I suppose if there were an expert on managing a home while dealing with morning sickness, I would be it. I’ve spent nearly 3 years of my life sick with morning sickness. Yes, 3 YEARS. That’s mind-boggling – even for me, considering I lived through it all.
My disclaimer before I dive into my best tips for managing your home during this time is that if you are looking for a post about how to manage your home WELL while dealing with morning sickness, this is not the post for you. If you are looking for a way to keep everyone fed, clothed, and alive, then welcome!
I have shared a lot about my morning sickness on this blog. I even compiled a HUGE morning sickness remedy post. But, I had several readers specifically ask me to talk about managing the cooking, cleaning, and children all in one post. {You can listen to the PODCAST or watch the VIDEO if you’d rather because I know sometimes reading is hard to do when you are sick.}
If you already have solid schedules in place for things like cooking and cleaning, then press on for as long as you can because once the morning sickness sets in full-force, you will need to let go of all of that (unless you have big kids who can keep with the routines you have in place, but even then, it won’t be the same as when you are being full-on mom). So, up until the point where you are feeling too icky to function, keep up the work and maybe even do more than usual to get things as much in order as possible. Once you are down for the count, the house will need to run on fumes because…
When you have morning sickness, you do not need a schedule to manage the work in your home. You need to minimize the things that create the work in your home.
No schedule is going to work when you feel like death warmed over. The way to manage your house is to minimize your house. Minimize your food prep and clean up. Minimize the things you need to clean. Minimize your parenting. Minimize the amount of energy you have to expend in a day. So, with that in mind, let me give you some of my best tips in each of these areas…
Minimizing your meals
We all know we should switch to easy meals and paper goods to reduce the amount of thought and cleanup that have to go into each meal, but I’m going to take this even further. When I had hyperemesis with my 2nd child, I served the same meal over and over to my 2 year old – cheese and crackers. It was what I could manage. I would grab it from the refrigerator, throw it on the table and head back to the couch – day in and day out.
If you can, come up with something easy to feed the kids and then buy LOTS of it and serve it over and over. If you have a friend who wants to help, ask them to come up with easy little meals and put them in snack containers that you can pull out, open, and run away.
I hesitate to suggest your friend actually cook meals to bring in because frankly, this has seriously backfired on me. Last pregnancy, a friend brought in food, and it smelled so bad (garlic was the offending ingredient, I believe) that I had to stay in my bedroom until the smell dissipated and then throw the leftovers out because I was pretty sure I could still smell them.
Because food smells were so bad, I lived with a diffuser necklace around my neck. My favorites are Diffusing Mama’s because they are high quality and beautiful, plus the pad is washable.
I was even able to go grocery shopping this last pregnancy as long as I had my diffuser necklace stuck up to my nose while I shopped. I would highly suggest you never leave home without one because you never know when some smell will set you off. (Please tell me I’m not the only one with a super sonic sniffer in pregnancy!)
And if you are looking for quality essential oils at a good price, our favorites are from Plant Therapy. They even have KidSafe oils that are already diluted (no guesswork!) that you can roll on. LOVE this company!
Minimizing your cleaning
Being able to tidy up will go a long way when you are feeling sick, but the only way you can accomplish this is if you have LESS to tidy up. Consider what things in your home make the most mess. For me, it is hands down toys. So, put away the toys with tiny pieces, and gather just a few easy-to-pick-up toys in a basket near wherever it is you are languishing, and that’s it. No, I’m serious – that’s it! The toys need to be easy for you to pick up or for your kids to pick up. Box the rest of the stuff up for now.
Maybe you have a little fashionista like my 2 year old who tries on several outfits during the day. Box her clothes up in a tub with a lid she can’t open or put away all but a few outfits. Another trick is to jammy the kids at night and let them stay in jammies all day long, changing them again the next night. Less laundry is a good thing!
Don’t worry yourself with trying to dust and mop and such. Keep things tidy, run a wet rag over the floor with your foot occasionally, and know that one day you will be normal again! For those major spills and accidents, you will certainly find superhuman strength to get up and take care of it. Trust me – divine intervention and adrenaline will kick in!
Minimizing your parenting
Keep the kids close! Lock all of you in a bedroom. Put up a play yard or a baby gate or put them in a playpen. Do your best to keep everything you need within arm’s reach – diapers, snacks, drinks, your essential oils, calming music, the tv remote – whatever it is that you need throughout the day needs to be nearby. And yes, I let my kids watch tv when I’m sick. As far as I can tell the 3 years they spent watching movies hasn’t warped them.
Honestly, the name of the game is doing “enough.” Is everyone fed enough, clothed enough, alive enough? Is the house clean enough? Are you surviving enough? Because enough is enough.
Here are a few other morning sickness posts you might be interested in:
- The Ultimate Guide to Morning Sickness Resources
- The Protein/Morning Sickness Connection
- Magnesium & My Morning Sickness
- Morning Sickness & My To-Do List
Joanna says
Wow! Thank you! Great ideas! I wish you had written this post 10 weeks ago, as I am just coming out of morning sickness, but I will definitely remember this for next time. I have four children, the oldest one is almost five years old, and this is my first pregnancy experiencing morning sickness. I was definitely too hard on myself!!! We used some paper products, but I did not cut back enough in other ways, and it was the hardest time of my life so far. It’s weird how you can’t even think of solutions when you are that sick – and looking back there is some stuff that seems obvious now. Thank you for not suggestions!!!
Angela Cameron says
With my first pregnancy, I was in complete agony due to very severe nausea and horrible sickness. I was unable to eat and drink and all it started with 5th week. It lasted until week 11 when I started drinking no to morning sickness tea that was the only lifesaving remedy helped me a lot!
Diana says
I love your articles about morning sickness, Amy!! You really KNOW what it’s like to have the severe, life-stopping nausea/vomiting that makes all of the usual advice somewhat ineffectual. These are awesome tips, and I heartily agree!!
I also have a 2yo fashionista who will literally keep changing clothes as long as there are more clothes to change into (I once watched her do it for two hours straight), and I so agree about locking up the clothes, LOL!! And the excess toys. The endless pick-up is just brutal otherwise.
Here is my contribution to the subject – a short post on cooking with morning sickness (or not, LOL):
http://whiningpuker.blogspot.com/2017/07/cooking-with-morning-sickness.html
Thank you! Love any and all of your pregnancy posts!! (And the others too!)
Amy says
Oh yay! So glad you wrote something to share!
Allan Bartlett says
Although I didn’t experience the morning sickness, I’ve heard much about it from my friends. Thank you for sharing the above tips and I think they can help one day.
Richard Foster says
It seems that to be a mother is not an easy thing. We should experience morning sickness and other uncomfortable feelings. All the moms are so great! Thanks for your sharing.
KELSEY says
Thank you for this post! I’m pregnant with my fourth and the house is in shambles, but I’m finally able to keep a bit of it up. I’ve had no where near terrible sickness, but the fatigue has also knocked me out. Finding different times to do normal tasks has helped as well, I literally leave all the dishes on the counter until the next morning because usually the nausea kicks in during the afternoons and by evening I’m practically falling asleep. Thank you for being real.
Amy says
You are welcome (and you also have my permission to leave your dishes on the counter overnight 😉 )