When Morning Sickness Affects the Whole Family…

You may have heard that we are expecting baby #3 in October! I am so thrilled to add another little one to our family. I know things will be chaotic {3 under 4}, but oh the joy. I am in awe at the miracle of it all, and I am daydreaming about tiny feet and sweet sleepy smiles and holding our baby for the first time. So thankful. At the same time, I am writing this at the end of my first trimester, and I have full on morning sickness. Ugh.

Let’s start with the name :: morning sickness. Why, oh why is it just called morning sickness? Are there many people who are only sick in the morning? It seems like when I talk to other moms it is not limited to the morning for them. And mine definitely is not either. It gets progressively worse throughout the day, and by evening – I am just barely functioning. I don’t actually throw up, but the nausea is relentless. And if it is like my other pregnancies, it doesn’t go away at the end of the first tri. It starts improving around 17 weeks and is considerably better by 20. I know this is not even worse-case-scenario. I have heard from moms who are nauseous the entire pregnancy. The thought horrifies me.

Sometimes I want to throw myself a pity party. It really can be discouraging as the weeks and months of feeling the same way drag on {even though I know THIS TOO SHALL PASS}. Sometimes I wish my husband could experience what it feels like for just 5 minutes so he knows what us pregnant mommies have to go through.

But it got me thinking…I’m not the only one suffering here. I’m not the only one having a hard time. Morning sickness is hard on the whole family; mom, dad, kids. Even our extended families are going the extra mile helping us out during this time. I need to have compassion on them too instead of just thinking of myself.

Morning Sickness affects the whole family. A photograph of a package of crystallized ginger, a sprite, crackers and a bottle of medicine. www.houstonmomsblog.com.I know my husband must be exhausted. After a long commute and a full day of hard work, he comes home and immediately takes over everything while I lay on the couch. He gets dinner together, bathes the kids, picks up the toys, washes and folds laundry, wrestles and chases the girls, and reads the bed time stories. Our quality time is limited since I have been going to bed early. And then on the weekends, on top of caring for the kids mostly so I can rest, poor thing is probably so bored since I am rarely up for doing anything fun.

My girls are affected too. Not in a long-term, damaging way, but I know they feel the lack of attention. My 3 year old often asks me if I am sick. I try to explain that the baby in my tummy is making me feel sick and I am extra tired. I have to lay on the couch often, we watch more tv than we probably should, and I have not been doing fun, creative activities with them. Some days we are just surviving.

I’m telling you all of this not to complain. Because my overarching feeling is thankfulness. Even with all the hard, painful, embarrassing, strange, and unmentionable parts of pregnancy, it is a blessing to experience God creating life first hand. I don’t take it for granted that I am able to have children. My heart hurts for all the women longing and waiting to be moms.

So if you going through this hard part of pregnancy, just remember, you and your family are in it together. No, they aren’t affected in the same way, but it is hard on them too. Soon enough the nausea will be gone and you will be rocking your precious little babe and it will be so worth it. Hang in there mamma!

2 COMMENTS

  1. Oh my this describes me to a T. It was 17 weeks with my first. Currently going through with my second. My 18 month old worries about mom.

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