3 1/2 hour drive tonight, not sure I can do it!

[Rocklover]

Help, advice needed. It's my Mum's birthday this weekend and I said that I would (with dp and dd) go up for the weekend and celebrate with them.

I am 10+6 and recently the m/s had eased off slightly so I wasn't feeling so nauseus all the time. However this week I have been feeling rather yucky again and I have been having horrid bouts of diahorrea (sp), which are preg related, not a bug.

I really want to go and see my family (I am in Devon, they are in Oxfordshire), but I am not sure I am up to the drive. My dp doesn't drive, so cannot help out and we cannot afford 3 lots of train fares to get up there (would be around £150ish).

I absolutely detest feeling sick all the time (am slightly emetephobic) and the thought of driving 180 odd miles fills me with dread. However, I really don't want to let my family down. Am I being a complete wimp and should just get on with it?

I don't think you are being a wimp at all. I absolutely understand how you feel having had horrendous morning sickness and basically wanting to die because of it.

I can imagine how much you want to see your family on your Mum's birthday but I am pretty sure that if you talk to your Mum she will be more than understanding and wouldn't want you to feel worse than you already do.

Personally I would not have been able to make such a long car journey with my morning sickness - particularly having to drive myself all the way. I would have spoken to my Mum and arranged to go up to see her when I was feeling more human. I know she would have been fine about it - it would have been me who felt upset about missing out.

This phase will pass very soon (a few weeks if you are lucky) and then you will be free to travel as you like. Hang in there.

Can you go with frequent stops? Have snacks in car. Drive on A roads not motorways so you can pull over to be sick if necessary etc. I had to give lecture at height of my sickness and found I felt sick before and sick after but adrenalin of lecture meant I felt fine during it.

I don't think you're being a wimp. The biggest issue for me would be can you drive safely if you feel really ill? If not, you shouldn't do it.

If you do go, I'd stop at nearly every service station you see.

Thanks for the replies. I'm lucky in that I haven't been sick so far, just feel horribly nauseus constantly.

I know my Mum would understand, but she will be very disappointed, as will my dd as she is desperate to go. Stupidly, the fretting about it is making me feel worse. We are not going til about 6 (waiting for dp to finish work), so at least it won't be too hot and hopefully the traffic won't be too horrific.

I think that's my worst fear actually, getting stuck in a traffic jam, can't cope with that at the moment.

What time were you planning on travelling? Is there any way you could leave really early on Saturday morning when the roads will be nice and clear, to reduce the time spent travelling/risk of traffic jams etc?

I went from Oxfordshire to Cornwall when I was about 12 weeks and it was pretty awful - like you I wasn't sick as such, just felt quesey ALL the time. Managed it though, and it wasn't too bad.

Oh - and get your DP driving lessons

Lol at the driving lessons Jareth, dp is very stubborn and refuses to even talk about it. But I knew how he felt when we started dating, so i'll have to live with it .

I am wondering whether to leave a tad later and just get there at midnight or something and just transfer dd straight into bed. I tend to feel better mid evening. Not too great at early mornings though, generally feel urgh, so early Sat morning would be hard.

I'm in a no win situation, on one hand I am glad I feel sick still as have had spotting between 8 and 10 weeks (early scan showed all was ok). On the other hand, feeling shite all the time is rather depressing and very tiring and I want to be done with it. Arghhh!