Please everyone I need your best tips for dealing with first trimester nausea!

[mscongeniality]

Hi all,

I'm thinking about ttc child number 2 but my first trimester with my first child has left me quite traumatised. After he was born I swore I wouldn't have anymore kids but I'm finally at a place mentally where I'm ready for another.

I had horrible nausea starting from about week 6 till week 12. The worst part was that it was constant and unrelenting because I couldn't get relief from throwing up. I had to force myself to throw up maybe a handful of times and would feel better, but it didn't happen easily. So I pretty much struggled through like this all day and night. I know some people have it much worse with hypermesis, but not being able to throw up is really awful too. Anyone had that?

Could you please share what worked best for you to deal with the nausea as well, including any prescribed medication because this time I'm going to ask my GP for help. I've tried the usual: ginger ale, crackers, milk, carbs etc but I want to cover all my bases so I can be more prepared this time!

Oh and avoid anything greasy or fatty. Too much for your tummy to tolerate. Protein and carbs easier handled. And bland. I actually had some ambrosia light custard pots at weekend and kept them in fridge. Wee spoon or 2 of Apple sauce through it and omg it hit the spot! Not too sweet either.

First pregnancy I freaked out at the first sign of sickness and refused to eat. Ended up in hospital on a drip a few weeks later.

Second, which ended in miscarriage at 11 weeks, I recognised it coming in much more quickly and kept on top of it by eating and taking metaclopramide when it felt out of my control.

Third, which I only got BFP for last week, I feel it creeping in. Especially at bedtime, which echoes the last pregnancy. I find a mealy drink, like Horlicks, helps with the night nausea. I also have an unlimited supply of malted milk biscuits, which my 3yo is very happy about!

Can i recommend orange slices popped into a jug of tap water and refrigerated. Really helps!

Oh and cola! Lots of cola!

I kept a pack of biscuits by my bed and when I woke up I wouldn't even sit up, just eat a biscuit straight away and it helped loads.

Ooh yes to to coke. Or sprite. Flat, with loads of ice. Went through a stage there where I couldn't even stand water and needed fluids.

Cyclizine on prescription, high dose vitamin B6 from boots I think I took 50mg?) and not getting too hungry.

Following with interest as in a similar boat OP! Terribly nauseous with first pregnancy from about week 6 to almost week 20! Not always throwing up but felt horrendous. Lived on crisps. Nothing helped really. Currently pregnant with #2 but only 5 weeks at the mo so waiting with trepidation for the nausea to kick in! Hoping to be like PP who didn't suffer much the second time round. It's taken me nearly 5 years to work up the courage to get pregnant again, partly due to how ill I felt the first time, amongst other reasons.

Currently 7 weeks and been suffering from nausea for the past 2 weeks. I definitely agree with the hunger thing, the hungrier you are the worse it feels. But I'm finding it so hard to eat as there's not much I can stomach right now. I have weetabix for breakfast and pretty much starve till dinner as the thought of most foods makes my stomach turn. Pepsi also weirdly helps as a few others have mentioned. I just bought a whole load of fruits to snack on throughout the day and hoping they do the trick. But I wish everyone all the best with getting through this phase

Ive gone through (prescribed meds): cyclizine, metoclopramide, prochlorperazine and now on ondansetron but I am suffering from Hyperemesis. Either way, they'll still be effective for the nausea.
I found that ginger never helped at all, and if you do end up throwing up then it just burns your throat.
Rich tea biscuits or Ritz crackers also helped keep the hunger at bay as good snacks.
And I was the opposite of Hairgician as I loved and could keep sausages and chips down. No idea why but there we go.

Chalky sweets like Love Hearts and Refreshers helped me a lot. I ate/sucked so many packets of these a day. I had hyperemesis gravidarum. It is awful.

I would also suggest not making or buying lots of food. I would just wait until nearly mealtime and buy/eat whatever you think you can. I ate hardly anything at all for 3 months and came close to being on drip in hospital and had to check in a doctors twice a week to be weighed. However when I fancied something and I ate it, it was often the other things to stay down. I had a bit of roast chicken, steak pies and even a McDonalds hamburger one day and they all helped me at that moment in time if that makes sense. I was almost like my body said yes, if you feed me that I will allow it but don't give me anything else.

Don't let three or four terrible months rob you of the joy of another child though and a sibling for your child. You will get through it.

