Hello everyone! I am back after a shamefully long time away from blogging. But my goodness a lot has happened in my life in the last 18 months! In a nutshell, I met and married the love of my life, we bought and completely renovated a house and now... I'm pregnant!
I am now 24 weeks pregnant and it was always my intention to blog my pregnancy from the very beginning but let's just say my body had other ideas!
I want to make it very clear that I don't want this post to come across as negative or depressing, as pregnancy is the most beautiful and phenomenal experience, I simply want to be honest about my experience of pregnancy so far. I don't think enough women feel able to talk about their experiences on how hard pregnancy can be.
To say the first half of my pregnancy has been gruelling would be an understatement. All I have ever wanted is be a mother and I am overjoyed that I am pregnant but nothing could have prepared me for what was in store. I was one of the unlucky women to suffer from the dreaded Hyperemisis Gravidarum (severe morning sickness in pregnancy).
From week 9 I was totally bed bound and vomiting constantly up to 6-7 times a day! As soon as my eyes opened in the morning I would vomit, rolling over in bed would make me throw up and brushing my teeth was asking for real trouble! Sadly the loo and I were to became great friends.
The nausea was so crippling, so all encompassing, so toxic it completely consumed me and sucked all the colour out of my life. It also came with huge doses of metallic taste in my mouth. It is hard to put into words how it feels, but I can say it felt like I had been poisoned.
I am not sure who named it 'morning sickness' as my goodness it was every waking second of the day and night, in fact it happened to be worse in the evenings. Thankfully I did have relief when I slept (I have heard women can be woken in the night with vomiting). I tried everything from copious amounts of ginger, peppermint tea, dry biscuits, boiled sweets you name it I tried it but sadly nothing worked in fact it made things worse. I have no idea what the obsession with ginger is? Everyone kept telling me drink ginger tea, eat pieces of ginger and nibble on ginger biscuits but really it did nothing!
It was like my body had shut down and while all I wanted to do was enjoy the experience and look after my growing baby I simply couldn't. My midwife and doctor said there was very little to be done and that the best place was to be in bed with little movement and to try and keep fluids down as the danger was I could have become severely dehydrated and needing hospital treatment. I was definitely one of the 'luckier' women as I have read some women can get HG so severely they vomit up to 30 times a day! When I lay still in bed I found I could hold down melon and so that is what I was to pretty much live on for the first 3 months; still water and bowls of melon.
I gradually introduced smaller things like toast, cereal and plain crisps and but still the nausea and vomiting persisted.
Despite having a wonderfully caring and hugely supportive husband and family, HG completely isolated me and I had constant anxiety. I googled every little thing and I felt like no one else in the world knew how horrendous I felt and I yearned desperately to hear from other pregnant women who had gone through it. Hence why I feel the need to write this blog post.
However, at 13 weeks I was able to see an incredible acupuncturist who really helped ease the nausea and after just 3 sessions there was finally light at the end of a very black tunnel! For the first time in months I managed actual meals, I can not describe to you the joy of this! Even though I still had odd bouts of vomiting it was hugely reduced, my energy levels came back and I was able to feel like myself again, even if that was at 5 months!
Now this is only one of the many side effects of my pregnancy. I have been plagued with extreme fatigue, frequent urination (especially at night), backache, headaches, heartburn, hot flashes, spots, nose bleeds, pelvic pain, migraines, sore breasts, receding gums, stuffy nose and probably the worst of them all, round ligament pain! Which (and still does) felt like I was being stabbed in the side of my tummy over and over again.
It must be said though that the first time I felt my baby kick was the most amazing, life-altering experience. Every scan we have, I am truly humbled by the privilege it is to carry and grow this little life. Their movements and kicks delight me and I am literally counting the days until they arrive in early May.
Now I am looking forward to really enjoying the last few months of my pregnancy and being able to document and blog as I go!
I wanted to be wholly honest that pregnancy is really, really hard, but also it is completely and utterly awe inspiring and it makes me feel insanely fortunate to be a woman and experience it.
Emi xx
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