to think that buses were designed as torture chambers for the pregnant?

[LondonStill83]

The lady sitting beside me has such bad gas I am surprised birds aren't falling from the sky.

A group of kids has just walked on with greasy chicken and chips.

No one was giving up a seat for an elderly man so I got up and got off the bus to wait for the next one- also to get some fresh air.

Two women at opposite sides of the bus shelter were smoking.

Got on next bus. Came upstairs as fewer smells and people. Now a mum is playing some sort of loud annoying cartoon to her daughter at full volume on her smart phone.

I want to cry.

Umbongo that's awful!!!

Yesterday there was an older gentleman with a walking stick get on, the bus driver surprisingly waited for him o sit down and put his stick down before driving again.

Should be standard practice but it certainly is not!

Humphrey, exactly!

I have been called many things in my life, but precious is a new one :-).

One of my good friends and I are going to India for two weeks, in three weeks. Then my husband is joining me for two more weeks.

I wrote my friend saying I was worried we may have a few vomtastic experiences as India is notoriously on the fragrant side and I am struggling more than I thought I would.

She responded "woman you are tough as nails" so I guess that is what I shall be!!

Hazey yes I am going to get some peppermint gum too.

I used to be somewhat of a minimalist in what I could be arsed to carry with mE, but my list now includes rich tea biscuits, lemonade, sweets, gum, a paper bag, and nuts!

Hope you have recovered from chemo

I hear you OP! I remember having to throw up sitting next to DH who had a cup of coffee.

Buses with 'morning' (all day!) sickness are very trying. I remember finding that having something nice to smell really helped for me- like a large handkerchief with essential oil on, a little lavender bag or even a vicks inhaler. I still use these from time to time not pregnant, as I do get travel sick in cars. Try it!

(I found people never looked at me funny either, especially in London, anything goes!)

Thankyou, London. Chemo was a long 13 years ago, and I have been lucky enough to have 3 children I never thought I would have afterwards.

Mint or orange oil on a hankie is a great thing (but does make you look like a heroine in a Jane Austen novel)

If you stand for parliament based on that I'd vote for you OP.
There was a product I used to get through but it's a specific brand only thing so feel free to PM if you want the details.
I'd reconsider India though OP, think about what you have to do to get there (at least until your maternity hovercraft policy is enacted).

Learn to drive.

That's not exactly practical if, as I suspect from her username, the OP lives in London and commutes into the centre Vixxface. Plus there's the cost of a car, insurance, parking. Really not practical.

Of course, why did I never think of just learning to drive, its obvious now!

There's always one person who comes onto a public transport thread to bleat about driving. It's not the issue at hand and it's an unnecessary comment to make anyway. OP doesn't have to drive if she doesn't want to.

Fortunately I didn't have much to do with buses in early pregnancy. I had super smell/ constant nausea for most of the first half of my first pregnancy which coincided with an early heatwave. I had to drive past a rubbish dump, and the only way to avoid uncontrollable retching was to shut down external circulation in the car, draw a deep breath, and jam my foot hard on the accelerator to get as far as I could on that breath before opening the windows to blast out the stench of the dump before I could risk breathing again.

The day before my due date with DC2, I decided to go for broke by staggering down to the MW on my crutches. I couldn't lift my leg sufficiently to do the 400m walk back up the hill, so got a bus that used a considerably longer route. I live between two bus stops on the edge of a request stop zone. Unlike most of the drivers I'd had while I was struggling, the one that day was being particularly pedantic about where he could stop. After a bit of negotiation, I managed to reason that he could drop me off immediately after the junction that was the closest point to home minimising agonising hills. It turned out that the backache that was kicking in was the start of labour. About 12 hours later, I had a baby in my arms. It was just irritating that my request wasn't going to inconvenience other passengers, but his pedantry was going to clearly cause me additional pain.

Actually when I did randomly get the bus in early pregnancy, I got a child bus fare without asking!

Being pregnant put me off the cinema as well as buses.

The lynx effect, again. Plus being dark and warm made me want to just fall asleep. I spent a lot of that particular pregnancy asleep.

In my first trimester I learnt to breathe exclusively through my mouth for bus/train journeys. Just the thought of stale smoke, booze, BO, other people's food, ugh.

And yy to the third trimester woes of the bus driver pulling away while you're trying to find a seat. Yanbu op!

YANBU. I regularly had to throw up between buses on my commute. Grim. Hope you feel better soon.

Definitely YANBU.
The bus drivers who start off before you've found a seat. The bus drivers who start up driving again even though you've pressed the bell, because you're slow getting up. x1000 when you have PGP
The stop/start/heavy breaking of a driver that has you so nauseous you've got your paper in your lap to be sick in, and when you do make it into work, startle your colleagues with both your grey colour and liberal use of the word cunt.
The BO/Lynx/food.
Utter nightmare, but massive sympathies OP < fist bump of solidarity >

I feel for you OP. When I was pregnant, my sense of smell rocketed and must things made me feel sick. I couldnt even look at bacon.

Last first everything- brilliant idea, I like it! Going to try rubbing Vicks under my nose, as they do for the morgue. An excellent idea!!

Hazey, aw that is great news! Life has a funny was of surprising you doesn't it.

I don't mind looking like someone from Jane Austin. Right about now I would run around naked doing a backwards crab walk singing Disney songs if I believed it would help!

Motherkat, I am probably being daft but only use the app on my phone- how do I PM you?

I can't really re-think India. First it has been a lifelong dream and I have been saving up for a year. Second my friend from Canada (I live in the UK) is coming to meet me and we've already spent a fortune on flights, hotels, etc. my travel insurance would cover me, but not her. Third, I think i would really regret it.

I will just try everything to reduce nausea and vomiting and take rests when I need to... Not ideal though, I know!

Vixxface- not helpful.

I "learned to drive" 16 years ago, but as I live in London and DH and I both commute but in different directions, we just can't afford to run a car as well as pay for transport into work.

It costs us each £123/month for travel already... Plus as we live in London the cost of parking would be crazy. And driving would be nuts.

We do have city car club though so have promised myself to free up some funds to use it for longish journeys... Still cheaper than taxis and at least I can suffer in silence then!

Everyone else, yy and thanks for sharing your stories! Some of it sounds awful, I know there must be some evolutionary reason but good lord is this a special kind of hell.

Of course I realize I am very lucky in many many many ways- it's just hard to feel positive mentally when you feel so crap for so long physically!!!

And YES to Lynx (it's bad enough anyway), and bacon!! I ordered pancakes the other day thinking I would enjoy the bacon and dry heaved for about an hour without even taking a bite...

Then the restaurant I was in started prepping raw meat for burgers in the back... I love that place so much as they let me camp with my laptop but i had to leave rather in a hurry. I swear I can still smell the sour blood...

sorry op been off with rl....ok playing on fb
my post was jokey not serious

Thanks Samcro. I did wonder and then thought if you were serious, we must have significantly different budgets!

sorry...i can't afford a taxi either...
would have posted earlier sorry

I get busses lots. For some weird reason I like them being around.

I cannot travel on them whilst pregnant, I just can't one pregnant bus journey is enough to trigger a 48 hour exorcist style vom session that requires an injection to stop.

That's often what prompts me to piss on a stick