My First Trimester

We recently shared the news on social media that we will welcome our little one in the summer. I never expected to take as long a break from writing as I have done, but my first trimester passed in a blur of hospital trips and sickness.

On social media, we shared photos from Center Parcs and Sharm El-Sheikh. As is often pointed out, social media provides just a snapshot of a day and there can be so much not shown happening behind the scenes. With these posts, we did not mention the vomiting, nausea, exhaustion, or the tricky balance of keeping to the arrangements we had made and paid for and my being diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum. I so badly wanted to be someone who blooms in pregnancy. Instead, I felt the worst I have ever felt and struggled to keep down three tiny sips of water - I still can’t drink water in this pregnancy. I could sit still and start to feel the slightest bit better but the moment I moved the nausea and vomiting returned. Our first Christmas in our new home was spent with me keeping absolutely nothing down and Boxing Day and New Year’s were spent in the hospital on a drip being rehydrated - not the celebrations we had imagined.

To say the first trimester has been difficult feels like an understatement. I know it’s not just me who has struggled, my husband has been so supportive but I’m also aware of how lonely the first trimester has been for him. I am so incredibly grateful for how he has helped me apply medical advice and quietly gone about seeing to my needs and taking me back and forth to the hospital. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without him in the last few months. One of the sweetest things that helped were the memes and thoughts he shared with me that just because something is difficult, doesn’t mean it isn’t wanted. We have wanted a family for so long and I battled with struggling with hyperemesis but feeling like I wasn’t being grateful enough that I was finally pregnant.

I’ve been asked what food cravings I have had and the answer is I haven’t. Instead, I have had food aversion. There’s nothing like vomiting and nausea 24/7 to make you not want to eat anything, yet being pregnant means you need to eat something. You are desperate to eat something but nothing sounds appealing. My appetite shrunk, I didn’t eat anything sweet throughout the first trimester and I normally have such a sweet tooth!

Things I have struggled with and what has helped

Nausea/vomiting - this goes without saying with hyperemesis gravidarum. I was prescribed three different types of anti-emetics which I took three times a day and that reduced the vomiting so I was keeping at least one meal down daily. My experience was that GPs don’t tend to like to prescribe anti-emetics in pregnancy however the emergency gynae department I attended was fantastic at enabling me to try different medications to work out the best combination for me. I also wore anti-sickness bands which helped with the nausea but I wore them so much I ended up with blisters on my wrist from using them. The nausea was worse than the blisters so it was a small price to pay for a little relief.

Dry skin - Most days I felt like my skin had turned reptilian and needed to shed a whole layer, I tried moisturisers and creams galore but the one thing that has made a noticeable difference is L’occitane shower oil.

Vitamins - I have loved the Wild Nutrition Pregnancy + New Mother Support vitamins. The smell of other brands I tried made me feel so sick that I struggled to take the tables, but these didn’t have that effect. I couldn’t always keep them down - the joys of hyperemesis. However, I felt a lot better on the days I managed to and felt I was doing the best I could for this little one.