Hyperemesis Gravidarum in the Midst of Your Pregnancy

Extreme vomiting during pregnancy; not exactly what you imagine when you flip thru a parenting magazine or stroll through the maternity department at the mall. I had heard of morning sickness. I knew it didn't just happen in the morning, but everyone knows it tapers off after the first trimester.

At the end of thirteen weeks, I was still vomiting about eight times a day. I was not gaining any weight; in fact I was losing weight. I knew one lady who had been sick until about twenty weeks, so I told myself to just hang on for seven more weeks. Surely it would all end by then.

My husband and I visited my mother in-law in the midst of pregnancy. She reassured me that God must have known that she didn't like to puke, because she wasn't sick a day of either of her pregnancies. She also told me that if she ever felt nauseated she would simply go to lie down and rub her face. She doesn't puke because she doesn't like to. Needless to say, this advice did not get me very far.

By the end of the second trimester, I would ask my husband, "Do you think that it will end soon?" He would reassure me that I could make it through no matter what. He even did the math and estimated I would have vomited over a thousand times by my due date.

Thanksgiving came and went. Then Christmas and Valentines Day passed. Still, I was vomiting. As a middle school writing teacher, I had my students write letters to my daughter that she could one day read and know what life was like while she was a fetus. One of my favorites was from a fifth grade boy which read, "Your mom ate nothing but pop corn and Sprite." When you are that sick you have to rely on foods which taste the same going down as coming up.

The morning I delivered, was the same as all the rest: sick, in the bathroom, wondering how much longer this could continue. After a questionable ultrasound, followed by a cesarean section, everyone said I would feel like a new person. Of course, everyone said I wouldn't puke for nine months as well. I did not vomit anymore after delivery, at least not regularly. But, occasionally, when I first wake up, I still have that overwhelming queasy feeling that can lead my right back to the toilet.