round 1
in 2004, when i got pregnant with my first child, i was sick immediately. so sick. i couldn't keep a single thing down. not a single meal. not a cracker. not a sip of water. i vomited everything up. for weeks and weeks, starting at just 4 weeks. my husband had recently started a new job so we had no insurance at the time. i assumed this was just morning sickness. and being one of the first of my friends to have gone through a pregnancy, i didn't really know any better or have anything to compare my sickness to.
people told me all the morning sickness "tricks". eat ginger cookies. take vitamin b6. eat small meals throughout the day. get out of bed slowly. NOTHING made a difference. i simply could not keep anything down. i don't know if i ever really weighed myself, but i know i lost at least 10-15 of my 135 pre-pregnancy pounds.
i slept on the bathroom floor. i didn't bathe for days at a time, sometimes a week or more. brushing my teeth literally made me gag, which made me vomit. i took a leave of absence at work because i was too weak to work. i spent my days on the couch in our small apartment, watching tv and trying to keep down anything that sounded appealing, but to no avail.
i'm pretty sure my husband and most of my family thought i was just a big fat wuss. since nobody they (or i) knew had ever been so sick, they seemed as if they just assumed that i was acting like i needed to be babied for no real reason. nobody ever really said anything, but you know....you can read people. and i was definitely reading those signals. their disbelief in my true sickness made things worse. it was an emotionally stressful time on top of the fact that my body was taking a serious toll due to my lack of any sort of nutritional intake.
since i wasn't seeing a doctor at the time, nobody could diagnose me with anything. but looking back, i know i would have been hospitalized if i had been seeing someone. i was highly malnourished and completely non-functional. i couldn't cook. i couldn't shower. i couldn't attend functions. it's really a wonder nobody footed the bill for me to start seeing a doctor pre-insurance. i was SO sick.
literally, the morning i hit 13 weeks i woke up and felt better. and that was that. i never felt the same intense nausea and i never vomited during that pregnancy again. i assumed it had just been normal morning sickness since i knew morning sickness typically lasted through the first trimester and then diminished. by the time i got in to see a doctor i was 20 weeks along and by that point i was feeling better so i never really thought to bring up how sick i had been.
at the end of my pregnancy, i read the back of the What to Expect When You're Expecting book. you know, the part you're not supposed to read unless you have problems? that part. as i read i discovered a section on hyperemesis and immediately told my husband that was what i had had. but at that point, it didn't matter. i was getting ready to welcome my baby boy into the world.
round 2
when i discovered i was pregnant with my second child, i knew what was coming. i had read that people who suffer from hyperemesis during their first pregnancy often experience the same condition with subsequent pregnancies. and sure enough, it hit early as it had the first time. i was actually grateful that my son was still so young when i got pregnant (5 months) because he wasn't mobile. when i had to get up to vomit, he would just play on the floor. i didn't have to worry about him getting into anything because he wasn't crawling or walking. it was really a blessing.
things progressed as they had the first time around but i seemed to be able to handle it a little better emotionally since i knew what to expect. my nausea and vomiting lasted a few weeks longer than they had with my previous pregnancy but then cleared up around 15 weeks.
rounds 3 and 4
i honestly don't remember much about either of these pregnancies but i know i was just as sick as before and symptoms lasted until around 17-18 weeks. i remember the inability to take care of my other children and how foolish i felt asking for help. after all, these were my kids. why couldn't i take care of them?
it was depressing at times and i felt helpless. but what's a girl to do? i pressed on, eventually i felt better, and i proceeded to birth each of those children. and life moved on. until now.
