Aarrgghh!! Heartburn!

Tums worked wonders. I never knew what heartburn was until I was pregnant and, OMG EW! I hated it. Tums worked for me and my doctor said it was safe. :)

Drinking milk and taking some Maalox is safe. Ask your OB if you like to feel better about the suggestion, but those were my lifesavers during pregnancy. When you are short in stature its more likely to happen to you when pregnant. *sigh* hang in there!

M.R.
First of all congratulations to you! It'll be a busy and very Merry Christmas for you. From my personal experience the best thing that worked for me is a glass of milk. I always had one after a meal or when the symptoms were showing up again. I spoke to a few doctors about it and they recommended same. Good luck in December with everything and keep us posted.
Take care,
Bernie

I had unbelievable heartburn when I was pregnant with my twins. At about 5 months forward, I had to be religiously careful about what I ate. My heartburn actually got so bad that I would throw up after eating almost ever meal, and I was very worried that my babies weren't getting the nutrition they needed. I found very very good information on heartburn trigger foods on about.com, which completely saved my bacon.

I had to avoid lots of foods that were not normally trigger foods -- anything made with white flour or unrefined sugar, lots of fruits except in extreme moderation, any onions or tomatoes or spices (tough for me, since I generally love spicy food). I had to be very very careful to balance anything that had lots of carbs, like pasta, with extra protein, and also to be very very careful about fats. Also, I couldn't drink anything carbonated, especially later in the afternoon. I had to eat dinner early, sometimes like 5 or 5:30 (normal for us was 6:30 or 7) and after that I couldn't eat at all, not even sips of water. And then I had to go to bed pretty early too, though I'm not sure that was entirely because of the heartburn.

One recipe that really helped me was black bean quesadillas, which I made about once a week: dice black beans, zucchini, and corn (and I would use a tiny bit of onion, like a teaspoon for the whole batch, because I missed it too much wihtout it even though it was a big trigger for me). spray one side of a tortilla shell with cooking spray, place on a baking tray, put on some of the veggie mix and a good helping of lowfat cheese, put on the top tortilla and spray it with cooking spray also. Bake until tortilla is warm and slightly crispy. Top with low-fat sour cream and cilantro. I still use this recipe... it gave me the feeling of eating satisfying food, while helping my digestion.

On the plus side, even though my weight gain was normal, after my delvery I actually weighed about 11 pounds less than I had before I got pregnant. I think this was because a lot of my weight-gaining comfort foods were completely off limits to me. Good luck -- I hope you have an easier time than I did!

I had the worst heartburn ever with my daughter. My whole family kept saying it meant she would come out with a full head of hair. (old wives tail I guess) She did have a full head of hair =) Anyway, sleeping in more of a sitting position helped me, as it seemed to really rear its ugly head at night. Of course as you said avoiding trigger foods, which was actually dairy stuff, even crackers like cheeze-its were the worst! I lived on tums (my doc said they were safe) and when I would forget the tums, the red and white striped peppermints would help a bit. Hope you find something better, let me know if you do....I am going to be trying for another soon and the heartburn is one of those things I am not looking forward to!