You may be wondering why I would have a post dedicated to magnesium deficiency in my pregnacy series. Well, maybe some of you have heard that it is believed morning sickness is due to magnesium deficiency. I first read about this issue over at Mommypotamus. Do check out her amazing post on magnesium deficiency during pregnancy.
I'm basically going to give you some of the tid bits I've read about and my experience with supplementation. Magnesium is needed for many functions in our bodies. You can do a quick google search to find the lists out there. Of course everyone is an individual, and how one person presents their defiency will be different from another. Magnesium is used for our muscular functions, including our heart. Magnesium has a very important role in our brain's going on's. I remember when we had Jedidiah tested (through alternative means) the practitioner told us he was *super* depleted in magnesium, which was (only) one cause of his failure to thrive/ apraxia issue.
In reading the article about magnesium, it states that you should supplement *before* you get pregnant. But I didn't....so now what? Well, I didn't read what she had recommended, but I figured that a topical magnesium would be more beneficial since once you are pregnant your body has a harder time digesting magnesium in pill form. It made sense to me to skip the digestive tract all together and get my mag through my skin! So how is it working? Well, let me give you a bit of background first, just so you know the severity of my "issues".
With all of my pregnancies I had the all day nausea. This usually lasted until 14 weeks pregnant. But with my last pregnancy, things totally got weird! My all day sickness was at it's worst. It didn't subside until about 18 weeks. On top of that I started experiencing my heart racing over the smallest of things. Also, I had a hard time breathing (not allergy releated). It got so bad that I was couch ridden. I would get up and unload the top rack of the dishwasher and be out of breath, my heart racing and totally fatigued! If I was just sitting down and raised my arm to shoulder length it would make my heart race! It was totally overwhelming and made my life stop. I made a call to my homeopath, and through homeopathy, I was able to over come this unfortunate "illness".
Fast forward to this pregnancy. I was praying that I would not have repeat of Aubrey's pregnancy. I did have little tiny waves of my heart feeling funny. Nothing horrible, but it did worry me. In the beginning few weeks I was using a magnesium oil, once a day. There were days when I woke up and all of my muscles felt like they were moving through mud. There wasn't any cramping, but just this horrid feeling of not being able to move without much effort. My all day nausea had settled in. Most days it wasn't too bad, but there were a few that life was put on hold. I was trying a couple of things at a time, not being able to determine if anything was working or not.
And then this past weekend happened. Leading up to this I have been faithfully working out 6 days a week. (this is only important because with a magnesium deficiency any small activity makes things worse, you become fatigued much easier and much more quickly) I got busy on Friday and forgot to use my magnesium oil. When I woke up Saturday I felt HORRID!!! My heart was racing, I was so sick to my stomach, plus my muscles couldn't move....At least with my last pregnancy things built up from minor issues to eventually being couch bound. But over night I went from minor to couch bound. All morning I couldn't get off the couch. Just walking to the bathroom left me breathing hard and my heart racing. I happened to remember I needed to put on my magnesium spray. I noticed about 30 minutes later I felt a wee bit better. Hmmm, coincidence? So 2 hours later I put some more on. And again, 30 minutes or so later I was feeling even better. Better enough to go out to take a look at the damage the tropical storm did to our stream. But trekking back is all up hill. That wore me out! So I applied some more magnesium. I continued this every 2 hours or so. By the evening, I felt a ton better, my muscles were working, my nausea was gone and I only had a wee bit of racing heart going on.
So today, I started taking the mag right off the bat and kept applying every couple of hours or after any hard work. Basically from what I read today, all of my symptoms line up with a magnesium deficiency. The lack of magnesium makes it difficult for your blood cells to carry oxygen, which leads to fatigue. It can also cause your heart to race, and your muscles to cramp up. I was able to exercise without ANY problems today. I did have a wee bit of heart racing, but nothing that interfered with my ability to exercise. From what I read, once you are magnesium deficient, just the smallest activity will lead to fatigue. AND I have been nausea free all day!!! I didn't have that heavy chest feeling that made it difficult to breath. I also had NO fatigue.
Obviously two days doesn't exactly count as having the cause of my misery bagged, BUT this is the ONLY promising thing so far. Right now, a homeopathic consultation isn't going to fit on the budget. I told Jeremiah that I was going to schedule a visit with our family physician this week to determine the cause of my issues and see if there isn't anything natural I could to do solve it. Looks like that appointment will be put on hold for the time being.
Please make sure you do your own research, and talk with your own health care provider to see what is best for you and your baby. What I have written here is what I have read about and what I decide to try. Your health is in YOUR hands.
2 comments:
Hello - I read your blog and started using magnesium oil (topically) the past two days. I am not pregnant at the moment, but I had TERRIBLE ALL DAY morning sickness with both pregnancies (a boy and a girl). My husband and I are considering trying for a third, but I am so fearful of getting sick - again. Our children are two and one (small toddlers) and I am 41 so being sick ALL DAY again for months has me paralyzed with fear. I am curious since you wrote this blog entry - did your continual use of magnesium oil help alleviate the nausea? Please let me know as soon as you can - am very curious!
Mary,
Thank you for stopping by! So glad you are trying the magnesium. And, yes, I use it daily still. If you were to be caught up on any deficiency before pregnancy, I am sure you would still want to use it at least once or twice daily (depending on activity level, illness, etc.). I only started the magnesium *after* I got pregnant, meaning I not only had the deficiency to begin with BUT then the added needs of being pregnant. From what I have read it can take 1 to 3 months of a higher use to catch up your levels, after that you can use a maintainence dose (which is the 1 to 2X'x daily). I can sometimes skip a day, but may feel some cramping in my muscles, or my heart beats a bit faster if I am active the following day.
And, yes, the use of the magnesium DID make a difference in my all day sickness. I still had some nausea, again, due to starting the magnesium after becoming pregnant. But this by far has been the easiest as far as all day sickness. I think there were only about 5 to 7 days total of having to just lay on the couch feeling yucky, as opposed to 3 months! I take that as a success :-)
Do let me know how it goes. I know there are so many things that make a pregnancy scary, but try to give that over to the Lord, and do what you can on your side to remedy it :-) I am going into this pregnancy with a great fear of labor! I do NOT want a repeat of a posterior baby, with a long, hard labor. I try to tell myself it is only 1 to 2 days out of my life, with the reward of a precious life for the rest of my life (Lord willing). But there are days that it has consumed me, and I have to pray, and then go through my plan in my head of the things I am trying to do to avoid that situation again.
Blessings,
Kerri
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