Preparing for second baby after severe Morning Sickness.

[Jadeleigh196]

I was wondering if anyone out there had any advice about preparing for a second baby after having severe morning sickness with previous 2 pregnancies?

I had my daughter in 2021, and from week 7-week 16 I experienced severe morning sickness, nausea all day, extreme fatigue and being sick 2-8 times a day. I never had to go into hospital but probably wasn't far off as I wasn't keeping much down. After week 16 I still found I was being sick every morning (up until she was born) but I was able to get out of bed and manage my day.

In those early weeks I found I was so tired and nauseous that I could barely lift my head off the pillow. I had to have time off work and received Omeprazole from the GP for acid reflux (which was keeping me awake at night) but other than that no medication. I also had a second pregnancy in July 23 which ended in a termination at 6 weeks but my nausea for this started at week 5 1d and I felt even worse than I ever did with my daughter even though I was only pregnant for a week!

Myself and my partner are now wanting a second child, but I am terrified of how unwell I will feel, especially with a toddler. I don't want to let my daughter down and spend loads of time away from her, but I also have to be realistic and accept that I'm quite likely to be feeling pretty crap at least for the first trimester.

I'm wanting to consider medication from the GP for sickness/nausea and I'm thinking about childcare options and work, but I wondered if anyone had any advice on how they managed this problem?! And also if there's any healthcare/ lifestyle choices I could start implementing now which might help me cope better with the nausea when it comes? vitamins, supplements etc.

Any advice/solidarity would be greatly appreciated!

It's really hard OP. Nobody seems to take it seriously and just roll their eyes and say try ginger biscuits but this isn't the reality.
Is your daughter in nursery full time? If she is not, I would put her in now or make other provisions so that when you are ill, there is someone there to look after her properly.

I've just given birth to my second and in the early days of hyperemesis I couldn't change any of his nappies as I'd vomit all over the place, my husband basically had to take over parenting on the weekends as I had so little energy and would be running back and forth all day to the toilet to throw up. I threw up every day until 32 weeks. I had a lot of guilt for not being able to look after my son properly so you will need to be prepared for this. Do you have support and family help nearby?

There are several medications you can take and you should definitely try them when your midwife prescribes them as they will help.

Hi,

I have just experienced similar. I suffered with hyperemesis in my first pregnancy from 5 weeks until 21 weeks. I was adamant that I wouldn't go through that again as it was truly horrific but now my LB is 2 and I wanted nothing more than to give him a sibling. I was in denial and thought it wouldn't happen to me again even though deep down I knew it would! As soon as I was 5 weeks the extreme nausea and sickness started. I contacted my GP right away and got straight on medication. Im not going to lie it has been awful trying to get through it whilst having a two year old as some days I couldnt even get out of bed or lift my head off the pillow. I took time off work, took my medication religiously and rested as much as possible. I did end up in hospital on a drip but only once. My partner and family massively stepped up to help look after our son and around 11 weeks I began to start to feel a tad better but still took it day by day, I did a phased return to work and listened to my body. Im 17 weeks now and back at work properly, eating and drinking much better and feel much more normal although I am still taking sickness meds. Ive felt much better earlier on this time as last time I was still feeling dreadful at 20 weeks!

It was hard but now that I am feeling better I am so glad I stuck it out and I am so excited to be a family of 4!

I would prepare early, have a chat with your GP about medication. I also found the charity Pregnancy Sickness Support a huge help.

Good luck xx

This second pregnancy has been much worse than the first one which I didn’t think would be possible but oh my goodness.It’s been much harder all the way through. At 38 weeks now and so glad I’m almost there.

Like OP mentioned - if child isn’t in nursery / full time it’s definately worth getting them into that structure in the case your pregnancy is as bad or worse than first one. My son was part time & his nursery was due to close in August - I was bed bound fully & signed off sick for around 7/8 weeks.Had to cancel freelance jobs too so financially make sure you bank as much as you can in the case you are off sick. Husband had booked a week off as we were due to go away we just about managed childcare through summer holidays as we don’t have family close by.

Reach out to your GP and perhaps speak to them about medication options in the case any of it helps you if you do have similar experience to first pregnancy. Medication took the edge off for me with hg but I was still bed bound & had constant nausea,tiredness,migraines & so much more.

Spd & PGP has been ridiculous this pregnancy didn’t have it anywhere near as bad first time round. So something to consider too. As much support you can get with childcare do it!

I had 6 pregnancies. The first 5 all had hyperemesis. I terminated pregnancies 2, 3 and 4 because of hyperemesis. Pregnancy 5 I managed to get the GP to agree to let me self administer cyclizine injections to help control symptoms - which it did. I was still sick every couple of days. But then I'd take an injection and things would improve.

However pregnancy 6... I had left over cyclizine tablets from pregnancy 5. As soon as I had a positive test I started taking it 3 times a day. No hyperemesis. In fact, no sickness at all. It was unbelievable to me after the trauma of the previous pregnancies. I'm not having any more children. But if I was I would try that again. This was the first pregnancy I'd tried something to actively prevent it from starting.

I suffer hyperemesis with each of my pregnancies and so do have to have quite a robust plan in place. Since suffering horrendously with one of my pregnancies and being admitted to hospital twice for fluids, I was tried on ondansetron which worked amazingly. Subsequent 2 pregnancies I’ve been given this from very early on so as soon as get to the constant throwing up stage then I have that to start on. It keeps the sickness under control and also helps with the nausea but I’m still fairly debilitated and cannot keep down more than 100-200 calories a day and some fluids. However not the hell it is without the medication and able to get out of bed for short periods. We’ve planned our children to be 4-5 years apart so that they are at school/ full time nursery and have a degree of independence, sleeping through the night. This last time I also organised additional before and after school care plus organised the house to make anything that could be made easier so. Also discussed it with friends before for too ill so they were on hand to help with the kids clubs etc too. I knew I would have to be off work for several weeks also but luckily have been in my job for a while. I also organised a cleaner to come in a couple of times. It was basically a case of having a plan and then once had positive test manically organising everything in those first couple of weeks before I knew would start getting ill. Cancelling any upcoming commitments etc. It was all still grim going through it but so much better having done the prep for it. I would definitely advice have a look at the pregnancy support website and also visit GP before become pregnant to discuss potential treatment options

I'm so sorry to hear that you had to do that due to HG- In part that was a reason for terminating my second pregnancy.

That's really interesting about the cyclizine though, and I actually think I've heard of someone taking anti emetics from positive test and it stopping HG... Maybe they need to do some research into this. I doubt the GP would ever agree but I might try and discuss this with them and see if they'll oblige.

@LittleRebelGirl and @Jadeleigh196 hope you’re both doing well. I was wondering if taking cyclizine 3 times a day worked for you to stop any sickness starting?

Yes it did. X

@LittleRebelGirl i am only 4 weeks but feel nauseous and like it’s all just going to kick off again and emotionally / mentally I feel broken. I can’t do this again for months.

i have cyclizine from my last pregnancy. K I’ll just start taking 3 a day and see if it works… thabk
you for this advice x

I was prescribed promezathine but my pregnancy actually ended up being unexpected so I didn't prepare in the way I had hoped. I started taking the medication from around 5 weeks. It definitely helped with no vomiting but still suffered the usual nausea and exhaustion. In the end I stopped taking it after a month as I was so groggy with my daughter but this pregnancy has been so much better I will admit. I guess you just never know! I hope everything goes well for you x