The first few weeks

[Snowy]

I'm 6 weeks pregnant and feel awful, sick, tired, dizzy, sick, can't eat anything but am hungry all the time, sick, crying all the time, my brain has turned to mush.. did I mention i feel sick. Every waking hour of every day I feel sick. I wake up at 3am and feel sick.

A friend told me I should be grateful to feel sick she is 11 weeks and had a miscarrage scare (she still drinks coffee!!).

The thought of weeks ahead feeling like this makes me feel ..... you guessed it, SICK.

Am I being a brat, should I be positive and cheerful? Or should I just shoot myself now?

This is very much a wanted baby, but just at the moment I just feel SICK, SICK, SICK, not happy, not glad just SICK. Someone, somewhere convince me this is all going to be worth it.

[Tigermoth]

Snowy, it is worth it, really, really, really. I hated the first three months of each of my pregnancies. Felt like I was on a choppy cross-channel ferry all the time. But then the sick feeling went and it was plain sailing (excuse the pun).

Try chewing gum continualy to minimise the sea sickness. Found this out throught lots of trial and error and it offered me some relief.

Congratulations by the way, or is now not the time....

[Bells]

Hey Snowy - congrats. I feel pretty sick (maybe though I'll finally shift that extra stone I'm still carrying from first time around!). To be honest, after having been trying for a year, I am so utterly elated to be having a baby that I haven't even murmured a complaint abut the nausea and tiredness to my husband. We have just had our first scan and it was pure magic.

Just remember the incredibly sad postings we had not so long ago on the miscarriage board. I know it doesn't help much, but I am firmly in the "be positive and cheerful" camp on this one.

[Bugsy]

Hi Snowy - good news that you are expecting. Sorry to hear that you feel so poorly. I couldn't believe how sick I felt and remember wondering if I would ever feel well again. Fortunately you will! Alot of people think that the nausea can partly be caused by very low blood sugar levels, so try and eat something. Do you think you could manage to nibble on a few ginger snaps? The ginger helps with nausea and the sugar in the biscuits might make you feel a bit better. You could also try some ginger tea too.
The sicky feeling really won't last forever, so just try and think how wonderful it is that a little person is growing inside you!

[Marina]

It won't last long, the general consensus is that if you feel very sick you have plenty of beneficial pregnancy hormones supporting the foetus, and at about 14 weeks you will probably start feeling fantastic, and that feeling will last for many weeks. I grew the most lush head of hair (the parcel-shelf behind is optional) and felt really good until around 7.5 months, when I started getting a bit tired. This was after feeling almost as bad as you sound for the first three months, so you have my heartfelt sympathy. But, Snowy, if you can't keep anything down at all for days, get yourself checked over at your GP (or ask that lovely receptionist). A very small number of pregnant women get something called hyperemesis, which is basically constant vomiting and can make you quite ill. It can be treated very easily and safely. A friend had it, and even this passed by about week 15. Congratulations!

[Tigger]

Oh dear Snowy, I spent all nine months being and feeling SICK, SICK with my first, although after the first 3 months it got better as in I could be in the same room as food and eat something as well. I always managed to keep fluids down, try drinking some very weak juice, even warm it up, and one other thing, try having a chocolate biscuit when you feel sick and have one before you even get up in the morning, ginger snaps as well. Congratulations by the way, and good luck.

[Debsb]

Snowy, if you really are not eating or drinking, make sure you stress to the doctors how bad it is. My doctor kept saying it would pass etc., so I stuck it out. It wasn't until I saw a midwife at 9 weeks, and explained I hadn't actually managed to drink anything for 5 days that I ended up in hospital with hyperemsis. Having said that, & probably depressed you even more, I had the most wonderful daughter, and also went on to have a 2nd. Yes, it happened again, but I went on the tablets at 6 weeks that time, as my doctors realised that when I said sick I meant SICK.
Just keep telling yourself that it is worth it, and carry a constant supply of plastic bags - good practice for when the little treasure arrives!

