Week 5: Folic Acid and feeling ROUGH

[bethh16]

Hi All!
I found out we're expecting our first baby on Monday - so have spent pretty much every waking minute researching what I'm meant to be doing and found out you should be taking Folic Acid, so I ordered some straight away.

I took my first one yesterday morning with some water and toast, and since then I have felt rough. I've got an upset stomach, I feel like I've lost my appetite (though I keep getting hungry, but when it comes to eating I just struggle) and I feel super sick.

Monday/last week, the only 'symptom' I had were sore boobs and then a missed period. But other than that, I wouldn't have even released I was pregnant. So I find it weird that as soon as I've found out, I now feel super rough and sick, so thought it must be down to the folic acid. (I have got Vitabotixs ultra folic acid w. vitamin B12)

Is anyone else feeling this way with folic acid, or experienced this before? I read at how important it was to take, but now I'm wondering if I should still take it, I assume it's just impacting me and the baby would be fine.

Because of Covid my first appointment will be over the phone and is on the 27th of July - so I have quite a while to wait until I can ask a midwife and not sure if there is anyone I can talk to about it now?

Any advice/sharing of experience would be appreciated :)

Thank you!

Congratulations! You might be right, but also early pregnancy symptoms can come on quite fast. I found out I was pregnant very early at 3 1/2 weeks, and by 4-5 weeks I had started feeling sick and had a really upset tummy which lasted weeks. I had taken folic acid throughout trying to conceive so it definitely wasn't that that caused it. What you've described just sounds like early pregnancy to me.

Even if it is being caused by the folic acid there's not a lot you can do about it. It's essential for your baby's development that you take it 🤷🏼‍♀️. I take pregnacare+ multivitamins and they make me really constipated, but I just have to put up with it because my baby needs the vitamins.

@bluemoon2468 thank you :) I'll keep taking them of course, it's just me worrying that if I feel rubbish that it'll be passed onto the baby but I think they save all those fun feelings for us!

Must just be a coincidence finding out and these symptoms. On the plus side it makes me feel 'more pregnant' as Monday I was just sat there thinking how I feel exactly the same haha

Congratulations!! I just found out on Monday I am pregnant too. Also started to feel pretty rough especially in the morning. Just had a plain cracker and had a mango & ginger drink I found in Holland & Barret which seems to have sorted me out.
Hope your doing okay! 🙂

@bethh16 don't worry, the baby has no idea you feel rubbish 😊 They get everything they need, we're the ones that suffer haha.

@Driftwood2000 congratulations to you too!! It’s so excitint but terrifying at the same time 😂 i’ll have to check out the drink - hopefully that helps a bit. Hope you’re doing ok too! X

Pregnancy symptoms can come on really suddenly. I wouldn't have known I was pregnant then around week 6, bam, the sickness and nausea hit me!

I took pregnsncy multivitamins and sometimes struggled to keep them down but I just persevered with them. Are the supplements you're taking specifically for pregnancy? Just be careful if not as many general ones contain vitamin A which you have to be careful of in pregnancy.

Congratulations! As PP have said, the nausea can hit seemingly from nowhere very suddenly! Very unlikely to be the vits, but see if you can take them with/after you largest meal (easier said than done sometimes!) of the day, as this will help them to settle into you stomach better, just in case it is that

Sometimes the pregnancy vitamins can make you feel worse if taken first thing. Try taking them with dinner or just before bed and see if that makes a difference. If not, it’s probably just standard pregnancy symptoms.

Some get it worse than others. I’ve never felt so ill in my life as I did in the first 12 weeks. Like an all day head spinning hangover with extreme tiredness. Rest as much as you can and don’t be afraid to take days off sick from work if you can.