Morning Sickness

[Jennyb]

Try the travel bands you can buy in Boots which help to prevent travel sickness. It worked a treat for my second pregnacy and I'm wearing them now as we speak as I'm 6 weeks and was feeling awful until I put them on this morning. They work on the Chinse prinicples of acupressurre and help all forms of nausea. Only thing that worked for me anyway!

[Jennyb]

CI, yes during my first pregnancy I only suffered for a few days with the sickness early on and then for one morning when I was about 12 weeks. Lucky you!

[Motherofone]

Guess I'm going to have to change my chat name 'cos I've just discovered I'm 5 weeks pregnant! However am feeling totally and utterly crap (which is new to me as had a very good first pregnancy).
I've had a really bad bout of flu and been off sick for the last couple of weeks and now I just don't know whether I'm still ill from flu or whether this is the pregnancy thing kicking in (or what combination of both).
I don't feel nauseous as such, but I am reacting violently to smells and finding it really difficult to eat anything (really not hungry). Basically I feel just really 'spaced out and tired'. Oh and finally, I'm getting these really weird 'night sweats' where I wake up absolutely soaked in sweat and shivering.
Anyone experienced anything similar? Or am I blaming the pregnancy for too much? Went to see my GP and she just basically said 'take paracetamol' (helpful as ever...)

[Eulalia]

Congrats Motherofone / two! The reaction to smells is a strong indication of the hormone levels changing. I too felt really crap this time round but found it fairly easy first time. Each pregnancy is different. 5 weeks is still fairly early and you may start to feel worse over the next couple of weeks (sorry!)

[Joe1]

Congratulations Motherofone hope you feel better soon. We are trying for number 2 and I really didnt like the sick feeling I had all the time first time round, Im hoping its not any worse next time.

[Robinw]

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[Janh]

Motherofone, I was exactly like you with my second pregnancy - sailed through the first with no problems, but discovered i was pregnant the 2nd time when we both had a vile bug and I went on feeling awful after DH got better.
I never actually threw up but felt awful all the time, particularly disliked the smell of things like coffee and car exhausts (next door used to start his engine and then disappear indoors for 10 minutes every morning) - if you happen to have any poloneck tops they make good smell-excluding facemasks when required!
I couldn't eat much all day - this lasted until about 13 weeks and I was OK after that, it feels like forever at the time but it does get better.
The night sweats could be hormonal - like the menopause, when everything is out of balance? (Or it could still be a fluey thing...)
Anyway, congratulations and best of luck!

[Motherofone]

Thanks everyone - the good news is I'm feeling a bit better and I think (hope!) most of the ill feeling was due to the flu and not being pg. Am managing to sleep better and at least feel able to get out of bed and eat (no physical sickness).
Still not back to work though (3rd week off) and I know when I get back all my colleagues are going to be watching me like a hawk - think I'll have to play out the 'aftermath of 'flu' thing until Christmas! I guess I'm just really worried that No.2 is alright in there. With ds I never worried at all about problems/ miscarriage etc, but for some reason this time I feel completely paranoid about it - e.g. burst into tears last light watching 'Cold Feet' (new series)when the Manchester girl (can't remember her name!) went for a scan and found the baby was dead.
Anyway thanks everyone - I'll keep you posted.

[Shhhh]

Congratulations Motherfone!! I too have recently found out I'm expecting No2! (i'm 8 weeks).

I've been feely really tired & groggy (like having a bad hang over except not acohol induced!!). I didn't get morning sickness in my 1st pregnancy until later (4months, I know it was really strange but stopped at 6 and half months, thankfully). However this time I'm getting since about 5 weeks, so I'm hoping it will stop at the end of the magic 3 months that the books say!!

Your thoughts really struck a chord with me, I too have so been worrying about miscarriage this time round.......and last night in cold feet that exact scence has been my constant nightmare that's been waking me up in the night for weeks now.....going for a scan to be told it's all gone wrong....I was crying hystercially (excuse spelling), my husband didn't know how to console me but he did try bless him.

During the 1st pregnancy I obviously had thoughts of what could go wrong but this time I can't shift my thoughts away from it at all.....I'm sooooo scared.

I'm sorry if I stress you out or make you more worried but I had to share my thoughts with someone & you seem to have to same worries, maybe we can help each other through it.....

[Motherofone]

Thanks Shhhh - and congratulations to you too! The non-alcohol hangover feeling is exactly what I feel like! Because I was so OK with no.1 I don't think dh comprehends this at all - just thinks I'm being a wimp and trying to wangle a few lie-ins (that's a bit unfair, as he's been great over the last couple of weeks while I've had flu, but I can sense he's now thinking - c'mon get on with it you must be better now!)

I'm feeling a bit less emotional today and keep thinking there's no point worrying about all the possibilities of things going wrong - I tend to think 'if it's to be, it will be' and what I need to do now is concentrate on being as well as possible and give this tiny baby everything it needs right now.
We don't want to tell anyone until after the scan, so I feel the first few weeks of pregnancy are so lonely - all I want to do is tell someone!
Would love to keep up to date with you and your progress - take care.

