Pregnancy is an exciting period, no doubt about it.

But with the highs can come some unexpected lows – one of which has to be morning sickness. It could be better than us. And that morning sickness can make the physical part of pregnancy downright terrifying.

I am a mother of three and have now experienced terrible morning sickness three times. Let me count the ways that suck

You feel good about pregnancy

Then the disease begins

This is my third pregnancy – I’ve had morning sickness with the other two, so I was hoping this time wasn’t any different. But there is an optimistic side to you that hopes morning sickness will pass you by. Every pregnancy is different, right?

By the fifth week, I realized I was out of luck – this time my morning sickness started much earlier than the others. It gradually got worse.

Thinking this is as bad as it will happen

Then somehow it gets messed up

By the seventh week I was feeling very tight. Surely it couldn’t be worse? With my first two pregnancies, I was feeling pretty good at this point – but then I read that morning sickness can last up to week 14. How does that make sense?!

You are hungry and yet the sight of food makes you sick

It was a terrible irony – I was often very hungry, but when I thought about eating it made me sick. I ate whatever I could, which was mostly dry toast. Sometimes I was able to put up with the rice, which is very exciting.

Other times, I thought I might eat something more adventurous just to watch it sag and start vomiting.

vomiting

Not much should be said about this. It’s terrifying, especially when you start to feel your stomach acid in your throat. Or when it’s so bad that your tooth enamel is suffering. worst.

Feeling like you’re on a boat, on a tortured beach, but you can never land

This is the best way I can describe it to my husband. Imagine you have a fierce sea but no view of land. The only way I can find comfort is to lie down and not move, which is not possible if you have to work or have other children.

Suffering from morning sickness while working with your other children

Just because you’re sick doesn’t mean life stops. You need to go to school, preschool and pick up. Homework must be done. Activities required to be performed. In the midst of all this you need a lot of rest – but sleep will have to wait.

Television had to interfere a lot of the time, and there were plenty of dinners which consisted mainly of fruit and prepackaged pasta. I felt that as long as they were alive and well, I was doing my best, and that was enough.

You want to let the cat out of the bag first

I didn’t want to tell my kids that I wanted to wait until later in the pregnancy, which is why I felt nauseous. But given how worried they were about my continuing illness, I meant I broke the news a long time ago — and their enthusiasm about the news helped ease my symptoms.

And after canceling several plans with friends and family, I had no choice but to tell people the news if they thought something was wrong or I was just being rude.

The 10,000th time people asked to try ginger

I know people have good intentions at heart, but none of the natural remedies mentioned have often worked for me. I tried ginger and mint in many forms. I bought bottles of Morning Sickness Tablets with Vitamin B6. I also paid $120 per visit to my acupuncturist. Nothing works.

In the end I chose medical intervention. It helped somewhat but not completely.

What did time help? When you go through it, you feel like morning sickness will never end, but perhaps the best thing about it is the end of the illness. It might take 12 weeks, 20 weeks, or a full 9 months in the case of a friend, but it does.

And when you see your child at the end of it, you somehow forget everything you’ve been through. And you can do it again