Heartburn is driving me crazy

[Crissyanna]

Two nights in a row and at nearly the same time, I might add, I get the worst case of heartburn ever. I never really had heartburn before this. It is like Dainyah decides to push herself into my stomach and the wave of stomach acid moves up my esophogus. Then, she backs off only to do it again. Last night, this continued for close to two hours. I just pray the old wive's tale is true and this means our baby will have hair (I was bald until I was three, and Hubby was bald until he was over a year old, so, genetically speaking, it is against her, but one can hope and pray). I've tried tums. Had a total of eight of them last night between eight-thirty and ten thirty. I know, over dosed, but I was desperate. I thought that if I opened my mouth, stomach acid would just come bubbling up like a geyser [flame]

Can anyone else set their watch by their heartburn?

I am going nuts with this, and it has only been two days of it. I've veen trying to eat bland foods, I don't lie down after eating, and I watch the constriction of my waistbands. What more can I do besides make a meal out of a bottle of antacids?

Crystal

[mommyb]

I had terrible acid reflux when I was pregnant with Isaac. Finally, I told my doctor and he put me on medication (I think it's called: Zantac). It really helped! Maybe you're doctor could give you something til you have the baby?

[JoyLynn]

Yah, I had it, too, Crystal. Just like yours. I did the Tums thing, also. I kept a bowl of them on my side table. Couldn't make it through the night without them. They worked well for me, but maybe Breanne has a good idea there. Sorry you're going through this. It's so painful, especially when you asperate the acid while you're sleeping. YOUCH!! :shock:

Joy [welcomewave]

[harmony5]

That was the absolute worst thing for me when I was pregnant with Preston. I am not exaggerating when I say that I had heartburn every single day!! I could not stand the sight of Tums. :roll: I don't really know why because I could eat them before my pregnancy, but you know you get all weird anyway. :lol: So, for my heartburn, I drank milk and milk and more milk. I was waking up in the middle of the night to have a glass of milk. And, believe me, it worked. Most of the time, I only drank half a glass (especially in the middle of the night :wink: ) but sometimes I had to break bad and drink a whole glass, depending on the heartburn severity.

Oh, by the way, here is how the hair/heartburn thing went with my pregancies:

1st pregnancy-no heartburn-dd had no hair
2nd pregnancy-very little heartburn-ds looked like Don King :lol:
3rd pregnancy-massive heartburn-ds had some hair, but nothing to brag about.

So, I don't think that hair/heartburn myth is true every time. Who knows? You'll have to let us know when the baby comes!

Lori

[breezykc]

I have heartburn everytime from the day I find out I'm pregnant until about 30 seconds after I deliver...then magically...it disappears! I drank gallons of milk...it helped me!

[Bekah]

Both of my pregnancies in the past I have had HORRIBLE heartburn... to the point that I seriously thinking I am having a heart attack... And I usually endured it for about three months or so... I am not to keen on taking medication unless I have too (besides tums that is... I could have taken out stock in tums!) since I already have to take migraine medicine once in a while.

But this time I am getting it already! It sucks... if I have to deal with it from now until Christmas I may break down and ask for medication this time!

Also I had horrible heartburn and both of my babies only had minimal hair!

[mom n luv]

I am also having a bad time with heartburn. Before I started medicine I couldn't eat any tomatoe based product or anything spicy with having to pay for it later. Now I am on presciption Zantac, but I think your can get a lower dose over the counter. I posted this once before that during my lst pregnancy I ate tums like candy. Several months later I was "blessed" with a kidney stone. My doc said not to take tums this time around to help in prevention of a recurrance. I would strongly urge you to be careful with the tums.

The Zantac has been helping me some but I think my doctor is going to have me try something stronger at my next appointment.

I hope you feel better.

ps sleeping in the recliner has always help my nighttime heartburn.

[JoyLynn]

Yikes, Karla! I didn't know that could happen. :shock: Gosh, Crystal, maybe you had better check with your doc like someone else suggested. Good luck.

Joy [welcomewave]

What about getting some rennies? I had them in my first pregnancy.

With me it is just really bad indigestion (minus heart burn).

Tho generally feeling foul after my big dinner at night.

[sdsams]

I'm there with you. I've had horrible heartburn and it's at different times. Mainly depending on what I eat. Chocolate really gives me heartburn and it never has before. Just some of the joys of being pregnant I guess.

[kanaclark]

I was born with acid reflux, and having been a baby of the 80's, acid reflux wasn't treated in children b/c "kids just didn't have that". As a result, over the course of my childhood followed by teen years of pizza and all that, I've become the perfect candidate for esophogal surgery, (but have opted not too for personal reasons).
Anyway, heartburn, reflux, the whole nine yards was pure "you know what" for me, and my husband too, with our first two, and with this one. to make matters worse, both my youngest and this one have me craving enchiladas and nachos. so i'm probably my own worst enemy

but for what it's worth, try zantac. over the counter, you can take up to 300 mgdaily or if that still doesn't work, talk with your doctor about protonix. if you have to turn to protonix, your insurance will probably have to consult your doc for confirmation that nothing else works.

hth,

kana

I have it too and I take Mylanta. I used to be on Losec but I wasn't sure if it was safe to take during pregnancy so I've just been using OTC stuff.

[kanaclark]

is that safe to take during pregnancy? when I worked in a family practice office, we told our pregnant patients to avoid any otc heartburn meds except tums and zantac.
I'm sure, though, the doctors told other things, as a cma, though, we could only tell patients certain things, kwim?

I've never really "brushed up" on what's safe or not. just always taken zantac, tums or protonix.

best wishes though, with the heartburn. i know what you're going through.

