B is for..Bless the Internet

.....and all those women like me who are still feeling rotten, two weeks into trimester two.

About a week ago I thought it was easing up; I started eating normally; I embarked on the healthy, baby friendly diet that I always imagined I would feed my unborn child; I started going for a 15 minute walk every lunch hour. This lasted for about three days, until the fatigue, period-like pain and headaches came back.

Last night was a particularly horrible episode. I ate a normal, healthy (if a little stodgy) dinner, then proceeded to vom it all back up again for about half an hour. Then, after a brief period of respite, lunch made a reappearance and I couldn't even keep my Pregnacare down. This followed a day a nausea an headaches an phlegm.

Let me tell you about the phlegm. It's horrendous. I wouldn't like to contemplate how many pints of cold, thick, saliva I've spat out, dribble down my face or hacked up into a tissue over the last couple days. The skin around my mouth is tight, dry, flakey or sore- not to mention red. It's a lot like what happens to your nose during a cold.


I caught site of my reflection in a shop window yesterday and my miss-matched outfit, (I literally can't think about what to wear in the mornings- and don't even suggest to me putting out the night before. See above. Not going to happen) greasy hair, absence of make-up and sodden tissue clutched in hand all gave the impression that I was one Brighton's many, tragic homeless. Not a look I was going for.

I'm sure there are more symptoms but the acceptable word count for a blog means I won't go into them. I will explain, though, that despite the absolute hell I'm experiencing, I am not giving up, not despondent an demanding to be checked into some sort of pregnancy mental health clinic. Why? I hear you ask- because of the lovely people of the internet.

Thanks to forums, blogs and the national press, I know I'm not alone. Typing 'violent sickness 14 weeks pregnant' into google will tune you into the mournful cries of hundreds of women worldwide. The term will actually be finished off for by google-suggest- you won't need to type the whole sentence.

My favourite article was written this January, by the Guardian's Rachel Holmes (read it HERE) who seems to have had many of the same experiences that I've suffered through. Her's did end with the first trimester though so I win- not that it's a competition.

All this means that while I'm pretty sure that I'm in the minority, that no one I know has had a pregnancy quite like mine and that I feel dreadful most of the time, I know I'm not alone. I'm not a wimp, I'm not making this up. If I want to have a little moan and a cry I'm perfectly justified. My baby is fine, I won't die and, unlike sufferers of disease, I know that sometime around 9th January 2013 this will all be over and I'll have a wonderful baby girl or boy.

So, I say thank you internet. Thank you for keeping me sane and to all the women like me, it will soon be over.