sick, tired, pregnant, how I'm dealing with it...

October's usually a tough month for me during normal times. Don't know why it has to be this way, but there's usually some random crazy hectic stuff going on, the kids at school always start showing their true colors around this time, and I always get my first illness(es) of the cold season. This year's no exception.

Working in a school, of course, I'm gonna get sick. It's totally a given. It's as inevitable as the return of the rains in fall. In normal times, I don't have much of an immune system to work with. Now that's I'm pregnant, it's non-existent. I spent most of the first trimester fighting off viruses, and it looks like I'll be spending most of the third trimester doing the same thing. Uggh.

Normally I can at least take refuge in things like Nyquil and Sudafed, but now that I'm pregnant, those panaceas are utterly unavailable to me. Sadly, my choices are limited to the following (wussy) options: antihistamines (but since it's not an allergy problem, I don't see how antihistamines would help me very much, although Benadryl makes a great sleep inducer), guaifenesin (Mucinex), and Tylenol. And that's it. I generally don't find any of these particularly useful except guaifenesin. I can't even have any of my favorite herbal cold teas, because apparently, those too, are off-limits during pregnancy (the culprit appears to be licorice root). Bleh.

Since I've already been sick TWICE already this year, this has been my self-care routine:

- Drink lots of fluids. I drink insane amounts of water at work. (I'm actually better at staying hydrated at work, probably because I talk more at work than I do at home). Because I work in an old building with lead pipes, I have to bring any water I plan on drinking from home. I also bring a thermos of peppermint tea and sip on that all afternoon. At home, I can also do hot water with lemon, or lemon-ginger-echinacaea juice (Knudsen's), and eat lots of soup. Fluids also make a decent cough suppressant, so as long as I keep drinking, I don't end up in situation where I'm having to pop 20 cough drops a day just to stifle the urge. (I don't recommend this move to most certified teachers unless you have more than one adult in the room because what goes in, must come out. I'm doing a classified job and work in a room with anywhere from 2-4 adults present, so I can get away with a few extra trips to the bathroom when I need them).

-Saline Nose Rinse: I'm the kind of person who gets sinus infections with almost every cold, so thankfully, a kindly doctor clued me into the wonders of nasal irrigation. Nasal irrigation is an extremely simple intervention that helps prevent sinus infections from developing (all it involves is flushing the nasal passages with a salt-water solution, clearing out all those annoying germs, allergens, and mucus). For those of us who are prone to chronic sinus infections, it's a great way to cut out the potential need for antibiotics (a good goal for any pregnant woman). It's a lot easier, safer, and more pleasant than nasal nose sprays, and doesn't require much in the way of thought or effort.

- Eat better! I do better if I'm not eating a bunch of crap, and it's been surprisingly easy to do this in a school setting. Thankfully, there isn't much of a culture of bringing lots of junk food into the staff lounge at school, so there's not much temptation. The other day, I forgot my usual lunch and actually got a really nice one in the school cafeteria. You'd be amazed at the options available in some school cafeterias that I've worked in...

- Rest. I've gotten way more in touch with the whole concept of taking it easy since becoming pregnant. Whenever I'm sick though, I'll take it to the next level, and feel no shame whatsoever if I need to climb in bed at 7pm.

- Suck on cough drops, but within reason. You have to be careful with the kind that contain zinc or other substances you may not want to go nuts with during pregnancy. I don't bother getting anything fancy though because as far as I can tell, nothing honestly works any better than hard candy. You could probably get the exact same impact with jolly ranchers or lollypops as with Hall's Medicated Whatnots. I just pick up a few packages of something I like the flavor of that's on sale, and go with it.

- Vit C (in other words, Emergen-C): They're always coming out with some study that says that taking Vitamin C doesn't have much of an effect on colds, but I figure that it's a conspiracy perpetuated by drug manufacturers. If nothing else, Vitamin C is one of those things that I figure can't hurt, but might help. After all, how many of us are really doing so great in getting enough nutrients? Especially if you're sharing yours with a fetus? I say, go ahead--if nothing else, there's always the placebo effect. You have to be careful with Vit. C if you're at risk for miscarriages or still in the first trimester, but other than that, apparently 1000 mg. of Vit. C won't hurt you (or most babies in utero), and some practitioners say more is fine. Emergen-C is a part of my morning routine, and that's that.

- Probiotics: Some people swear that probiotics boost your immune system, and keep you from getting run down and sick, and there's more than a few studies and plenty of yogurt commercials that claim to do just that. I'm not sure how convinced I am that some mass-marketed-heavily-sugarred-dairy product is gonna keep me from getting whatever crud the kids bring to school, but I am convinced that calcium and protein are ends in and of themselves, so I'm quite the fan of cultured dairy products. (If you're serious about using probiotics for a specific health issue, it pays to do some research, since different strains are useful for different problems).

- Vitamin D (if you're pregnant, and taking prenatal vitamins, you should be getting enough of this in your prenatal vitamin, and shouldn't need to supplement it any further). In general, though, I've noticed that when it's sunny out and I'm sick, it feels good to go outside for a little while and be out in it.