Teaching and Morning Sickness - Any Tips?!

[Daisy17]

I am 6 weeks pregnant with my first and what started out last week as mild nausea now seems to be worse each day and lasts pretty much the whole day unless I eat constantly! No actually barfing yet, thankfully, and I'm probably just being a wuss, but am beginning to panic about going back to my teaching job at the beginning of Sept if I still feel this off-colour all day. Anyone have any useful experiences, or just funny ones that will make me laugh!?!

Not morning sickness related but I caught a humdinger of a stomach bug and, like the idiot I am, I dragged myself into school regardless. Ended up trying to teach with the class sick bucket (we didn't have sinks in each classroom and the school solution was a bucket in each class) between my knees, running to the outside of the classroom door to retch when the urge got too unbearable.

One of the real charmers in my class grinned rabidly and commented with glee, "Cor I've never seen a teacher puke before."

Such love... such care! Gotta love 8 year old boys.

I'd prime any TAs and support staff that if you suddenly have to vanish from the classroom that's what's on the cards (assuming they're not the gossip monger my old TA was) - and pray your classroom isn't next to the dining hall like mine was... how I used to dread the cook boiling vegetables into submission.

Thanks, emptyshell! Yes, small boys are just charming aren't they?! But at least less squeamish than small girls.... Most of my teaching is one to one instrumental teaching, so less embarrassing than fleeing a whole class, but a bit awkward as no-one else to take over or explain. I am thinking of telling my dept boss so that he at least knows what's going on - he's a good friend and so I know won't spill to anyone else.

fingers crossed it all disappears at 12 weeks...
I managed to arrange later starts - with my lovely sympathetic boss whose wife had been really bad with morning sickness. I started at 10.30, and took my paperwork home insead :)

I used to have to eat gingernuts before getting out of bed in the morning!

Guilt-free gingernuts in bed seems to me to be a real bonus of ms!! Flexitime would be bliss, but not possible with my job, really. Actually the nausea seems to be least bad in the morning, so maybe that'll help. Have also thought that I can take in a bottle of ginger cordial and sip that as I go along.....

Diluted, that is, although neat does sound tempting....!

I found not looking too closely at the year 8 bacterial experiments was a good plan. Sadly, I learned this lesson a little too late! Also, bottling ammonia is best left to the lab tech.

Things that worked for me (I was sick until about 18ish weeks)were

• sweets to suck on surreptitiously (especially ginger, though obviously this depends on how severe the nausea gets)
• dry biscuits / crackers (you will get sick of people suggesting these to you but they worked in my case of moderate nausea and vomiting) *water as cold as you can get it *not letting the room get too hot, I had all windows open, plus fans.

Telling someone you trust is a good idea. I don't know how much opportunity you get to sit down, but I think I could have avoided a lot of the general dizziness and "ickiness" I had with the nausea if I'd been able to sit down more. Sadly, not terribly practical when thirty 13 year olds under your supervision have Bunsens on!

Congratulations by the way!

Thank you, BestLaidPlans! Swinging between excitement and terror that it will all go wrong, roll on 12 week scan..... - yes, thankfully I do sit down a lot of the time as I teach piano, and good tip about the room temp - will track down the elusive window key as soon as I get back! Packet of Mini Cheddars saved me on a train journey yesterday, so definitely on the cracker trail. Maybe I could tell my pupils I'm fattening up for my latest film role?!?!

I told them I'd eaten too many easter eggs! Can highly recommend Nairns oatcakes by the way, especially the cheese ones and ginger ones.

Right, am off to Sainsbury's now (other supermarkets are available etc!) so will look out for them, thanks!

Hi Daisy,

I teach cooking and had such bad nausea my doc signed me off for 3 1/2 weeks as I couldn't even look at food, let alone teach a room full of students how to cook it...erk. Luckily lots of the 'peak' ms season will be over the summer hols and when I return I'll be 16 weeks so betting on the fact by then I will be able to cook and will be OK....have my doubts as I'm still on full dose of anti nausea meds (which don't stop the nausea by any means) and have been pretty much housebound for 9 weeks now. Still, positive thinking!

