sleep like a baby. Smells were magnified by about a thousand and things like cooking a meal and going to the grocery store were completely off-limits. Seriously, Tim was so awesome during the 1st trimester - he literally did ALL the grocery shopping, cleaning, and cooking while I laid on the couch eating toast and smelling peppermint essential oil. Don't know what I'd do without that guy.

The first weeks after finding out about Baby Miller, I spent a significant amount of time researching things like aids for morning sickness and prenatal vitamins. Here is what I found worked for me and would highly recommend.

1. Traditional Medicinals Ginger Aid tea - I've come to love the taste of ginger thanks to the little stack of pickled ginger they serve you when you eat sushi. I made a mug of this tea every single morning for quite a few weeks to take the place of my traditional cup of coffee and always had a few packets stashed in my purse and my desk at work. If I ever started to feel gross, I brew some of this and it really took the edge off.

2. Preggie Pop Drops - Somewhere in my research of "remedies for morning sickness" I ran across this product. Fruity, sour things appealed to me and these were right on. I ordered a three pack off of Amazon (just to be sure), but only ended up going through one little tin. So I sent the rest to another prego mama who's a few weeks behind me. :)

3. Salsa - My mom's homemade salsa, to be exact. I know they say that spicy foods may make queasiness worse, but this was something else that nearly always sounded good to me. I had it on rice, with chips, and in quesadillas. Some days, it was the only thing I could stomach.

4. Ice water - I've never drank so much water in my life! If I wasn't drinking hot tea, I was (and still am!) drinking ice cold water. Almost anything that was ice cold sounded great to me - water, popsicles, milk, ice cream.

5. Peppermint essential oil - A friend from church gave me a little bottle of this and it's amazing! It was my first experience really with essential oils and it worked great for headaches and when smells became just too overwhelming. I would dab a little bit on my wrists or temples and the soothing smell would be with me most of the day.

6. Vitamin Code Raw Prenatal Vitamins - I am not a fan of pills. I do okay with Tylenol sized pills, but anything over that literally makes me gag. So after MUCH research, I was so pumped to learn that these prenatals were not only some of the best out there (thanks to their totally raw ingredients), but they come in capsules that can be opened. So what do I do? Make a small smoothie each morning and pour the contents of the capsules in with it. I was worried that it was going to make the smoothie taste really funky, but the only thing it adds is a bit of a ginger flavor, which is actually sort of a plus in my book.

7. 30 Rock - I honestly used to cringe at the sight of Alec Baldwin...until I got hooked on 30 Rock. Since we've already dominated all the season of The Office and Parks & Rec, this was my go-to show all those evenings I spent on the couch. I made it through all 7 seasons on Netflix during my 1st trimester. It made me laugh, which was a good distraction, and it rarely talked about food. Win, win.