Smells

[pregnantsingle35]

I'm very new in here so not quite sure how it all works yet so please forgive me if there is already a discussion on this topic.

I've found that lots of smells make me want to heave. Not just unpleasant smells either. I know food smells are a common one and seem to make sense as the thought or smell of food when you feel a bit icky anyway seems likely to be a trigger. I'm also suffering from wanting to heave if I smell perfumes or aftershaves. I had a delivery earlier and it took all my will power not to vomit on the poor delivery man who was wearing a rather expensive aftershave. Can anyone advise me as to when this might stop, I can't stand the idea of being like this for the rest of my pregnancy, I already suffer from severe panic attacks and I'm also having to do this alone as my partner has decided "it's all a bit much". I'm becoming scared to leave the house as the thought of being sick sets off a panic attack and everything is making me feel sick. I'm going round in circles.

Any advice on how to stop this or when it stops on its own would be great!

That stopped for me when morning sickness ended about wk 14. The fridge was a bad one, whenever I passed it I felt like my nose was at the back of it and I was trying to snort it's contents

Poor you. I think it's not unusual to have a heightened sense of smell during the early stages of pregnancy. I certainly did, and lots of perfectly pleasant usually smells would make me want to heave. If it's any consolation, it eased off after the first trimester.

Hope you feel better soon

I'm only 8 weeks so I guess I've still got a while of this then

I totally understand. Perfume, deodorant, shower gel, face wash, shampoo, cleaning products, scented candles... I could go on. These all make heave right now, that's on top of food, coffee, the fridge, the dishwasher (even after wash cycle) even most peoples breath seems gross etc etc. it does pass but I haven't found anything to stop it other than mouth breathing. Breathe through your mouth whenever you can and if you find something that doesn't make you heave, let's say lemons don't make you heave, carry around a hanky with lemon on to sniff and get rid of the horrid smells from your nostrils. For me it's almost worse than the constant nausea!
I hope it improves for you soon, I'm now 11 weeks and it is seeming to get a little better.
On another note, please don't be afraid to ask for help with your anxiety and panic attacks, either professionally or there are loads of support threads on here with people who will know more about it than me and will hold your hand through this.
I'm sorry your partner is not there for you, that must be really tough on top of everything else. Focus on yourself for now though and be kind to yourself.
Good luck!

With each pregnancy I had a few weeks when my dh's smell made me want to throw up. He's not at all smelly really. Fortunately, that stage passed.

Oh me too. I even heave at the smell of my own children right now!

definitely the smell of perfume and aftershave at the moment. Hideous. Any strong artificial scent, really. Makes the nausea sooooo much worse

Hello, I was like this with my first pregnancy. With my boyfriends aftershave was the worst! I liked it before I got pregnant and then as soon as I started to feel sick with that pregnancy I banned him from wearing it. This was 3 years ago and I still can't stand the smell of it! That's the only smell that has stuck with me. There's a certain song that was in the charts at the time too, every time I have heard it since it has bought back a queasy feeling and I'd have to turn it off.

Ah. Just going through this myself. I haven't told anyone at work and unfortunately a colleague who sits across from me wears (what I think) is the strongest perfume known to mankind and I spend the first 30 mins after she's walked in trying not to throw up. Still, I'm sure it will stop soon. Or at least I hope it will.

I'm 9 weeks and the smell of everything is making me heave at the moment. It's like my nose had become very sensitive and I can't distinguish between an unpleasant smell and a nice smell. I just feel constantly sick. What I've found helps me today I know this won't last is the smell of coffee. It's sort of a neutralising smell so after I've sniffed at a hot cup of black coffee my nausea goes for a bit.

I find myself standing in the garden a lot, things don't smell as bad when I'm outside. I wasn't like this with DS and my nausea subsided at 14 weeks. I'm praying it stops soon! For you too.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who's DH and DC make them heave! I asked DH to go easy on the aftershave etc but it seems to fall on def ears. He just doesn't get how smells can affect you when you're pregnant!

I'm 6 weeks and I have a sense of smell for the first time! Not that I didn't before, it was just really, really poor. (Definitely a good thing when I'm dealing with poo and pus all day). Anyhow, now, I can smell all sorts of things I never did before! It's fascinating!! Would be better without the nausea but it's not too bad, so for now it's just the novelty of it. :-)

I'm 13 weeks and luckily this seems to have faded now for me. I retched in the lift at work as someone in there before me must have sprayed a lot of perfume... And trying to empty the bin, ughhh so awful.

Hopefully it'll pass for you soon

I hope it passes for all of us soon, I don't mean to put a complete downer on everyone but so far I'm really hating this pregnancy thing. I imagined a magical time (naively) but all I've had so far is sickness, nausea, nauseating smells, not wanting to eat and panic attacks. The thought of another 5-6 weeks worth of it makes it even worse.

Long time since I was pregnant, but was very sensitive to smell, and in fact that has remained with me ( 14 years since last baby!)

There are some things I still cannot bear the smell of ( lilies, most cut flowers, and lots of perfumes).

However the nausea passed after first trimester, although I don't think that's the case for everyone. Ginger helped ( best in biscuit form!).

I have to say, the physical side of being pregnant sucked for me - although I wasn't being sick all the time like some of my friends were, I was really tired and very uncomfortable throughout.

Hope this stage passes soon for you.