[Bugsy]

Many congrats Motherofone & Shhhh. I'm always bleating on about Supadryn but it is a brilliant multi-vit & mineral supplement that I started taking when I was feeling very rubbish early on in my second pregnancy. It is better than just taking iron on its own as it has all the B vits to help you absorb it better.
I'm 19 weeks now with no 2 and I was very weepy up until about 14 weeks, which really took me by surprise as I am normally not like that at all.
Get all the rest you can and hopefully you'll be feeling better in a month's time.

[Eve]

Morning Sickness - A Cure (sort of).....I am now 14 weeks with my 2nd and suffering very badly with Hypermesis Gravidavum (severe sickness) and was being sick 10+ times a day. As you can imagine sickness to this degree is dehabiliting!

My midwife, who is excellent, found for me a tape called MorningWell, which when listened to through headphones is supposed to reduce the sickness by 90%. I can say it helped me immensley, and I thoroughly recommend it. Within a week I went from being sick 10+ times a day to 1 or 2, which I can live with.

The tape is available via the website WWW.MorningWell.Co.UK (a donation from all sales go to NCT).

I was fairly sceptical about how it worked, apparently something to do with sonic waves and brain signals...but hey, if it helps make my life bearable I'm sold.

[Lorien]

Hi there 2nd-time-rounders,

I also am experiencing major morning (well, afternoon) sickness in my second pregnancy, after a trouble-free first pregnancy.
I'm so glad I read this thread as I was beginning to think I was getting ME or serious depression, because the whole experience is so debilitating -- from noon to four most days I just can't manage anything, sometimes even the smell of other people's breath (not even bad breath...) makes my stomach turn.
I've tried ginger biscuits and dry toast, and soda water, but nothing seems to help very much. Any suggestions that other mums/mums-to-be have would be most appreciated.
Thanks, Lorien

[Eulalia]

Lorien - first of all congratulations. I had bad nausea with this pregnancy (2nd). It is supposed to be a good sign of a healthy pregnancy. I have a few suggestions which may work - you just have to try to find what works with you as everyone is different.

Try to eat out (I don't mean necessarily mean restaurants!) Often preparing food can totally put you off. I was short of money which didn't help but I'd buy a sandwich which I knew I couldn't make myself. I tried egg or chicken sandwiches. Do try to eat protien - apparently a high protien snack at night can help with the morning (obviously change times if your sickness isn't in the morning). Eat as much as you can in your non sick part of the day. Try to eat before you think you will start to feel nauseous otherwise it becomes a vicious circle. Some of it is psychological (isn't everything?) and you can try to distract yourself while eating. So try to make the experience as pleasurable as possible. I found eating in a different place (relative/friend) helped, particularly if they'd made the food!

Um, what else? Change the food you eat every day if possible so don't buy a lot of one thing. Fairly obvious things - get as much rest as possible. It is amazing what you forget - I just didn't fancy anything. I remember managing grapes and some kind of soup, toast ... but all of this is variable from person to person.

Don't worry - you may lose weight but baby is fine and you'll soon put back those pounds. Good luck!

[jasper]

Lorien I had a friend who could only eat Baxters cock a leekie soup for the first five months, or so she claimed...
My sympathies to you. I never found ANY remedies which worked for the multitude of pregnancy ailments I have suffered, except for a hot dep bath, which cured everything, but only for the duration of the bath!

[Joe1]

Lorien, Im getting the same on and off through the day. I had it first time round but Im sure Im going to be sick with this one. I seem to be eating lots of toast, not very hot, and Ive just bought some banana chips for ds and Ive started nibbling those which seem to help. Crisps helped last time but making things worse this time. I just cant wait for this to pass it you makes you feel horrible doesnt it.

[mollipops]

With number one I was so sick I ended up in hospital dehydrated twice, and actually passed out 3 times from low blood pressure - once at work (in front of everyone at a meeting!) and twice actually at the doctor's - once sitting in a chair (I fell sideways onto the chair beside me which was luckily empty at the time!) and then another time I was trying to get to the loo and passed out right outside his door! He came out from seeing his last patient and nearly tripped over me! Very embarrassing, but also a very good way to jump the queue!

Anyway, my advice is to avoid any smells that set you off, even if it means no trips to the supermarket for a while, eat a boiled potato or corn cob with a bit of marg or butter, (I couldn't get toast or dry biscuits down my dry throat!). Ginger is very good, you can get tablets from health food shops. Drinking dry ginger ale is very settling too. Eat small amounts often...snack on nuts and dried fruit, popcorn, anything you fancy really (if there's anything you DO fancy!)
Babies are amazingly resilient though, I was convinced I had starved dd before she was even born but she was fine and in the end she was 7lb 10oz!