Jaynee Owen was ecstatic when she and her partner Blair found out they were pregnant, but nothing could have prepared her for the relentless morning sickness she would have to endure.
“I was a bit tired at first, but at about seven weeks, I started feeling nauseas all the time and started throwing up,” she said.
“I would have to run to the toilet at work- so it was a little hard to hide the pregnancy at the early stages. At one point I had to take three weeks off of work because I was so sick. People started asking questions and getting suspicious.”
Jaynee, 27, said that she would vomit up to nine times a day. She had to sleep with a bucket beside the bed and drive with a bucket in the boot, in case she had to pull over on the side of the road. She had a few good days in-between, which consisted of just being nauseas.
“The doctor tried me on all different kinds of medication- but nothing worked. One of the pills actually made it worse,” she said.
“I tried everything- peppermint tea, ginger and lemon tea, all the old wives tales. I carried dried biscuits with me all the time and those seemed to help a bit.”
The constant sickness made her unable to work full-time- having to show up late or leave early, or take a day or more off a week to rest. She missed out on numerous social occasions and had to miss the Blair’s great- grandfather’s funeral in Echuca, because she couldn’t travel three hours.
Luckily, the vomiting decreased and by the third trimester she felt much better.
“I was finally able to get the nursery in order and I was much more motivated,” she said.
By the time Jaynee was nine months pregnant, she was actually 10kilograms lighter than she was before she got pregnant due to the constant sickness. But the doctors weren’t concerned. They actually thought the baby was going to be big, so they induced Jaynee two weeks early.
After a three and a half hour labour, with Blair by her side, Jaynee gave birth to a beautiful little girl Lola, weight 6pound three.
“She is such a cute, happy little baby, with a temper, but she’s normally really smiley,” Jaynee said.
“She has changed my life for the better. It’s hard work, but every day gets better and better and she makes me laugh. I am a little scared to have another baby after being so sick with Lola, but all the sickness has definitely been worth it.”
