How sick were you in your preg?

[AleenaM]

First time preg , I am at 7 weeks and with not telling people I have nowhere to turn. Mother & MIL ask me how I am but then say oh ok, it's all normal. Husband seems to think I am exaggerating and that all women go through this and his words "I knew you would be like this". I’ve been to the GP today, she mostly said ‘Aww’ at each of my answers and basically said to calm down and wait, she gave me a nausea tablet though. Called NHS24 last Sunday and again, just “aww, poor you, it’s not easy growing a baby “.

So need to find out if everyone is this sick and sucks it up and I am a wimp, or what
Bang on at 6 weeks nausea and vomiting started, I only threw up once by myself, the rest is forced every day to relieve sickness. My stomach hurts when I vomit. I am nauseous 24/7 and even woke up cause of it. My plans of healthy food are down the drain as I can’t eat much. I use to drink 2-3L of water a day, can barely get a glass down now (lemon water and orange juice and that make me extra sick as they are acid). I spend my day between being nauseous, burping, dry retching and dizzy, diarrhoea at lunch but having stomach cramps and being bloated with pain every night, sometimes get like a shiver from the sickness. I am an otherwise healthy person so really cannot believe what hit me.

What are your experiences?

I was really nauseous but thankfully not sick too often. I considered forcing myself to be sick, but decided against it.

I found nibbling on salty snacks to help, and sipping either water or fizzy pop to stay hydrated.

Cold food was a god send, as again it can be nibbled on.

I know the last thing you want to do is eat, but you really must try to. Even if it’s shit like crisps, it’s still nourishment for you.

It does pass, hope you feel better soon

I was sick the whole pregnancy from very early on (twins) I lost 2 stone and it was horrific. Was like a constant hangover.

It’s crap isn’t it? I’m 17 weeks now and was still sick a few times this week. I had four weeks from about 6-10 weeks where I could barely move off the sofa, eating breadsticks at 4am after being woken up by feeling sick, throwing up all day and the nausea never easing whether I was sick or not. It started to ease a little bit after 10 weeks, as in I could actually peel myself off the sofa, but I was still sick a few times on my wedding day at 13 weeks, and all honeymoon at 14 weeks. MIL did not understand at all. She didn’t get bad sickness so just couldn’t relate to it. DH’s favourite line was ‘you’ll be alright’ until one day I finally snapped and told him he can only tell me that once he’s grown a human inside him and felt just how shit it feels. Find people who have been through it, they are the most understanding and helpful.

I started vomiting at about 4 weeks, five or six times a day until I was pushing. We didn’t get anti nausea tablets then either. I lost about two stone in each pregnancy.

I had pretty much constant nausea and threw up after lunch most days. No idea why lunch specifically...
smells set me off constantly, where I worked at the time there was a lot of different aromas going on, so I was constantly hurling. (They found out well before 12wks due to that)
It only lasted the first trimester though.

I had bad morning sickness with my first but with my second I had hyperemisis, which is fucking horrendous. Mine cleared up by 22 weeks and luckily I had a supportive and knowledgeable GP who put me on cyclizine.
There is a hyperemisis support thread around somewhere, pregnancy sicknesses support are a charity who offers lots of help as well.
Congratulations 🎊 on your baby, hope you feel better soon.

Didn’t get anything at all.

Had 2 babies.

Felt a bit queasy once or twice , and was fine
Only threw up on delivering Baby 1 , but I think that might have been a reaction to the epidural

Five dc so dc1 awful sick every day from the day I found out until week 22 then a ten week break and sick every day from week 32 until he was delivered.
dc2 awful again sick every day throughout the pregnancy and some days I could hardly move.
dc3 not sick at all,no nausea and could barely believe it.
dc4 worst of all, diagnosed hyperemesis sick multiple times every day despite medication.
dc5 awful but so much better than previous time so seemed to cope better but sick every day until 36 weeks.

Not to rub it in but I wasn't sick at all. Slight nausea a couple of times. Nature is not fair

Pinkgeorge has hit the nail on the head for me- constant hangover for nine months (except without the fun bit of the actual night out). Both pregnancies the same, when I wasn’t being sick I was feeling sick. Awful, dreadful feeling.

Definitely have a look at Pregnancy Sickness Support and the MN hyperemesis thread. You sound like you have more than just standard morning sickness, since it's 24/7 and debilitating and stopping you getting enough to drink.

I always get bad sickness with pregnancy but the right drugs take it down to more what I'd consider 'normal morning sickness' level. (By which I mean: nausea most of the day, limited on what I can eat/drink, feel pretty miserable and throw up sometimes, but can go to work and look after my DC and be in the same room as food without throwing up. Without drugs: relentless nausea 24/7, feel constantly about to vomit if not actually vomiting, can't keep food or fluids down well and usually retching before they even get to my mouth, end up dehydrated and in a bad way.)

Hope the tablets the GP gave you help. If they don't, go back - there are others you can try and different people find that different drugs work better for them.

Also feel free to nut anyone who tells you to try ginger, or nibble crackers, or "instead of eating three big meals a day, try six small ones!" (advice I got from a midwife when living off two cherry tomatoes and a spoonful of cottage cheese every day, grrrr).

Hiya

It doesn't sound like your typical "morning sickness". Google hypermesis. I've known people to end up in hospital due to dehydration. If you think it could be that I'd go back to a doctor or mw again . They can give you something for the sickness.

Hope you feel better soon, it's really not easy :( I've luckily not had it how you have, but both pregnancies I was sick from about 6-14/15 weeks and its not fun at all

@AleenaM I’m sorry to hear you are feeling like this. I wish I could offer you more help than this as I totally get how you feel - I was the same.

