Morning sickness during first Trimester..help!

[MummaDee1]

Hi everyone, I've been having pretty bad morning sickness now since 5+4, I'm now 7 weeks. I had to take half of yesterday off work as I couldn't carry on. I'm not being sick but am continuously nauseous throughout the day and not managing to eat very much. I work in an office based role and struggling. Did anyone tell their work earlier than 12 weeks? I don't want to let my team down but equally struggling to keep it together these days. Any advice welcome

I told my boss at 8 weeks - I have constant nausea too and there’s just no way I can reliably get to work on time every day. I also wanted to ask about working from home some days, and didn’t want it to raise eyebrows if I started taking odd days off sick.

Once work know you’re pregnant, your sickness absence can go down as pregnancy related, which they can’t penalise you for (e.g. if your work has a trigger point after you’ve been off so many times, pregnancy related sickness can’t count towards that). So you have more protection. I feel much more relaxed since telling my boss, and she’s been fairly accommodating for me.

So sorry to hear you are experiencing this, no real advice as I did wait till 12 weeks to tell my employer previously.
Is there a possibility of an early scan? Just so you can check up before you share the news. No employer should discriminate against the news that you are pregnant, hopefully they will be accommodating to your symptoms.

Also no BFP for me currently (to early) but I am dealing with extreme nausea day in, day out so following for tips on how to manage it!

Glad to hear that, I hope mine would be the same ☺️ it's so tough trying to keep it together in the office, especially at lunch time with all the different food smells 🤢

I have my first midwife app on 13 July so I'm going to try wait until then. My scan is 12 August. Trying to take it one day at a time but that's tough!
The nausea is just horrendous isn't it. I've struggled eating so when I get a window of feeling slightly better I try to eat what I can. I find the days after I eat very little I feel much worse. I'm trying acupuncture next week apparently that helps?! Will keep you posted

I ended up telling just my direct manager when I was 7/8 weeks as I also had awful sickness and nausea all day. I didn't make it 'public' until 12 weeks (although people in my office guessed!)

I found nibbling on plain beige food helped. So rich tea biscuits and ready salted crisps. I would slowly nibble at them at my desk during the day. Literally just 2 biscuits and half a pack of crisps a day but I would just nibble them slowly. It helped. Whereas if I had nothing I felt more sick.

The sickness improved massively for me about 16 weeks and went completely by 18 weeks.

Congratulations.

Sorry you are experiencing this, OP. HG sufferer here and the relentless nausea is one of the most physically and mentally draining experiences I've ever had.

Have you tried asking for meds? I know you aren't being sick, but sometimes they can take the edge off it for you, although not everyone experiences relief.

A few other things I have tried and tested include mints or boiled sweets, sipping on water or flat soft drinks, basically just nibbling on anything you fancy, when you fancy it. It's true what you say, usually the empty feeling in your stomach makes you feel a million times worse.

Let your boss know. My work knew from 6 weeks because I was so ill.

I told work at about 5 weeks because I had HG and needed the support/sickness absence. They were lovely and supportive, I felt nervous at the time and I don't know why! I'm glad I did tell them as they were able to support me.

Try to eat little and often, different food work for different people, I found ice cold drinks and berries good with the first pregnancy and crisps and orange fanta with the second.

I told at 7 weeks, I was rushing off to be sick regularly and my brain was mush.

I didn't tell work until 12 weeks in my first pregnancy and it was awful - such a struggle and probably really obvious anyway as I was constantly running to the bathroom. Told work at 5 weeks in my second pregnancy as the sickness was much worse, vomiting 7 or 8 times a day and felt absolutely horrific so couldn't safely drive to work (no public transport where I live). I'm so glad work knew. Manager was extremely supportive, allowed me to WFH for a few months and eased my workload to help me cope so I could nap during the day etc. If you have a good relationship with your manager I'd say let them know - I found it a huge relief as just couldn't functions at anywhere near my normal level and it took the pressure off that they knew why.

Thanks all, I think I am going to let my manager know tomorrow. I've been vomiting today and seem to be getting worse. I have a huge meeting on Thursday to take minutes in and not sure at the moment how I'm going to get through it 😬 the distraction of work might not be the worst thing but it's a struggle

I told my manager early. As my sickness got bad from about 9 weeks. So I had to take 3 weeks off work. So had to tell them. Wanted to wait till 12 weeks. I am now 16 weeks just get nauseous every now and then. and am back at work. Felt safer that I told them earlier because when i went back to work I had risk assessments etc.

Glad to hear you're not as nauseous now @candyflossxox . The days seem to last forever at the moment 😓 but can only take it one day at a time. Were you throwing up with your morning sickness?

@MummaDee1 yeah was throwing up with it and struggled with eating, basically lived on toast. Got sickness tablets from docs in the end, that deffo helped.