Pregnancy Reality

[zzsp23]

Hi Ladies,
I can't believe that I thought childbirth would be the only thing to fear when pregnant. The pre-childbirth stage would consist namely of a) eating lots and b) waddling around and c) shopping for gorgeous baby items.

But sadly, it just ain't so. I am nauseous. I am starving, but food smells make me retch. The minibus ride in the morning and afternoon makes me sick. Work is dragging especially as I am trying to keep this pregnancy discrete, hence resisting the urge to run to the bathroom every few minutes. The last 3 days I have been miserable. It's 9pm at night. I am feeling so ill, I just want to curl up and cry.

NOOOOO! This is SO not what my pregnancy is meant to be like!! :tantrum:

Sorry. I just had to vent. It can only get better from here, right?

 

[carang]

i always say:

some women have a hard time getting pregnant.
some women have a hard time staying pregnant.
some women have a hard time being pregnant.

i, too, fell into the 3rd category. to give you hope, it did get a little better for my around week 14-15... by which time, i had lost over 20lbs. i was only 5 lbs heavier the day i gave birth than the day i got pregnant.

on the bright side, if you can make it through this, you can make it through anything!

also, remember your hormones are playing horribly with you right now.... don't make ANY serious decisions if at all possible... your brain is not your own at the moment, neither is your body. they are on loan to this little being growing inside of you. you WILL get it back... eventually.

 

[nicolejoy]

Are you still in your first trimester? If so, it is VERY normal and should stabilise by the time you are 10-13 weeks or so. Different women have different severities, but what you describe is perfectly normal and is a sign of your hormones rising.

Sleep lots, eat crackers or whatever else doesn't nauseate you (try saltines or toast - other people say ginger products are good, like gingersnaps or gingerbread etc), drink lots of water... It gets better.

 

[Newbie_hk]

I felt exactly the same way as you at my first pregnancy. I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel & pregnancy wasn't all that it's cracked up to be. I would look at my friends with 2 or 3 kids and think, how could they go through this again & again

The good news is that it is a phase & you will feel better at the second trimester. Sometimes, I'd even forget I was pregnant till I'd look down at my growing belly.

 

[zzsp23]

Thanks for the advice, carang and nicolejoy! I am terribly happy that I'm finally pregnant again after a m/c last year so I'm trying hard to be grateful that at least my body is responding normally.

i'm only 6 weeks along, and apparently this lasts until week 14? That's another 2 months of this awfulness! I have been doing some reading so I know it's so common but was just hoping I would be one of the lucky ones that get away with it.
I've been eating saltines galore and even started some ginger tabs, but they haven't had a great impact. Sigh.

Haha Newbie I've already told my husband that I can't see myself going through with this again so we're only having 1!

 

[carang]

i got to the point one night that i can remember thinking: NOTHING can be worth this agony. i'd been sleeping on the sofa as it was the only place i didn't end up heaving every time i lay down. i'd been sleeping there for almost 3 months.

the next morning.... i felt.... NORMAL! .... it was such a relief until i started worrying that something had gone wrong.

ps> i told my mother after my first that there was no way i would do any of it again (i had a nightmare of a c-section delivery)... 14 months later... i was pregnant with #2. wouldn't change it for the world.

 

[AmyH]

Hunger makes the nausea a lot worse, so if you can, try not to let yourself get too hungry. I spend a few weeks with the nauseating feeling but after a couple of weeks, I was able to throw up, which made me feel much better!
I remember when I was 12 weeks pregnant with my son I went out for a meal with my husband. I walked in to the restauant, could smell the food cooking in the kitchen and immediately had to go to the bathroom to throw up! I got back to the table and read the menu, which also made me throw up because every time I thought about eating the food it made me feel sick! After the second time throwing up, I felt so much better and ordered the blandest thing on the menu, ate it and then threw up again..... fun times!
Hopefully the nausea will pass soon.

 

[carang]

ahhh... yes.... i remember.... once a friend called to ask me for a recipe. i had to stop telling her because thinking about it made me heave!

no more trips to the supermarket... and i had to detour around any 7-11 that sold fish balls/siu mai!

hmmmm... the more i think about it, the gladder i am that my kids are 5 & 7! LOL!

thanks, amyH! you made me smile.... (not that your pain was worth a smile..... you know what i mean...i hope!)

 

[charade]

Oh the nausea... so glad I am over that FOREVER.

Knowing that it does end after the first trimester - for most women (some have to suffer 9 months of this!) - helps but as you said, it is 3 months. Ask any man to go through 3 months of throwing up and see if he volunteers for round 2...For my son, I had to take antibiotics for an infection on top of the nausea and antibiotics make me sick on a good day. It was a nightmare.

And yeah, I said never again... and well, five months after my son was born got pregnant again! I guess it was good it was an accident because I think I would have delayed having a second baby indefinitely had it not.

I had the same infection when I was pregnant with my daughter but refused to take antibiotics. That made it better... but still, feeling nauseous all the time is not fun. Yup, I love my babies but I hated being pregnant, hated giving birth and don't particularly cherish breastfeeding also. But the babies are worth it.

 

[Newbie_hk]

We are all masochists aren't we? Despite difficult pregnancies & painful deliveries, we end up having a second child...then perhaps another. Mummies are tough cookies. And it's all worth it when you look at your kids.