6 weeks bang on and the sickness started. So dehydrated and couldn’t keep food down. I couldn’t work it was so bad so was on sick for a couple months while it settled. You want the best for your baby and at that stage that means eating properly and keeping hydrated. However, I ate all the crappy foods, far too much salt and could not stay hydrated (and this is only on the very rare occasions I could keep anything at all down!). It was all I could manage! I took my pregnacare tablets and just hoped that was enough! Thankfully, I have a very understanding husband.

My little girl is 4 months old now and thriving.

I hope you start to feel better soon x

Oh I had hypermesis and my doctors were very understanding. Got prescribed anti sickness medication.

I had no sickness at all. Well, I threw up once but that was right after changing a REALLY disgusting bin and eating some dodgy olives (unrelated events!!) so I might have been sick anyway.

With dd ( now 12) I was so sick. I couldn’t even go in the kitchen, couldn’t smell meat let alone eat it and I lost 2 stone. I threw up st least once most days from around a week after conception until I was in labour.
With DS ( now 9) I was a bit sick but rarely threw up. I lost about 1 stone and managed to eat a bit better.
What helped was ginger tea and eating little and often. I took vits and ate what I fancied when I fancied rather than worry about healthy eating, figuring eating something was better than nothing.
I hope yours passes OP x

Sorry to post again, but I also think your husband should buck up his ideas. Pregnancy can be hard and it’s so important for you to have his support x

No it's not like this for everyone. Nausea is normal in pregnancy. Being unable to tolerate food and fluids and losing weight is not.
I've had hyperemesis in all of my pregnancies. No where near enough awareness about it and just how Devastating it can be, mentally and physically.
This time around, I've been in and out of hospital and am now being treated with high dose steroids and it's being managed. This wasn't before multiple trips to my gp, who said helpful things like "welcome to pregnancy" and did nothing else, even after me not being able to tolerate fluids for days.
Google hyperemesis or go on the pregnancy sickness support website. If you think that you are actually suffering from hyperemesis and not "usual pregnancy sickness", then go back to the GP until they listen. If you aren't able to keep down food or fluids at all, then go straight to a and e.
It's no joke. If I hadn't of advocated for myself, and put my foot down to people wrongly labelling it as " morning sickness", I honestly don't know what the outcome would have been.
Good luck.

Sorry but I was sick up to 8 times a day from 5 weeks until the day after I gave birth with both of mine. The only thing that helped with DD2 was anti sickness pills, it didn't stop the nausea just the throwing up. At about 7 months in I ran out of them for a couple of days and it was like week 6/7 constantly throwing up.
It's awful. Every woman experiences different levels of sickness. You are not being a wimp.

Really annoys me the way people downplay it! Pregnancy can be hellish. I had hyperemesis last time and currently struggling this time (7 weeks). On the meds, but still like a zombie. Have a look at pregnancy sickness support website, it has a tonne of info

Baby number 4 here and I don't think your exaggerating.

I've been unwell with sickness in all my pregnancys, I'm 23 weeks now and untill around 16 weeks I vomitted every day, it would be bile as i couldn't keep anything down but i couldn't stop reching anyway.

It really is awful and i do feel for you. I hope you start feeling better soon. Xx

I had HG (hospitalised many times) with all three until they were born. There is 9 years between DS1&2 because of it.

Im so sorry you're going through this! You're husband should be more understanding! Sickness in pregnancy is awful and if the tables were turned, I'm sure he wouldn't just 'suck it up'!

I had bad sickness until week 17 and it was horrible but you kinda get used to it. It's really weird lol.
I had 2 days where it eased off and actually started panicking that something must be wrong and wanted it to come back! I was gutted when it did though lol.

There are things you can do to help but unless you have full blown hyperemesis, there's not much the doctors will do.

Keep hydrated, don't ever let yourself get hungry (really important) and be gentle with yourself.
Also, buy some bathroom bin liners and keep one in your bag as a sick bag! Literally saved me haha
I also bought a Tupperware (with the clips to keep the lid on) for the car. (No spillage)

Hope it eases up for you soon xxx

*your

Thank you all SO SO much for the messages, it has certainly helped reading through all your experiences and especially all the encouragement. I also want more than one child, but boy, cannot imagine 3-4 pregancies like this. And as some said, it's totally missunderstood and people around you really downplay it. Turns out my mum never had any of it. MIL is nice but keeps saying it will pass in a few days. The one friend that I did tell to, keeps asking me why no one is doing a scan or a blood test, she lives abroad and had tons of private appts to top up standard ones. She's not wrong though, apart from clearblue, I am not sure-sure I am PG

I only posted yesterday, but since being sick I had googled suggestions and reading forums, pages etc. I don’t think I have HG, but might start a diary of my food and water intake.

I think husband is a bit overwhelmed and also struggles to care for a sick person, but he is trying; I am otherwise healthy and rarely down with anything. That said, I am overweight (obese actually) so not eating or surviving on breadsticks and some pretzels is very difficult for me, when I get hungry and if nausea is a bit less, I want loads of things but I full know I won’t tolerate it.

Last night I had super nasty acid/heartburn. Today I made a point of not forcing myself to throw up anymore, but my breakfast still came up anyway, then later threw up all the water I had forced myself to have, can’t believe that not even water gets absorbed. Managed to eat potatoes and some salmon about 3 hrs back, hope it stays down. Think key is that I learn to eat bland and little food at a time. I still really struggle with liquids though. Also constipation gives me bad pain in my lower abdomen. It’s like my digestive system is f-ed in all the ways possible.

The meds I have are cyclizine, but I am somehow scared to take them as still not 100% sure they are safe? The other think I was thinking is, I was reading my folic acid might be ruining things as well with the iron? I am still taking preconception ones as GP didn’t say otherwise and only seeing MW this coming Thursday.

ugh...what a long rant