Pregnancy has a huge impact on my day-to-day activities. Normally, these activities don’t vary too much. A typical day involves waking up at 6:30, eating breakfast very slowly (to suppress the urge to throw up), taking vitamins, getting dressed for work, and being dropped off by my husband and son at 7:30. Once at school, I go through the process of booting my computer, getting water and a snack (usually almonds), preparing for classes, teaching classes, grading, homework and tests, writing lesson plans, tests, etc, and then finally leaving at 4:00. Yesterday was a different sort of day.
It was the annual Emmy Noether Math Day for high school girls held at the local state university. Although I am not a math teacher, I have aided in taking our high school girls to this event for the past three years. The first year I went with our high school girls for this math day event, I was six months pregnant. Early in the day I was mistaken for a pregnant student. The second year, I had my nine month old son with me on and off throughout the day, and was again mistaken to be a student. I was again mistaken to be a student this year, and although I am once again pregnant, those who don’t know, can’t tell. Nonetheless, my pregnancy did have an affect on the day.
I was a bit worried about this day given my ups and downs with morning sickness. In preparation, I made sure I had at least two nutritious snacks and a bottle of water with me. Sometimes I don’t take my prenatal vitamins in the morning, but yesterday taking them early in the day was a must (for the B6 and B12 vitamins known to help with nausea and vomiting). Since our first stop on campus is always Starbucks, I made myself a Latte with organic coffee and organic milk which not only removed the temptation for me to get something at Starbucks, it also provided another good snack high in protein (15 grams to be exact!). With these preparations, I was ready to face this very different sort of day.
As it turns out having that Latte was a lifesaver. The nausea that usually occurs around 9:00 in the morning was abated completely. I was free to focus my attention on getting the girls where they needed to go without being distracted with the urge to run to the nearest bathroom. My other waves of nausea were short lived thanks to my other snacks.
The day was a success. The girls enjoyed their time off campus and so did I. With a little bit of planning and a prayer or two my nausea was certainly not a problem that day.