Week 27: The heart of the matter

By Published On: December 16th, 2014

You know that old wives tale that says that if […]

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Emily and her recent best friend, antacids!

You know that old wives tale that says that if you have lots of heartburn during pregnancy, your baby will be born with a full head of hair? Well, I have no idea if there is any truth to that claim, but I do know one thing with complete assurance: Heartburn is horrible. I think with my first pregnancy, I didn’t really understand the struggle of heartburn. I had a little flare up here and there and maybe chomped down a handful of TUMS my entire pregnancy. Not so much this time around. I should probably go ahead and buy stock in the product because I am one of their faithful customers now.
This time around, everything seems to give me heartburn. Sure, there are the usual offenders—fried, spicy and Italian foods—but that is just the beginning with me. Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed the following have lead to heartburn: chocolate, cheese, water, my prenatal vitamins, cookies, lime in water, fruit snacks, orange juice, scrambled eggs, pomegranates and peanut butter toast.
If you’ve never had heartburn, the name says it all. It literally feels like your heart is on fire, and you want to find a way to extinguish it as quickly as possible. For me, the heartburn always gets the worst at bedtime and for the first few hours after I’ve gone to bed. Anytime I switch sides, I know that I’ll feel the burning sensation start to flare up. So I don’t know what is worse, the gross heartburn or letting my left hip and leg fall asleep to try and avoid the heartburn.
I looked up some ways to try and relieve heartburn and had a little conversation with myself as I went through the list:
  1. Eat smaller meals – The advice said to eat six smaller meals instead of three regular-sized meals. That’s great and everything, but I already feel like I snack all day. I’m trying to hold onto my “normal weight gain” as long as I can!
  2. Sip liquids – The advice stated to sip water throughout your day and specifically in between meals. I call myself a camel because I constantly carry around a hot pink Bubba Keg filled to the brim with ice water because I’m already always thirsty. So, this tactic is clearly not working.
  3. Don’t eat right before bed – Well, I agree with this one. The only problem is if I’m hungry and don’t eat something before I go to bed, I’ll be awake and eating something at 3 a.m. That sounds about as fun as having heartburn.

So, it looks like I’m still on the hunt for how to squelch this lovely pregnancy side effect. And if the old wives tale holds true, this baby is bound to come out with a full on Southern bouffant based on the heartburn, so we better start investing in hair products, too.
Do you have any tried and true remedies for heartburn out there that you have tried?