Parent Diaries

“Loads of things set me off - perfume, shampoo, David’s aftershave - and he wouldn’t even stop wearing it!”

Morning sickness was awful

CLARE, GATESHEAD, UK

Being pregnant with Freddy was a breeze. I was in shock a bit at first as it seemed to happen really quickly, but the pregnancy itself was great. There was a guy at work that used to eat sour cream crisps every day, and that made me run to the loo and be sick, but other than that I sailed through the whole thing.

Right now I’m 5 months pregnant and it’s not been so easy. First off, this one was a total surprise. I was feeling pretty rough and thought I had a tummy bug. I went to the doctors and they did a blood test - that’s how I found out. It was such a shock, I just wondered how we were going to cope, and I felt really awful. My body ached, I was really tired all the time, and felt sick constantly. Loads of things set me off - perfume, shampoo, David’s aftershave - and he wouldn’t even stop wearing it! Food too - I was using this Body Coach cook book, and every recipe just made me sick. Especially chorizo. I could only manage bread, I ate loads of it. And dry food, that was it. I could hardly leave the house I was so bad from morning sickness.

I think I must have had a bug too, especially as it felt so different to my first pregnancy. And it was just after Christmas, so I’d been over-indulging and not really looking after myself. I was pretty stressed about it all too, which didn’t help. We were due to get married on 23rd September but we had to postpone, as I’m due on the 3rd, so there’s no way the wedding could go ahead. I think I was just really run-down, shocked, and of course there are loads of hormones flying around your body at the start.

Then at about 14 weeks I woke up one day and felt fine. My body didn’t feel jumbled up anymore. I guess the hormones had settled down and my body just got used to being pregnant. I remember a friend telling me that at 6 weeks your baby is about the size of a lentil. It’s crazy that something so small can make you feel so bad. Right now, he’s about the size of a melon and I feel totally fine. It just makes no sense!

Clare morning sickness