I had unrelenting nausea (if I was awake I felt on the brink of vomiting) from 5 weeks (now 24 weeks and still on one Cyclizine a day).

NICE Guidelines do not distinguish between nausea and vomiting as valid symptoms for antiemetics being prescribed, only the impact that either is having on a womens ability to function.

Also a scoring system the "Pregnancy-Unique Quantification of Emesis" (PUQE) is used in health care to try and quantify how bad it is, with nausea lasting more than 6 hours a day scoring maximum points on that part of the questionnaire. I was nauseous about 16 hours a day (fortunately I was sleeping well, so that accounted for the other 8 hours!!)

I felt awkward/ embarrassed/ ashamed going to GP asking for antiemetics (at about 7 weeks) as I was ONLY nauseous, but my Dad was terminally ill and there was no way I could travel the 5 hours to visit him (and then again for the funeral) so it was definitely impacting my life. My GP was brilliant. Even on maximum dose of cyclizine I was still nauseous for more than 6 hours a day for about 7 weeks when I was at my worst, but I did get about 3 hours respite from the nausea with each tablet (3Xdaily) and it controlled the vomiting most of the time and therefore I never got too poorly.

I still feel a fraud (which I know is silly) seeing hyperemesis written in my GP Notes as I wasn't as bad as some poor women are. But every health condition will vary in severity from one individual to the another, but that doesn't make it any less valid. If you need help during your next pregnancy, don't be afraid to ask for it.

Get your partner to bring you a cup of tea and a ginger biscuit in bed.
Wear acupressure wrist bands.

Seeing several PP saying try Ginger....my brain now associated Ginger with feeling incredibly nauseous, so that now just the thought of it, let alone the smell, makes me feel sick. So I guess that won't be an option for me again...the brain is a weird and wondrous thing!!!

Just wanted to say that I am currently pregnant with my 3rd and so far I have felt so much better than in my first two pregnancies(all well in scan). It is a shock to be honest. Don't assume it will be as bad.

Salt and vinegar Pringles I had to had them at the side of my bed and lick them as soon as I woke up. I had HG and was on pills but I still had to do this stage before having a pill.

Salt & vinegar crisps or ricecake snacks and lemon and ginger* tea. If I don't eat late afternoon ish (i.e. now 5pm), then I risk feeling so pukey on the bus home that I have to get off before my stop

• There is actually scientific evidence that ginger helps. And it doesn't have to be in an infusion/tea obviously.

You can get these ginger sweets from some chemists. I had HG with DS and every medication going but those sweets saved my sanity.

Il try and find them.

Congratulations

Found them although they are extortionate online.

Old fashioned chemists are your best bet.

I had this, constant nausea, rarely throwing up, during the whole pregnancy; both times. Although I absolutely hate throwing up so I was rather grateful it didn't happen too often. And when it happened, i didnt find it relieving. In my second pregnancy I spent ages wretching next to the toilet. Ugh. Something helpful I discovered second time was chewing gum. Started it to help keeping my poor teeth a bit clean but then realised that it somehow kept the nausea a notch down. I think I actually slept with chewing gum!

I didn't have horrible sickness, but it got better by keeping my stomach cool, drinking sips of water constantly and learning how to burp on demand.

The only thing that worked for me was prescribed tablets, but I was being sick a lot and ended up on a drip with HG.
I'll happily never see a ginger biscuit ever again

Forgot to add, mint mentos are really good to get rid of that awful taste in your mouth, and helps with nausea too.

@mscongeniality I totally feel your pain this is my second pregnancy and I feel awful!! Just like yourself have nausea and will try to be sick but nothing comes up. Feel so sick all day even through the night. Think it started around 5 weeks and I'm 9 now. 😪

It's hard going in work as nobody knows so trying to hide the fatigue and the sickness it tough.

My midwife has told me to go the gp and they will give me tabs. She told me they are safe altho a bit nervous to take them as I didn't take anything with my first. So I've not bothered with them.

Not much has worked for me. Although I find keeping mints by the bed a good idea. They are settling my stomach a little.
I agree with all the ladies here about eating little and often but it's hard going especially when you don't want to eat or drink. I feel like I have to force feed myself sometimes.

Sorry not been much help. I would say mints and Melon are a help.

I hope you get sorted mscongeniality . Xx💞