I'd agree with the fresh air in the room being very helpful and constantly snacking when you can. Have a bit of fresh sliced lemon at hand to sniff if you feel ill (or something lemon scented on a tissue which you can sniff discreetly when with your students). Mine has been very bad, so there was no way I could ahve worked when it was bad, so if you have to admit defeat and have a day or so off at any point don't beat yourself up about it. Sure you'll be fine though. Take plenty of rest when you can too - tiredness makes it 10 times worse. Oh, and I found ready salted crisps a life saver of a food when I was really bad.

From my experience polo's and water ... I used to go through about a packet of polo's a day!! Good luck :)

Had constant supply of fizzy water on the desk, cream crackers or salty crips to nibble and wore travel sickness bands.

Also told colleagues so that I could puke in their sinks if necessary (practical subject here..)

My students guessed because of the large bag of food I arrived with and troughed throughout the day...

I had lemon squash made up in bottles and used to swig it fairly constantly. Wore travel sickness bands but wasn't convinced by them (but at the same time not unconvinced either!). Also ate small snacks between lessons (secondary with large site so usually get a few mins child free as they have to move rooms), and I made a point of having a relaxing breaktime rather than charging round doing photocopying etc.

And sitting down a lot!

Now have quite a bump and wondering how I will manage to get around my classroom easily negotiating teenagers and desks... big classes in a tiny room with not much ventilation either

Congrats.

Hi Daisy,I was a year 4 teacher and
I had terrible MS from about 6 weeks and with the head telling me I needed to pull my finger out (I didn't want to tell them until I was 12 weeks), I went on the sick for a month which took me over christmas which was fine.

Teaching is one of the only jobs where you can't escape because you are incharge of lots of children. I had no TA help and if I did they would have asked questions as why I was leaving so quickly, I had no cupboard just incase I felt seriously queasy,and far away from any toliets, so that's why I felt that I needed to take the time off, on top of the stress that the head was giving me.

It's really hard to have MS and teach but keep a small bag in your desk with toothpaste and mouthwash in it.
Good luck and congrats..

Had hideous nausea and had to do a practical exam with horses blood three times in a week. Could not show any sign of emotion as an exam After dealing with 600 test tubes of blood nothing phased me after that. Normally goes by 12 weeks.

Thanks, flickor, listening to scales and arpeggios will feel a breeze by comparison!

I'm in the same situation Daisy. I'm in Scotland so have to go back this coming Monday!! I gave in and asked the GP for anti-sickness meds last week. He gave me cyclizine and they've made a massive difference. The sickness hasn't completely gone, but I can actually function. Wish me luck with facing 29 10 year olds next week!

I taught secondary when I was pregnant. i went to school at 10 weeks and the sickness was there for that first half term - actually bieng sick a number of times a day.

because it was secondary I did sometimes leave my class unsupervised. I used to make sure the teacher next door was aware I was feeling ill and might have to.

I used to take in little biscuits and bottles of water tio sip throughout too.

Needless to say everyone knew I was pregnant within days of returning.

In primary it must be so much harder.

I fainted in assembly once . Luckily the school nurse caught on and sorted me out. I also negotiated later starts with my fabulous year head (I'm secondary, so a bit easier - could just be late for registration) and kept breadsticks in my classroom so I could nibble, which helped.

I had twins, so seemed to move rapidly from nausea and morning sickness (til about 14 weeks) to being too big and too tired to do much at all. The kids were incredibly lovely though - carrying books, opening doors and so on. DH and I went to the theatre in Straford when I was about 5 months (but looked 7ish) and I was astounded at how rude the middle-aged middle-class theatre-goers were in comparison to the teenagers at my school.

I told my year head early on - it helped to have one person in the loop, and she was (is) a friend too, so would happily make up excuses for my lateness/absence if I needed her to.

I was in the same situation. I am a teacher as well and I remember going into work feeling absolutely shocking. I found that making sure I had got plenty of ice cold water and snacks (cereal bars) helped me get through the day. I also bought some of those travel sickness bands, that i did think help a little but did give the game away to some people who I didnt want to tell so early on. I am 38 plus 1 now, so not long to go and it really is worth it. I started feeling much better after about 14 weeks