Yes Mylanta is. It says it's safe to take during pregnancy on the back of the bottle/pack. QuickEze is not safe.

I have never tried Zantac because I've had a couple of people tell me it's foul and they find it really hard to stomach? My ex used to take it and he gagged every time and wanted to bring it back up.
I like Mylanta because it's peppermint flavour. They also have a Berry flavour one.

[mommyb]

Hey Renee, what kind of Zantac did he take? Mine was a pill so I didn't really have a problem with gagging.

[kanaclark]

my current youngest has serious reflux, and was trying the zantac for a while, and once it hit his stomach, he would throw up. so we stopped it. he goes back next month for something else.

you can get the zantac in pill form, and it's not hard tummy wise.

another thing you could try, and with some people it's mind over matter, but i've had a lot of people tell me that just plain ol' peppermint candy works too. i've had it work for me before, haven't tried it this pregnancy, but maybe it would be worth a try?

-hth

[Madre]

I'm not pg, but sometimes I wake up with chest pain which I attribute to reflux. If I drink some water the pain goes away "like magic". It may be that the water washes the acid down. Anyway, just my 2 bits. :D

Hey Renee, what kind of Zantac did he take? Mine was a pill so I didn't really have a problem with gagging.

Well I think it was Zantac but that was like 10 years ago almost. It was a big tablet I think... that he had to dissolve in a glass of water or something. I think it was the taste that made him gag or feel like being sick. I don't know... it was soooo long ago!

[AmyB]

Renee, was it possibly Alka Seltzer your ex took?

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!

[Crissyanna]

Thanks ya'll. Haven't had a chance to be on the computer in a week.

So far, she hasn't been too bad about cuddling up against my stomach and giving it a bear hug (that's what it felt like). I haven't had any in two days. And it was pretty mild most of the week. I had heard of the correlation between tums and antacids like them causing kidney stones and stuff. I normally will break down to take them if I am miserable for an hour or so. I hate taking anything.

I wonder if part of it is from stress? Good chance. When I am under a lot of stress, it used to be that my esophogus would contract starting at the bottom and going all the way. Each ring of it like an xylophone. It made noises too. Hubby thought it was odd. But after some time, and a decrease in my stress level, that went away. Well, until we ran to my mom's the begining of this month to get my dog. It started up when we were there again, but it hasn't done it since.

Oh well, guess it was just one of those things for a few very annoying days. I think I would rather deal with the constipation I had instead of heartburn. And I had that bad. Until I started eating a bowl off cereal that has 13 grams of fiber in it and drinking a huge glass of water with it for breakfast. I told the midwife what I was doing (since she kept trying these prenatals with a stool softener in them, and those will work well for you, I promise. Nope, they sure did nothing for me, and I told her that. But what do I know, she's the one with a degree in medicine, I don't., argh) and she told me to stop eating that much fiber because it would make the constipation worse. Well, she sure knows her stuff. After four days of trying it, I started going. I would switch midwive's but it is a little too late for that now. No one will take you this late in your pregnancy around here. I just know that if we still live here the next time I get pregnant, we are not using her again. And chances are, she won't be delivering the baby, which is fine by me. It will depend on whomever is on call when I go into labor.

Crystal

[ktmartin]

I hope you are feeling better and not having as much heartburn. Another option is to eat celery which is supposed to help also since I didn't care for celery I would get pappiya chewables (health store or some grocery stores have them) and would eat those. It would help a lot.

Renee, was it possibly Alka Seltzer your ex took?

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!

I don't think so.. but maybe?

I had constipation too .... I ended up with a tear/fissure and freaked out thinking I was miscarrying when I saw blood in the toilet. Sorry if TMI. I had to go to the hospital and be checked out and they gave me some Lactulose liquid to soften things up. That was at about 26 weeks with my first pregnancy. So far so good this time...

[Crissyanna]

The heartburn hasn't been too bad. At least not the last few days.

Renee, I had a slight tear myself not too long ago. I knew what it was, and I wasn't gushing, so I just started drinking more water. And more water. I've been naughty and haven't had my high fiber cereal in a week and I can feel it. Oh well, I can eat it for a bedtime snack tonight.

Well, I need to get going. I have a few million things to get done.

Crystal

[MomFromCanada]

I also had difficulty with heartburn too, it wasn't as bad as others have mentioned but something I did that helped a lot was that I would make sure that my last snack, e.g. milk and a cereal bar before bed was eaten at least 20-30 minutes before I laid down to go to bed. Then it had some time to digest before I went to sleep for the night.

The heartburn hasn't been too bad. At least not the last few days.

Renee, I had a slight tear myself not too long ago. I knew what it was, and I wasn't gushing, so I just started drinking more water. And more water. I've been naughty and haven't had my high fiber cereal in a week and I can feel it. Oh well, I can eat it for a bedtime snack tonight.

Well, I need to get going. I have a few million things to get done.

Crystal

Oh yeah I should drink water but I hate it. I am also on Iron tablets which can cause constipation ... so I'm quite surprised I haven't had a tear this time.

Renee, was it possibly Alka Seltzer your ex took?

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is!

I don't think so.. but maybe?

I had constipation too .... I ended up with a tear/fissure and freaked out thinking I was miscarrying when I saw blood in the toilet. Sorry if TMI. I had to go to the hospital and be checked out and they gave me some Lactulose liquid to soften things up. That was at about 26 weeks with my first pregnancy. So far so good this time...

Hey I was at the grocery store last night and had a look and I think it was actually Gaviscon that my ex was taking. Do you have that in the US?