I again feel so honored to have this little baby in me, and doubly excited that, hey! I’m really pregnant! Hearing that heartbeat makes all this nausea worth it :p

The rest of my appointment went well. I like my midwife a lot and feel very comfortable with her. I also got to meet one of her apprentices yesterday. There were a lot of questions yesterday just for general health history and next month we’ll go over a lot of my previous birth history. We talked about me feeling queasy and tired, and I’ve been constipated some days. I’ve noted my prenatal yoga helps that, and my midwife also suggested some prune juice in the morning.

We did talk about the safety of Dandelion during pregnancy and she says it does have diuretic effects. She also said they are very mild and she feels ok with dandelion being used by a mother who is nutritionally sound. She said there are other herbs with have strong diuretic properties which should be avoided completely. So that was her opinion, but it is important to consider that it does have diuretic properties and diuretics have been shown harmful during pregnancy as the maternal blood volume needs to expand. She suggested ginger tea as an alternative if I don’t feel comfortable taking the dandelion. Since I hopefully don’t have much more time of feeling sick I think I’ll try the tea on afternoons when the nausea is overwhelming so I stick to an herb I feel confident about the safety of, but can maybe get some relief (I always get queasiest in the afternoons).

But babe is healthy, our next appointment is in four weeks. Now the biggest thing for me to do is to eat right and read the slew of information she sent home with me! And debate if and when we’re going to find out this baby’s gender!

I’m unsure about this apparent conflict, having it considered safe by noted women’s herbalists but it clearly have diuretic properties.  I have an appointment with my midwife tonight and I’ll ask her opinion.  For now I think it best to go with other morning sickness remedies.  Reference Joy’s comments in the original post for some ideas on other remedies and a link explaining why diuretics are hazardous during pregnancy.

I also wanted to comment a bit on weight gain.  I’m a member of the pregnancy club for the month around my due date on one of the forums I post on.  These women are from 12-16 weeks pregnant or so, and today already one was mentioning the nurses were warning her about her weight gain!  Sudden, drastic weight gain can indeed be a warning sign in pregnancy, but by and large paying attention to your nutrition is FAR more important than keeping track of the pounds.  If you’re worried about it you should read this page on pregnancy weight gain – also a page done by reader Joy.  In fact, I’d recommend you take the time to read the entire site, it’s an absolute treasure trove of information on having a healthy pregnancy and provides a lot of information hard to find elsewhere.

In case you’re wondering Susan Weed, author of the Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year, reports dandelion root to be safe pre-conception, throughout pregnancy, and in the postpartum period.  Weed doesn’t list dandelion root as a morning sickness remedy in the book, but she does mention that it has quite a bit of iron in it and it can help your baby develop a strong liver – and it also aids your liver function.  This is the theory behind why it helps with morning sickness – your liver needs help processing the hormones and everything else flowing through your body right now.

It does seem to be working for me right now, and I’ll report more over the next few days.  I just needed some relief from persistent nausea and constant gagging!  I’ll see how things go from here.