[Twinsmum]

Raw carrots!! Honestly

[Jac]

It was no wonder I put on nearly 3 st in my 2nd pregnancy but all I could eat when feeling sick was highly flavoured stuff, no dry toast for me, but rubbish like crisps and indian takeaways etc. Also in my first pregnancy I never had any sickness or tiredness at all, I started to wonder whether I was actually pregnant! But in the first I had absolutely pints and pints of milk due to mega thirst. No thirst whatsoever with 2nd pregnancy. You're probably thinking YUK YUK YUK to milk but it was all I had, not much food, in my first.

Good luck and congratulations.

[Ems]

congratulation snowy. Definitely try the ginger in any form, try the little chewy bits you get in health food shops (I kept some in every pocket and by the bed). It WILL get better.

[Lizzer]

Oh Snowy, even though it was only 2 yrs ago for me I can still feel what you're going through, hopefully all these messages of encouragement will take your mind off it a bit. It truly will get better, and yeah,in most people it goes around 12-13 weeks.Gentle walking out in the fresh air helped me and I would have to say ginger helped too. Try nibbling tiny bits of ginger snap biscuits if you can't do the hardcore stuff!!
Take care and congratulations (it'll fly by, and when you have your gorgeous baby being sick on YOU, you'll know it's all been worth it! )

[Zoe]

Snowy I am twenty-two weeks and I only stopped being sick about six weeks ago - I really sympathise with you! I agree that not eating makes it worse, however unlike eating you feel - dry retching makes it painful as well as unpleasant. All my actual vomiting took place at night which was unpleasant too - but on the whole it DOES go away - and midwives often advise that it is a good sign in a pregnancy, which can be extremely helpful and positive when you've your head stuck down the loo!

If you are not keeping anything down you may need re-hydrating in hospital - tell your midwife asap.

Congratulations and let us know how you get on

[Emmagee]

Most of it has been said, but try to eat something before you get out of bed - either keep some biscuits next to the bed or get your partner to bring toast and tea. Then keep it up all day, little and often is crucial. I found sherbert lemons really helped first time round but were virtually useless this time. I had a homeopathic remedy called Melissa whcih helped a bit and there is one called Nux Vom which is supposed to be good, but talk to a homeopath first.

congratulations and let us know how you get on.

[Snowy]

Thankyou all for your messages - my partner (bless) has booked me a session with a hypnotherapist on friday, so I'll see how that goes. I'll let you know.

I'm sipping water and eating dry bread and I'm going to try everthing suggested from carrots to ginger to sea sicknesss bands.

Unfortunatly my boss smells...(hope he doesn't read this, but if he does "you do smell") and that really doesn't help.

[Kate71]

I was very lucky in that I was never sick but I found mints were good if I had a wave of nausia.
Hope it passes soon, Kate

[Janh]

hi, snowy - congratulations and good luck with the hypnotherapy - try anything!
i had my worst nausea in my second pregnancy but could stave it off with a bit of weetabix in a little milk - at intervals - can't remember what they were though!!! (this was over 15 years ago...)

it only lasted from 6 weeks to 11/12 and i never actually threw up.

for the smelly boss - if you wear a polo-neck and pull it up over your nose (tell him you feel cold) you just smell your own whatever-you-smell-of-today! (i do it to clean the oven...)

[Pop]

Dear Snowy

I suffered badly with sickness when pregnant with my son. I am now thinking about number 2 and am dreading it. I recently read about a tape which is meant to be fantastic. It interrupts signals to the brain or something technical like that but basically you listen to it and it stops you feeling sick. When you start feeling sick again you listen again etc. Sounds too good to be true but definitely worth a try. You can find details at motherwell-mums.co.uk. GOOD LUCK!!

[Bigmum]

Hi Snowy
I so sympathise with you feeling miserable.I hated all three of my (very much wanted)pregnancies I was sick and tired and fat and over emotional. It wont seem like it at the moment but the babies are worth every second of it.
I sucked murray mints allday long and ate lamb chops and green beans every day for 3 months but I couldn,t cook it myself. I hated the smell of anything frying, people on buses and people at work and even my husband.....

[Snowy]

I'm back from my hypnotherapy session, and am feeling alot better. He made some very interesting points. Firstly, I was scared I had bad sickness in my last pregnancy and was dreading it happening again (Pop listen to this) so I was tense, because I was tense I was more likley to be ill. If you feel sick tensing up makes you worse - very true.
Secondly, he pointed out what a small part of my life with the new baby this would be - I know this sounds obvious - but all I was thinking about was the next 6 weeks.

