first trimester nausea

[becca0195]

Hello, I'm 7 weeks pregnant and the nausea is kicking my ass, I'm really struggling to live my day-to-day life at this point, what has everyone else done to help? I'm going to be phoning the doctor today, but while I wait for the appointment is there anything I can do at home?

I've got the wristbands, the melts, and a spray and I'm drinking mint tea... nothing is helping :(

What are you eating, how much, and how often?

I’m just over 9 weeks and struggling with it too. I find that having breakfast as soon as I wake up and eating every 1.5/2hours throughout the day (even if I don’t feel like it) helps keep the severe nausea at bay (although I still feel sick most of the time). I’m trying to focus on high protein food too as I think the drop in blood sugar makes the nausea worse

I haven't been eating very well, I'm having toast one slice when I wake up, then again a couple of hours later, a lot of water, then for lunch i'm typically having noodles or something plan and easy to eat, then dinner is just a nightmare, ill try and eat but I can't. so I'm just grazing all day, trying not to get hungry as its so much worse when I'm hungry

What helped me was booking two days holiday a week from about 7 weeks to 11 weeks. Being tired or doing too much made me feel so much worse. I also had acupuncture, which I think helped a bit for a few days after the appointment.

Fruit and sparkling water, and cereal with sugar, were some of the only things I could eat for a bit

the thought of feeling like this for another month just makes me want to cry. I've started eating right away, I will try eating something every couple of hours.

what are you eating? everything is such a struggle right now

Congratulations OP :)
I stuck to fresh fruit and veg, things that have water in them. Dry crackers. That's it.
Keep gaviscon and rennies on you at all times.
Nothing starchy or too heavy.
Good luck!

Yes, i found out that being tired makes it so much worse! i had a bright idea of just going out for the day to distract myself- which was fine but the next day was hell 😂

ill try sparking water, I've been eating a lot of fruit and ice lollies they seem to help- at what point did it get better for you?

Thank you ❤

ill stock up on these things! i just want to feel a little more human again 🙈

@becca0195 I don't want to make you feel bad (because when I was pregnant even another week of the nausea was unbearable!) but I felt ill until about 14 weeks.

B vitamins helped a little. Anything ginger made me want to puke. Rennies and wind ease stuff helped a bit - think my stomach felt very acidic. Nothing really helped for me totally. I watched a lot of tv, and apart from work and dog walks, just avoided socialising or going anywhere for about a month. You can get anti emetics from Dr (cyclizine was crap, but they have second and third line stuff you can have).

Huge sympathies - I remember how bad it felt. I'm trying again now and dreading the nausea again, much worse than the birth. Feels totally unrelenting when you're in it

I know what you mean. When I think about it too much it really brings me down but I’m trying to not think too far ahead and just take it one day at a time. I’ve experienced a number of losses too so I’m just hoping that this misery is worth it.

I’m having porridge or natural yoghurt and granola for breakfast, then crackers with cheese at about 10am. Lunch is hit or miss. It’s a lot of dairy but the protein seems to help keep the nausea away for abit longer.

My main issue at the moment is fluid intake. I normally don’t drink anything but water but it makes me feel horrible. If you’ve got any tips for that, please send them my way 😊

Ah the nausea is the worst, I had this at 7-10 weeks. I found eating regularly helped even if it’s only small amounts, having an empty stomach made it a lot worse for me. But at the same time eating too much also made it worse. It took me a few days to find a balance. Crackers between meals helped and I also found the Nairns ginger stem oat biscuits really helped. They aren’t as sweet and sickly as proper ginger biscuits.
I sipped water too as gulping it or drinking it in large amounts made it worse. Try to rest as much as you can too.

The good news is it really won’t last forever although I know it feels endless. Mine started to subside at 10 weeks and I’m now 12 weeks and I’ve only been nauseous once or twice in the last 2 weeks I’d say.

yes, that's about what I've read online. I'm hoping the doctors can give me something to ease it a little but I never imagined in a million years it would be this bad, sometimes I think I'm just being dramatic. I have been brought to tears with it, I'm so fed up - but I'm going to try everything and eat what I can to ease it!

That is basically my life, I work from home, so just do my work, walk the dog and just trying to stay positive

Ah @becca0195 I really feel for you. From 7 weeks I took a week off work and had a weeks holiday after that. I suffered from nausea and didn’t eat which made me so much worse.

I ended taking so much food to work to get me through and had to eat at least every hour to feel like I wasn’t going to throw up everywhere.

Im now 10+1 and had a good day yesterday apart from being sick at 9pm. Today I feel relatively good but getting quite hungry every two hours now.

It will get better and try to break it down into weeks rather than thinking of it being a month away. I probably should have persevered with my doctor and midwife but they both just told me it’s normal and to rest 😩

Don't worry about trying to eat a proper/big meal in the evening, just stick with little and often.

6 small meals every 2 hours would be better than 3 larger meals, but if even small meals are too difficult then grazing is fine if it keeps it manageable.

Carbs are usually a better option to keep nausea at bay, protein can make it worse.

And as you've realised, don't let yourself get hungry as that will make it worse. (Your digestive system is basically a muscle contracting to move food through your body - if you stop eating it goes to sleep, which means when you next eat you'll be bloated and uncomfortable as the food just sits there until it wakes up and gets back up to normal speed.)

Not sure carbonated drinks are a great idea, that's more likely to add further discomfort.

Little and often. Plain.

I feel for you! I was so sick from 7-11 weeks. Definitely found beige food like bagels, rich tea biscuits and ready salted crisps helped. A can of full fat coke (although I just got the small cans as was worried about the caffeine!) also settled my stomach a bit. Plus sucking boiled sweets and ice lollies as I found some days I couldn’t keep water down. Drinking water through a straw helped weirdly too.

It will pass, keep resting as much as you can, and congratulations!

I had hg until about 5 months. It was tough going but the gp wasn't too concerned. I worked out that I could keep my vitamins down with water if I took them immediately before going to bed so tried to do that every night. I was really weird about food to be honest any time I felt like I could eat I tried to make sure it was something reasonably nutritional like we're talking chicken and veg soup for breakfast because it was plain enough to manage. Carbs helped. I eventually found I could handle small amounts of carby food like bread and potatoes and I just really took my time eating and split my meals when I couldn't face the full thing. I lost almost 2 stone in 5 months The main thing to remember is that baby gets all the goodness it needs from you first and you get the leftovers so it's more likely to be rough on your body than it is on baby. Sleep was another huge thing for me, if i didn't get enough sleep then I'd have had worse sickness the next day so I was in bed about 9 every night whether I was tired or not. Ice water also helped me and trying to eat regularly even if its just ginger tea and ginger biscuits or a glass of milk. It's a good sign that your hormones are strong though so as hard as it is try and look at it that way. I ended up finding it almost reassuring and freaked out a little when it started to pass. Acid can trigger it so avoid anything spicy that would cause stomach acid.