HG: Ideas for when you have other kids at home
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During my first HG pregnancy, one question haunted me repeatedly:
How do women do this with other kids at home?!
It weighed heavily on my mind, until of course I had the baby, was instantly cured, and experienced the “brain damage” of new motherhood. I forgot all about HG. I was so eager to have another child that I pushed all thoughts of the suffering I had just endured as far away as they could get.
Fast forward to a year later and BOOM. I was pregnant, and I was sick again. As the nausea and vomiting settled in, the thought came back, “wait a minute, how do mothers do this with other kids to take care of at home?!”
Well, it turns out the short answer is you just figure it out. You take a good, long look at the hand you’ve been dealt with all its intricacies and singularity, and you figure out how to proceed one very long day at a time.
For anyone looking for more practical advice, here are a few things we’ve done to survive hyperemesis gravidarum with young children to care for.
Water, water everywhere
Toddlers love the water! It is a fantastic, physically and mentally stimulating outlet. It gives you a bigger bang for your buck than many other activities.
I filled the tub a couple inches with warm water and let my kids play to their heart’s content as often as they wanted. This usually bought a solid hour of active (but hands-off for mama) play time. The best part was that the resulting mess was relatively contained and I could make myself a little bed next to the tub and watch them play while I rested (and puked).
To keep it interesting, add something new to each water play session:
Ball pit balls. The more the merrier!
Tupperware, funnels and strainers/colanders
Bath paints and sponges
Things that sink and float
Mega Blocks - or any other waterproof building blocks
Bubbles
Cars - make it a car wash!
Super size makes it super fun
If your kids are into coloring, they will love this one!
Our kids loved when I would buy a roll of butcher paper, and let them go to town. I used painter’s tape to secure long lengths of paper to the floor, windows and/or wall.
I let them color with different things like crayons, washable markers, chalk, etc. If your kids aren’t into coloring, you can still challenge their creativity by seeing what they can paint with just water and paint brushes. They’ll have a blast watching the designs disappear as they dry - just like a secret agent’s coded message.
Pro tip: if crayon gets on the floor or wall, it comes off really easily by gently rubbing the marks with baking soda.
If your little ones are responsible enough with safety scissors, let them have fun cutting up long lengths of wrapping paper (which you can find for cheap at the dollar store!).
Our oldest, during our third HG pregnancy
Call in reinforcement
It would be great if everyone had constant access to friends and family willing to help out with the kids. However, that’s not always an option.
Here are a couple lifesaving, alternative “reinforcement” options:
YouTube: During the worst parts of my HG journeys, I couldn’t even speak in full sentences without it triggering the vomiting. So when my kids wanted to snuggle up and read a book, we would pull up a video of someone else reading a picture book on YouTube. There are countless options out there, and sometimes I could even sneak in a nap if it was a long enough book!
YouTube drawing tutorials were also really engaging. “Art For Kids Hub” is one of our favorites. I liked that the kids could learn a new skill without me having to chauffeur anyone around.
Grocery pick up and delivery: This has to be the single greatest advancement of the 21st century. There is quite literally nothing worse than having to meander through aisles of food, with all their myriad sights and smells, as you are trying not to vomit, trying to wrangle children, trying not to cause a scene, and trying to remember what (if anything) in the store is even remotely edible. Let the kids pick a few easy-prep snacks. Add things to your virtual cart as they speak to you. Then let someone else do the rest, while you rest.
Busy boxes
Hop on Pinterest and throw together a few busy boxes! These are small activity kits you can keep in a box for the kids to pull out when you need a break. They’re easy to assemble, and the fact that they’re specific and not necessarily accessible 100% of the time will keep the kids intrigued.
Some of our favorites include:
Legos: My kids aren’t that into Legos, so for us they work really well as a once-in-a-while, special, busy box item.
Doctor/Vet: Our doctor kit doubles as our vet kit. Ours features old medicine syringes, a magnifying glass, bandaids, ace bandages, a plastic bottle of skittles, throw up bags, gauze, cotton balls, etc
Here is a link to one similar to ours: Doctor kit
Lace and Trace boards: This kit also has a bunch of shoelaces and large beads that the kids like to make necklaces and bracelets with
We have this one and I feel like it is especially good for toddler hands: Lace and Trace
Pom Pom Sorting: This consists of a variety pack of small pom poms, tweezers, and some empty baby wipe containers. The kids use the tweezers to sort the pom poms into their own containers based on size, color, etc.
This is similar to ours, just add tweezers and cups: Pom Pom Game
Easter Egg Faces: These are a lot of fun. Take empty, plastic Easter Egg shells and draw a mouth on the bottom and eyes on the top of each one. Then the kids can mix and match to make different funny faces by combining different tops and bottoms.
Clothes Pin Creations: This box contains a bunch of different sized clothes pins, some glue sticks, wiggly eyes, pipe cleaners and crayons. The kids can go to town creating whatever they want!
Felt Fabric: This is simply a bunch of different shapes cut out of different colors of felt fabric. They can use the back of the couch to assemble creatures and imaginary scenes out of the pieces of felt. If your couch is leather, or some other material the felt is having a hard time gripping onto, try draping a fleece blanket over the back of the couch.
For this one, you could also glue felt fabric to a board. Felt always sticks to felt!
*Pro Tip: These busy boxes work great to keep little ones entertained during breastfeeding sessions after baby finally arrives
More activity ideas…
Ball pit - these are pretty inexpensive on Amazon. If you don’t have a ball pit, you can always get all the balls in the house and use the bathtub as a ball pit!
This is the one we bought 2 years ago and it has held up to three wild kids and their friends WONDERFULLY. Ball Pit
Orbeez - if your kids are old enough not to put them in their mouth, nose or ears!
This is the knock off brand we have used and it’s just as good as the name brand in my opinion. Water Beads
Play dough
Building blocks
TP Tunnels: save old toilet paper rolls and use painter’s tape to create tunnels on the walls for small balls, or small cars to roll through
Scavenger hunts: send your kids on missions to find things around the house while you lie down and rest. They get a point for finding the object, and a point for putting it away afterward. Once they hit a certain number of points, they get a treat, or get to pick a prize, or watch that many minutes of TV, etc
Apparently Squeegees are also pretty darn fun!
Figuring out what to do with your older kids when you are sick and miserable with hyperemesis gravidarum is such a feat. It is okay that things look different during these difficult months. Give yourself just as much love and grace as you’d give your daughter if she were in the same position. Your children are resilient. Of course, you want to be at your best and give them the very best just like you did before falling so ill. But you’ll all make it through, and whatever small efforts you are able to make… Mama, they are enough.
Help a fellow HG mom by commenting below! What are some ways you were able to keep your kids entertained while suffering with HG?
When mommies get sick, and sometimes they do, how do things change for me and for you?
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When mommies get sick, and sometimes they do, how do things change for me and for you? 〰️
“When Mommies Get Sick”
written and illustrated by Jayne Ann Osborne
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