Why I LOVED Morning Sickness (How to cope with Morning Sickness)

Well don't be absurd of course I didn't love it! But now that I've got your attention I can have a good moan - this phase of pregnancy still haunts me and after talking so openly about birth and beyond, it seems only fair that this ailment should get a mention too!

'Pregnancy related nausea', 'morning sickness' or as I liked to call it for the longest three weeks of my life - 'Hell'.

I found out I was pregnant really soon, at just 2-3 weeks, but had I not twigged so soon I would have pretty quickly thanks to this gem of a symptom; there really is nothing quite like it!

I'd fooled myself all my life that I wouldn't get morning sickness, I had decided this due to the fact that my mum didn't. So I wouldn't. Right?

Wrong.

I guess that's not the 'science' I had hoped for!

Also, it quickly became apparent that the term 'morning sickness' is an out and out LIE. There is nothing about this that is 'morning' other than the fact that that's when it started (as soon as I woke up) and then it continued throughout the day until I eventually fell asleep at night. It was completely debilitating while it lasted, and the worst part was not knowing how long it would last. I lived in fear that it would take up the whole of the first trimester as I'd read, and I wouldn't have minded (so much) if it had just been a couple of hours a day.

I'd drive along in the car in fear of the nausea going that one step further, and unlike when you have a bug and you can tell when you're going to be sick, I permanently felt on the brink of vomiting; tight throat, flood of saliva and feeling as sick as you can possibly imagine. Luckily I never did actually throw up in the car, as I'm fairly sure I would've crashed and that would've lead to a whole host of added dramas!

There were at least 3 different occasions when, with absolutely no warning whatsoever, I threw up. Into my hand. Because there was just no warning! (Tell a lie, one of these times I fortuitously happened to be stood over the sink!)

"Its a good sign!" People used to tell me. "It shows the baby is healthy!"

Healthy?! How the bollocking hell can he be healthy when every morsel I eat sends me running to the loo in minutes?!

And then, there's the never ending train of suggestions of cures...

"GINGER" the well-wishers would exclaim. No. Nope. NO!

Ginger biscuits, ale, tea, beer and overwhelmingly, eye-watering stem ginger covered in sugar all did absolutely eff all! (Except perhaps, make me feel worse?!)

I felt sick if I didn't eat, but felt sick if I did, regardless of what it was, but there were somethings that really set me off. I lived substantially for a few days on natural yoghurt, fresh fruit and a dash of honey... until I could no longer stand the sight of yoghurt. (Come to think of it, I don't think I've eaten it since!) A brief encounter with slightly spiced leftover rice left me doubled over in the toilet bowl and missing a days work, and quite possibly the worst experience I had, was the cheese and chutney sandwich.

Whilst working a day shift at the pub where I worked, I stopped for lunch. Hardly anyone knew I was pregnant, although I had told the staff just incase I had any morning sickness related dramas (I had visions of me dropping a drink mid-service and legging it out of sight of customers with my hand over my mouth!) I tried to play it safe by ordering a cheese sandwich, cheese hadn't previously been a problem and I thought I should be OK with a smidgen of locally handmade chutney? Unfortunately, this was where I went wrong. The generous sandwich maker had ladled the chutney on and I would discover all too late that it wasn't going to agree with me. Approximately a quarter of the way through the sandwich I started to feel awful. As nauseous as its possible to feel without actually being sick. Knowing I had to eat, I championed on to finish the rest of that half. I'd gone so white I was transparent, went cold but sweating and shaking. I sat at the little table near the bar terrified. I couldn't be sick at work, I just couldn't. I was frightened to move in case it brought on the vomiting but at the same time just couldn't allow myself to go and be sick in the toilets, which were public - it wouldn't look good for the pub if the barmaid who had just bee seen eating food from the kitchen was then heard being violently sick!

Luckily, through shear determination I think, I managed to sit there until the nausea passed, but it remains one of the most memorable and horrifying parts of my pregnancy journey!!

Despite the living nightmare that it was at the time, despite it being the one part of pregnancy that had me wondering "Can I do this?" and despite it also being the only part of pregnancy that reduced me to tears, I look back now and laugh. The moments of fear in public have turned into anecdotes and at the end of the day, your baby appears and it all suddenly seems worth it.

So ladies, lets laugh, because ultimately there's feck all you can do about it! And if you're reading this as a pregnant first-time mum, or maybe a mama who is experiencing it for the first time, don't panic! There is a light at the end of the tunnel!!