Hyperemesis

I thought I should make a post about what I go through with my pregnancies. I don't want people to feel bad, or my kids to feel guilty, but I want to at least let people know what I go through to have kids. A lot of people ask me questions about what it is like and how it is different than morning sickness. So here we go. I have a condition called Hyperemesis. I call it extreme morning sickness - however it is all day and night. Morning sickness typically lasts during the first trimester while hyperemesis lasts until about 20 weeks. There are some people who have it for all nine months but thankfully that is not me! I found a great website called http://www.hyperemesis.org/ Here is a list from the website about some of the causes:

-Altered sense of taste
-Sensitivity of the brain to motion
-Food leaving the stomach more slowly
-Increased sense of smell
-Insufficient fluids or nutrition
-Rapidly changing hormone levels during pregnancy
-Stomach contents moving back up from the stomach
-Physical and emotional stress of pregnancy on the body
-Vitamin deficiencies

Even though they say these may be the causes, most of them are symptoms for me. Food tastes a little funny to me and is just unappealing. If there is a lot of movement in the room (i.e. children running and jumping all around) it turns my stomach. My smell is so sensitive. I can smell things that no one else in my family can. I even had to stop using our handsoap and get a fragrance free kind because the handsoap smell became unbearable - its just softsoap! I often become dehydrated because the more fluids I drink the easier it is for food to come back up. I do become anemic and probably deficient in other vitamins and minerals as well because my diet becomes extremely plain and well cooked. Foods that digest easily are more quickly absorbed into my body and less likely to come back up. I also have a hard time swallowing pills, especially prenatal vitamins - they are huge!

So, what do I do to deal with this. I eat food even if it I don't feel like it. I tend to eat smaller amounts more often to keep my stomach from getting too empty. I try to remain calm. I stay in my room most of the time and the kids come in one or two at a time for less commotion. My brother Doug is staying with us to help care for the kids - he is a lifesaver! As for the smells, I just try to avoid going anywhere there could be a lot of smells. Church for example is especially hard. Perfume, gum, snacks, etc all very common at church - all very disturbing to me. When my stomach is especially bad I lay down, take deep breaks and try to do something to take my mind off of it, like read or play electronic solitaire. As for the vitamins, I have just skipped them in the past, but new to this pregnancy they now have disolvable vitamins. You just mix it with water and drink it!

And that's it. I do crochet, cross stitch, read, watch tv, and blog when my husband lets me have the laptop in the bedroom. It is not so bad, boring at times, but well worth it. Every one of my kids have been healthy both physically and mentally despite the medication, dehydration, and vitamin deficiencies. They are all little miracles. I love everyone one of them and this one will not be any different. I just like to think of it like this: if it takes a few months of me staying down to produce such beautiful, wonderful children then I'll do it. Although I think doing it five times is enough. This will be my last pregnancy. If more children come to our family they will be adopted!