He did the whole relaxing thing - relax your toes. relax your legs etc until I was very relaxed and then started saying "you will have a happy pregnancy, the nausea is insignificant" and as he said it I belived it. He taped everthing and gave me the tape to play at home. I'm going again next week to plant some more posivtive images in my subconcious!

I feel better, as i left the session I was so hungry I had to stop a get a bacon butty!! I ate it in the car in a very furtive manner. I really want it to work and I think this is half the battle. I need to relax into the nausea and it will go away as I think positve thoughts.

Some of what he said has already been said to me I think the difference is this is going into my subconcious. My god I sound like some scary hippy dippy fruit loop I want to buy sandels, I feel a sudden fondness for long flowing ethnic skirts. Anybody know where i can but joss sticks.....

Prehaps not

[Snowy]

The other thing that made me feel better was everyone (you lot) saying congratulations it made me think I had something to be congratulated on. Isn't that a strange thing to say about being pregnant. I just couldn't get over how awful I felt.

[Janh]

snowy, 2 other things - i went right off coffee and ordinary tea BUT decaffeinated tea was ok and i still prefer it - and also i had mad bursts of energy at around 8 months and did all my best decorating - lying on my side on the floor painting skirting boards etc - wierd but true. must be that nesting thing. something for you to look forward to, possibly!
go easy on the incense though :o)

[Lil]

Snowy you have confirmed my theory about relaxing helping morning-sickness. My straw poll of friends who have been sick, was that they all had 1 thing in common, and that was that they are worriers. The friend who had it worst had got pregnant a bit earlier than planned, had a house to decorate, no money in the bank and was stressed about the whole thing. I found I could make myself feel nauseous in the first few weeks if i thought hard about the birth experience looming! i took lots of deep breaths, and no sickness!!!

As for the boss I'd put some strong mints in my desk and suck on one everytime he comes near!!

[Bee]

Hi Snowy,the hypnotherapy sounds interesting.I had dreadful sickness with my second pregnancy and like you could stand very little. I saw a homeopath who really helped me alot.The remedies worked and kept me going until the sickness passed.It came back at the end of the pregnancy so I took the same remedy which was brill. I used homeopathy during my labour and it was great then aswell.I strongly recommend you try and find a good homeopath to see if it helps you too.I sound a bit freaky but I also saw a reflexologist as my baby was 2 weeks overdue. This was incredibly relaxing and although may not help directly with the sickness it would definately help to relax you.I had a session on Tuesday pm and my baby arrived the next day.This sounds amazing but it is! I have heard of similar cases to mine and everyone can't say enough good about this and other alternative therapies.Lets face it when it's a choice between a drip and inducement in hospital or a chance that a relaxing therapy may do the trick I know what I would and did go for.Good Luck.

[Slug]

I agree with the theory that relaxation helps. I had the most awful sickness, all day every day. I noticed it was always worse on Fridays and got better over the weekends. A two week holiday at 10 weeks seemed to cure the sickness, which came back when I went back to work. Since then I have insisted on taking it easy. I go to bed as soon as I get home from work, make my partner do all the cooking and housework, and it seems much more bearable. Smelly students don't help though.

[Vseager]

Snowy, you are not being a brat. Let me encourage you too, you have all my sympathy and empathy. I was horrified by how sick I felt for the first 3 months of my pregnancy. My acute sense of smell made it far worse, the whole world around me seemed to stink. I hated strong perfumes and found innumerable things really repulsive and overwhelming. My nausea lasted almost all day, every day and was worse if I drove the car or was stressed. It made me completely miserable and nothing helped except lying down - and that only helped a bit. I used to try to accept the nausea and kept trying to relax. Which is hard when nausea tends to make me panic. I also tried to avoid doing things in a rush. Looking back (now that I've got a wonderful little boy) I wish 'morning sickness' was taken a little more seriously. It's such a trivial sounding ailment but when you suffer from it - it can make you feel literally demented. I think it has a profound psychological impact. I wonder how seriously most employers take it?