Pregnancy sickness with a 20 month old, how do I get through this?

[helpmeplease99]

I'm in very early pregnancy and suffering from nausea and diarrhea. The first 4-5 months of my last pregnancy were absolutely awful with the nausea and sickness. I spent it pretty much in bed and feeling low and unwell. I can't do that this time as I have a toddler. I'm so so so scared I'm going to have the same experience. I don't have much support and husband works long hours. How do I get through this physically and mentally all whilst looking after my child? I'm a SAHM and we normally do classes but I don't think I'll be able to make them. I feel so bad for my child, they're going to be sat in front of the TV for months. And I'm so scared of what I'm going to go through again with the pregnancy symptoms. Please help

Speak to your GP asap. They can prescribe anti sickness medication to help you.

My advice: 1) Contact the Pregnancy Sickness Support charity. They are AMAZING. I had a peer mentor through them for the entirety of my second HG pregnancy, it really protected my mental health. Although I suffered almost as badly with HG second time round, my mental health didn't decline as badly, and I credit that mostly to my peer supporter, she was amazing. 2) Call your GP practice on Monday to arrange an appointment to discuss beginning anti-emetic medication as soon as possible.

I must caution though that even with all of the above, I was still severely unwell with HG for the first 5 months or so of my pregnancy. My eldest was 2.5 when I became pregnant and I was unable to look after her on my own for many months when I was sick, I was off sick from work for about 3 months. We coped by increasing her days at nursery to cover the day that I usually had her in the week - thankfully nursery had the availability for this. I used to do nursery drop-offs but my husband had to start doing all of them (and the collections, but he used to do collections anyway). Basically she was looked after by a grandparent one day a week (as she was before), nursery 4 days a week instead of her usual 3, and my husband looked after all the mornings, evenings, nights and weekends. It was horrible for me, but in some ways almost worst for my husband I think, and it was really difficult for our daughter. However, it did pass eventually. Eldest turned 4 recently and when I vaguely mentioned it, she had no recollection of me having HG at all!

Will contact my GP, although I think I did read that the anti sickness stuff doesn't do much. Can anyone advise on medication that genuinely made a difference?

Unfortunately my toddler isn't in nursery yet and I don't really want to put them in just yet. Think I will have to see if I can heavily rely on my parents throughout this time which isn't ideal for many reasons.

Thanks so much for mentioning the charity, I'm definitely going to contact them.

I was scared to get pregnant again in fear of suffering the same sickness, but told myself I can't live in fear. And now I'm thinking I've made a silly decision in some ways

Anti sickness does help its finding the right one. I started with cyclizine, prochloraperazine and ended up with ondansetron.

@helpmeplease99 look up the Hyperemesis thread on here - they're fab for support. I also second what @MrsH497 says - ask your GP and if they give you something and it doesn't work, go back and ask for something else. I wasn't proactive enough with that and it took me out for about 8 weeks and about 3 different drugs before I got Ondansetron which has actually stopped the nausea for me - I'm still medicated at 30 weeks now as it comes back if I try to stop!

I've now got constipation from the ondansetron which I'm having to manage but it's nowhere near as bad as the nausea was.

Completely understand, my first is about 2.5 and I felt like a really bad parent when all this was going on, but he's managed and once this is over I'll make it up and he likely won't really remember!

I found both metoclopramide and ondansetron helped reduce the frequency of my vomiting - although sadly neither enough to actually function. I had to abruptly stop the metoclopramide although due to side effects but that obviously doesn't happen to everyone. I hope your parents can help with childcare, otherwise nursery may be a necessity, it depends how unwell you get. I spent months stuck in bed vomiting so there was no other option for us.

If I was to go through another HG pregnancy before my dd goes to school I’d have to put her in nursery 5 days a week. I was on cyclizine, which agreed with me, and metaclopromide & ondansetron, which categorically did NOT. I have no advice, other than accept all the help that you can get. HG MN thread is amazing. Good luck, OP. Sincerely hoping that you won’t be as I’ll as you fear ❤️