By Shannon Magsam, mama to Ladybug
It wasn’t a morning thing, it was an all-day thing. So why do they call it morning sickness? I wondered to myself from the time I was six weeks pregnant to 9+ months.
Mine plagued me morning, noon and night, while I was nobly trying to hold it all together as a busy, intrepid newspaper reporter. I couldn’t help but write headlines about myself.
Girl reporter mysteriously disappears into lower level bathroom multiple times a day. Co-workers suspect drugs
Girl reporter always carries change of clothes. Co-workers suspect chronic messiness
Girl reporter nearly wrecks car after vomiting on the side of the road with vehicle still moving; happily has extra clothes on hand
It’s true, I threw up outside the car while simultaneously driving down the road (trying to stop the vehicle) on the way back from a newspaper interview in Berryville. Extra curvy roads coupled with all-day nausea created the perfect storm. I suppose I hated to gross up my car’s interior, plus I was knew it would be hard to steer with my head down close to my toes.
At that time in my life I carried plastic bags in my tote at all times, but they didn’t help me that day. I just veered off to the side of the road, did my business mid-skid, then evacuated some more when I got stopped. Then I stood up, took some deep breaths by the side of the road — and thanked God that I hadn’t killed myself and my baby in an accident — and headed back to the newsroom.
Other indignities? I couldn’t tolerate prenatal vitamins so I had to take Flintstones like a 4-year-old.
I kept flat Sprite and crackers by my bedside, but they didn’t help. I tried the bracelets and ginger, but nothing worked.
I’ll never forget my male co-worker calling in sick to say he had “what Shannon has”. Obviously, this was before I let everyone in the newsroom know I was expecting. I had a good laugh that day, in between sucking on Preggie pops.
My boss thought I had some dread disease, she told me later.
By the time I broke the news , my feet looked like twin bread loaves. And my formerly pert nose was starting to swell to great proportions (sadly, it never quite deflated back to normal size). Finally everyone knew why I ran to the bathroom in the sales department ever few hours — it was simply to avoid the one-seater in the newsroom where reporters could easily overhear everything.
When my daughter arrived via C-section, late (after two days of labor, let me add) the nausea blessedly left the building, too.
I was a little surprised that she didn’t come out wearing the iconic Cap’n Crunch bicorne hat because those sweet little gold nuggets were practically the only thing I could stomach the whole pregnancy. I told myself that at least the milk (super cold only) had some vitamins.
That sweet baby girl who made me so sick while gestating is finishing up the first half of her junior year right now. I think that fact, plus the fact that it’s almost Christmas, is why I’m reminiscing so much lately. Yes, even about nausea and vomiting. Astonishing.
Want to slow down with me a little over the next few weeks so we can savor the holidays — and the exact stage of motherhood we happen to be in at the moment?
Time keeps on moving, mamas, like a car rolling down the highway so fast you barely have time to stop, drop and vomit.
I’m putting on the brakes.
Shannon Magsam is the founder and co-owner of nwaMotherlode.com and nwaMomProm.com. She’s also the proud mama of a 16-year-old lady(bug) and is married to John, a fellow writer who happens to be a fabulous husband/dad.
