Don’t let the title fool you, firstly, let me explain what ‘morning’ sickness means: All day, every hour and minute until you go to sleep and sometimes in your sleep and then you wake up and it starts again sickness. The End.

Imagine that scrolling on Instagram made you queasy, how would you feel? Imagine the mere thought of chicken soup made you gag ,then you immediately have to race to the toilet. Imagine every time you opened the fridge, that by the time you put your hands to your mouth to stop you from spewing, it was too late. Now imagine all this, combined with tiredness, crampy stomach pains and for, oh… I dunno, every single day for (so far) 14 weeks.

This is a only a small portion of my experience to explain to you what my morning sickness has been like.

This blog post is for the women who have been in my position and can shout out a “I’m hearin’ ya sista” and for those, yet to fall pregnant, but it is also for those that seem to get pregnant and not feel sick at all. Those of you who are just pregnant and live your day thinking you are sooooo good, feeling the same like before pregnancy, but with a bump. This is for you so you know just how lucky you are (if you don’t already!).

It all started when I thought I was one of ‘those’ lucky ones I speak of. I was six weeks pregnant (according to myself and my date calculation) and I was feeling fine. I was so happy to not be sick, I bragged about it and I sometimes laughed to myself about it and how ridiculously good I felt compared to my last two pregnancies when I was sick from five weeks. “Hahaha poor old Jess from 2011 and 2014, look at me now biatch! Killing it!”
Then, a few days went by and then with a whiff of the open fridge…. Baaaarrrrffffff.

I spoke too soon, and from that very moment, the all-day all night morning (pfffft) sickness begun.

The only way I would feel better was to be in my bed and how do you think that could be possible when you have two children? When you must get one to school with a lunch box packed and have them dressed and fed all by 8:00am? When your house is an absolute mess because you missed one day of tidying up and you are the only person in your house who lifts a finger. And, how can you feed three males dinner when you are green, hunched over and vomiting in the kitchen sink (I know disgusting) every ten minutes?

I had my 8-week scan, my first obstetrician visit and apparently, that cute little wiggle worm in my tummy (nawwww) was a week behind in dates, so in fact, I was five weeks when I felt sick, just like the two pregnancies before. At this appointment, we spoke about my sickness and Len, my ob, prescribed me some anti-nausea tablets. I was hesitant to take them because, well, I am hesitant to take any kind of tablets and I just dealt with the sickness with the first two pregnancies and didn’t take any medication. This time, I had to just take the darn tablets or there would be no way I could function back at home with the boys.

So, like I said, the only way I would feel better was to go to bed. So, I did. Whilst you thought I was wearing the best and most fashionable outfits on Instagram or on my blog, I was in bed, whilst you thought I was at some cool event, I was in bed (or I was there, took a few snaps and snuck out).

My routine was simple, get through the morning, get kids to school and kinder, get home, answer emails and go to bed. Pick up dinner, pick up kids, cook (blah!) feed and bath them, get them in their pjs and then I go to bed in time as Josh walks in the door after work. I would then put on whatever Netflix series I was watching that would help distract my mind for sickness, first Gossip Girl, then 13 Reasons and now Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (hanging out for Orange Is The New Black). Then the circle of sickness continued day by day, with a photoshoot here and event there and always with a pocket full of ginger chews to get me through. Luckily I was never caught out being sick at the events or on a shoot. You remember that GUCCI shoot? I was pregnant!

I had one other issue, I couldn’t (and still can’t) stomach tap water! It makes me so sick and for someone who is clearly dehydrated, that isn’t good. I went from an orange juice fetish for one week and then the next was ginger beer and to this day it is sparkling water with ribena juice. It must be noted here that I usually HATE sparkling water! It’s not water! But, I can’t live without it right now.

As for food cravings, I started with jam and vegemite (together) on toast dipped in tea. Then it was Agnalotti pasta in mushroom sauce, then falafel wraps, mac and cheese and basically any kind of cake you can think of- I once ate 4 cupcakes in one day. As for chocolate, forget it! Easter was torture for me! Can’t stomach chocolate or coffee at all and they are my favorite things of all!

So, being pregnant is not so fun right now, it’s all about survival, making sure I eat something, keep it down and stay hydrated. It is soooo l lucky that I get to see my baby every four weeks or so in an ultrasound to put this all into perspective and knowing it is all worth it in the end. So, dear non-sick-pregnant-friends… next time you are sipping your café latte with a side of Cadbury chocolate, think of me, in bed with my ginger chews and a bucket.

 

xxxx