Morning sickness

[teasconesandlavender]

Or in my case, all-day sickness.

I’m 6 weeks pregnant exactly today, and like clockwork, the sickness has started.

Yesterday I felt queasy all day but managed to eat fairly normally and went about my day as normal. This morning, I woke up feeling extremely nauseous. My husband brought me apple juice and plain toast as the cold drinks seemed to settle nausea yesterday. It didn’t help at all. There were moments I felt like I was going to be sick, but I didn’t.

I’ve spent today barely moving and snacking on ginger biscuits, blueberries, grapes and babybels. Within 45 mins to an hour I feel sick again.

I’m off work this week, thankfully, but I’m already worried about going back next week. I’m a teacher, so I can’t even sit at a desk snacking all day.

Any advice? 😓

I just thankfully got past the sickness, I took anti sickness tablets which stopped the sickness but made me feel SO tired - I actually preferred the sickness!

The main thing that helped me when I couldn’t snack was minty chewing gums or mints, I think I’d go through 5 packs a day but it really helped!

Glad to hear you’re past the sickness!

Did you get the anti-sickness tablets prescribed? I want to phone my gp tomorrow and see if I can get some. I feel a little silly, because the sickness has only just started and I’m already not coping.

been there 😭

frozen grapes
ice chips
flat lemonade
travel sick bands
breathing techniques on you tube
mints and anti sickness meds (get anti fatigue ones if possible) as PP suggested
do not get out of bed until you have eaten a dry biscuit or two or some toast
sip water through a straw
and remember. This will pass

Thank you 🙏

Will look into anti sickness bands.
Did you keep dry biscuits on your bedside table? Looks like I’ll need to change my morning routine!

I did, I got Cyclizine but like I said they made me feel really groggy, I had no energy to do anything. I didn’t even want to get up to make a drink I felt that tired!

See if they can give you a non drowsy one otherwise I really don’t feel like it’s worth it, especially if you have to go to work

That’s really rubbish. Good to know, though. I will ask about side effects.

Did you find the sickness would vary from one day to the next? Or was it constantly feeling sick for weeks?

I had the feeling of wanting to be sick all day everyday but I was only actually sick maybe 4-6 times. It lasted about 7 weeks for me and then something changed because I haven’t had that feeling once.

If I smell certain foods or something I can still feel sick but it will last seconds

That sounds rough! Must be nice when it suddenly stops.

How did you cope at work when you felt sick?

I have a 20 month old so I’m at home with him and have a part time evening job which I WFH thankfully so I did it from bed most times!

Although having a near 2 year old to look after was not fun either!!

Wow, I bet looking after a toddler wasn’t easy! You don’t get much of a break from that.

I couldn’t keep toast down earlier, but now managing to eat a mini Chicago town pizza 🤔 Makes no sense!

It wasn’t!!

I lived off cereal it was the only thing I could stomach and dairy lea lunchables even though I felt like a 5 year old eating them!

Eat what you fancy OP. Blander the better.

I’m 11wks and finding the sickness has changed a lot, at 6w I felt pretty constantly nauseous and the fatigue was epic, as time goes on patterns establish so now I’ll feel rough at 8:30am, usually throw up, then get on with my day WFH with only brief nausea if I haven’t eaten/drunk enough. Lucky not to have needed drugs so far but if it hadn’t eased up in the daytime, I would have done.

Everyone’s different though. Only you know how bad you’re feeling, if you need to call in sick for a few days until you get the drugs to work then do it. GP or early pregnancy unit, lots of people swear by xonvea?

Just refuse all the nonsense and get them to put you on Xonvea. It’s more expensive. Because it works. No point suffering with the other meds. They won’t like that so you will need to push.

See your GP, sooner rather than later. You might need to try a couple of anti sickness meds before you find the combination that suits you. Please don't feel silly, pregnancy sickness is really debilitating.

I had hyperemesis gravidarum - as did my DGm, my DM and then my DD - which is classified as being sick more than three times a day.
Every day, in reality all day… the most times I was sick was 17 in 24 hours when pregnant with my DS. It lasts from around week 5 to the very end of pregnancy. I was still being sick in labour.
But we got over it. Don’t be too negative but be thankful of what is making you that way.

Ugh it’s the worst, solidarity op. I would recommend getting some anti sickness tablets so they’re available if you need them. And don’t feel bad if you don't feel grateful during the first trimester, it’s really tough.

Lots of GPs can't prescribe it's got to be started by consultant in most areas, even though it's recommended as first line treatment in NICE guidance.

Really?! That’s outrageous.

I was lucky then.

Well I definitely was. It was finally approved on nhs a few months prior to my second pregnancy after suffering through the first.

I rang up and demanded it. The gp said I have never prescribed it before. I was like well now’s your chance 😂 she said but these others work let’s try them first. I said they don’t work. I said what’s the difference with Xonvea. Is there a reason you haven’t prescribed. She said the only reason she would was safety concerns. I said… you think Xonvea is unsafe. She said no. It’s the only licensed anti emetic for pregnancy. I said so that is the safer option. She said technically yes. I said… Well I will have that thanks 🙃

Honestly mind boggling conversation.

I had a similar conversation with a GP who had never heard of it or prescribed it before. Got him on board but when he then looked at the prescribing guidelines for my area it said it could only be prescribed by secondary/specialist care. There was a BBC article about it being a postcode lottery whether you could get it or not. It’s ridiculous isn’t it.

I think I survived on Mini Cheddars and tonic water for a few weeks. Strong flavours, and I could not stomach anything too sweet. Then
a whole gamut of anti sickness drugs. Then a fortnight in hospital on a drip.

@teasconesandlavender if you are too ill to work, it’s worth knowing that by law pregnancy related sick leave must be recorded separately and can not be used in disciplinary action against you. A good HR dept will know this!

Thank you to everyone for your responses.

It’s reassuring to see so many women going through similar. But also awful that this amount of sickness is so common.

I phoned my GP this morning and he prescribed me Cyclizine. He did suggest trying home things first and said that the medication is not “100% safe”, but given that I’ve been sick 7 times since 2am, I’m desperate.

It is!

Can’t blame the GPs if they have never heard of it. I can only imagine as you say she was reading/ searching online and I was privy to her brain processing 😂

Got a lot of thanks to the pregnancy sickness charities. Without them I wouldn’t have know it existed. They really do great work.

Ring back and say you have been looking at safety and that your disappointed they have given you this off label when there is an approved safe option. First line on nice guidelines - which is xonvea.

It is hard to get hold of but I always managed through online pharmacies no issue. I think it was Yakub online pharmacy.

Definitely take the meds, it changed my whole pregnancy when I started taking them!

As previously mentioned, xonvea is only consultant initiated in a lot of areas. Cyclizine, prochlorperazine, ondansetron are also recommended in NICE guidance and widely used. Nobody can say ANY drug is completely safe, in pregnancy as they're not tested on pregnant women.