Looking for advice on how to make pregnancy bearable please!

[lyd4165]

Hi, my husband and I have made the decision to have another baby. I’m very excited about it however when I had my second child a couple of years ago I found pregnancy awful. So tiring and stressful and I was ill constantly. I was expecting subsequent pregnancies to be more difficult than a first baby as you have less time to yourself to relax etc but nothing prepared me for how bad it was. I’m wondering if anyone has any advice for how they made a 2nd/3rd/4th! Pregnancy as easy as it can possibly be ( I’m aware it will never be a walk in the park). Thanks in advance!

Hi congratulations on your decision. I had hypermesis in both pregnancies (extreme morning sickness) it was much worse in my second some days I just couldn't get out of bed. I was signed of work for 3 months before my early maternity leave began so if you are really ill maybe this is something you could ask your doctor to do. If you have family and friends close to you don't be afraid to ask for help as I found stuff like grocery shopping, cleaning, washing the hardest to keep up with and really made me feel down. If you can afford it maybe even hiring a cleaner. Also, I found just the small things like friends taking my ds to the park or soft play while I rested helped me not feel any guilt. Eat what you fancy, don't put pressure on yourself to do things you don't feel able to do and basically what I'm trying to say is don't be afraid of asking for help. And just remember it's only temporary and at the end its so worth it. Sending my love ❤️

Thank you so much @Cakeybubblespink for taking the time to reply. I can’t imagine how awful that level of sickness must be especially when you have another child to take care of! I was lucky in that my sickness was controlled with different medications but still never left completely. Add in the heartburn that required medication plus all the bugs I was catching from my other child who went to nursery and school it just felt like there wasn’t a single day when I felt well. I just want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to make things as pleasant as they can be! You’re so right about asking for help but I don’t know about you but I find it so hard. There’s this expectation that they’re your children and you should be able to manage them while pregnant while ill while working and while doing housework, cooking etc.

Yeah I can understand you wanting to be prepared for it this time. My partner and I have said if we was to have another baby in the future we would want to make some kind of action plan for my pregnancy like consulting doctor first maybe even taking medication before the sickness kicks in because as I remember mine always kicked in on the 6 week mark exactly.

Yeah I know what you mean I did feel this way at first but you just have to remember it's only temporary and it's much better feeling knowing child has been out and had fun than feeling guilty you haven't been able to leave the house all day with them. Trust me some days we stayed at home watching movies all day he did love that too!

And with the cleaning and housework I just remember my house being very messy most of the time, I didn't mind doing washing strangely enough the smell of fairy fabric conditioner was one of my cravings I couldve sat all day smelling my clean washing lol. Cooking was a no I couldn't do it at all the smell just made me sick so just used to buy a lot of ready meals for my partner and ds and family would drop round dinners too. But don't worry if house gets a bit messy mine did too, but it's only temporary! Sorry if that was all waffle lol. I wish you all the best ❤️💐

That’s exactly it. An action plan. That’s what I’m trying to get sorted. If I can work out how to manage all the different things and keep the stress down I’ll feel better. Planning a bigger age gap this time as well so youngest will be in school for the last 3/4 months so that should mean that at least on the days I’m not working I should be able to take it easier. Thank you for all your helpful advice!