I am 12 weeks pregnant today, and I have only been able to take vitamins for about half of my pregnancy. For some reason, my body has decided to reject all nutrients. When my morning sickness started and I could only eat junk food (as everything else caused extreme nausea and possible vomiting) people said, "don't worry - that's why you are taking a prenatal vitamin. If you aren't getting your nutrients from your food, you'll at least get it from your vitamin." When my prenatal vitamins started to upset my stomach to the point of vomiting the doctor said, "If you can't take the prenatal vitamins, take a break for a few days and then try taking two chewable vitamins instead. Some people just can't stomach the prenatal vitamins." I took a break and started to take the chewable vitamins. I was able to successfully take those for about a week until the chalky consistency got the best of me. I thought that my chewable vitamin problems were because I was taking Meijer brand vitamins instead of the higher quality flintstone vitamins. I switched to the Flintstone vitamins, and was only able to get one down before realizing that I had not escaped the chalky consistency.
This weekend, after not being able to take any vitamins for a few weeks, I remembered that gummy vitamins exist. I was visiting my in laws so I asked when we were on the way home from an event if we could stop at the market and buy some Flintstone gummy vitamins. I critically evaluated the nutrition label on the gummies vs the chalkies. Unfortunately, there is no iron in the gummies (legally, you cannot add iron to gummy vitamins because they are too candy-like. If a kid decided to eat a whole bottle of vitamins containing iron the iron could kill him). The content of other vitamins is also much lower. However, the main reason that the prenatal vitamins were bothering me was because they were so concentrated. Maybe a low vitamin content is ok? This does unfortunately mean that I have to take 8 gummy vitamins in 24 hours to get 100% of my pregnancy RDA for folic acid. And considering that there are only 60 gummies in a bottle, a 60 count bottle only lasts for about one week, this may not be the best financial value, but you've got to do what you've got to do. So I decided to shell out the $7 (making my vitamin budget for the rest of pregnancy about $200...expensive, but in the big picture one of the cheaper expenses in the next 6 months) and give the gummy vitamins a try.
I was so happy to have these vitamins in my possession that I undid the child-proof lid, tore off the inner seal and took two gummy vitamins before we left the parking lot. In hindsight, this was ill advised. I had eaten the equivalent of maybe half a meal in the entire day leading up to this point (9:30 pm), due to morning sickness, so my stomach was pretty empty. While I enjoyed the taste and texture of my new vitamin friends, I didn't realize that trouble was brewing below. After about 10 minutes of driving I felt an unpleasant sensation in my stomach. It felt like someone was tying my stomach in a bow. I asked Keith how long until we got back to the house. He said about 5 minutes. The only words that I was able to mutter were "I don't think I'm going to make it." Unfortunately, I was in the back seat on the drivers side of the car, so I couldn't even stick my head out the door to throw up without sticking my head into oncoming traffic. There was a church up ahead that Keith pulled over into so I could jump out of the car. I opened the door, but there was no grass in sight. Also, this was a Saturday night and I couldn't stand the thought of throwing up in the parking lot of a church just hours before the Sunday morning service. Thankfully, when the car stopped moving, I got out of the van and was able to walk around and get fresh air, the nausea subsided somewhat and we were able to make it the rest of the way back to the house without incident.
The next day at lunch, after eating part of a meal, I decided to give gummy vitamins another chance. Thankfully, I was able to tolerate the gummies after eating.
I learned two valuable lessons this weekend: 1.) always take vitamins after eating, and 2.) make sure to ride on the passenger side of the vehicle so if you need to vomit you will be aimed at the grass rather than oncoming traffic.
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