The Ubiquitous Early Pregnancy Dilemma: When to Tell, When to Tell

Thus far we have not told many people. We are trying to stick to the traditional first trimester rule. I read somewhere that your risk for miscarriage goes drastically down once you hear a heartbeat and am hoping that we get to do that at our appointment on 2/4. Otherwise, we have to wait until our 2/17 ultrasound. Generally, our family members are the only ones in the know, however some non-family people do know.

This past weekend, I told two of my closest friends about the pregnancy during a girls night we had. I had wanted to tell them sooner, but I knew I was going to see them and made the decision that telling people in person is more fun so I waited. Their reactions were just what I was hoping for! Squeals and hugs all around. Since none of the three other women have been pregnant before, there was a lot of talk. Part of the discussion is how difficult it would be to "hide" your pregnancy for the beginning. It is really difficult, and leaks of information do and have occurred. The one thing I am most concerned about is having people that I am not that close to (i.e. mrs. smith's neighbor's friend's daughter) know in the event that something happened. Thus, the people that know have been sworn to secrecy.

One tell-tale sign is that the preggo woman does not drink. In certain social situations, this can be a dead giveaway. I cut back on my alcohol intake while we were trying and really am not in too many social situations where it would be odd if I did not drink anymore. That's not to say that my passing on a cocktail or two hasn't raised a few eyebrows in the past couple of months :) I told my sister that I gave up drinking for advent. I don't think she bought it!

Only one of my colleagues knows about the pregnancy and she is not located in our main office, so I knew it wouldn't be as difficult to tell her nor would it be as difficult for her to know. Again, I told her early because she was in our office and took advantage of the face-to-face time to spill the beans. I'm not really sure when I will spill the beans at work yet. Luckily, I have been able to get through the days without vomiting or being too sick that I raise suspicion. The week after we got back from vacation was my worst week and I was able to shrug off inquiries saying that I was still sick from that. Of anyone, I think my colleagues will be the most surprised/least expectant of the news.

One other very helpful thing is that all of my clothes still fit and I don't have too many physical signs other than the aforementioned chest development. Luckily winter clothes are a little bulkier so that area has been pretty easy to conceal as well.

And so begins Week 9/Month 3! I have been feeling pretty good lately. The nausea/bad taste in my mouth hasn't gone completely away, but it is substantially better. Prior to my crazy weekend, I was getting a ton of sleep. It was like a switch went off and all of a sudden I needed to go to bed at 8 PM and I feel right back asleep even after I got up four times/night to pee. I still am averse to chicken but have added two new cravings to my list:
1) spinach tortilla slathered in hummus with mushroom, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers and provolone cheese
and
2) trail mix consisting of raisins, craisins, dry roasted peanuts and mini chocolate chips

Ok, so back to the girls night. We also talked about how women seem to have a tendency to be strict during their first pregnancy and by the 2nd, 3rd, 4th child, anything goes. I can see this, although I haven't adhered 100% to all the exclusions and think that each woman has to make those decisions for herself. I haven't had any alcohol since being pregnant and frankly the thought of alcohol makes me a little nauseous right now. I also haven't had any deli meat because I don't eat that much deli meat and I HAVE gotten sick from deli meat before and it was awful (hello RSPH "prom" circa 2003). I HAVE had an over easy egg. I love over easy eggs and love eggs benedict and could not pass it up. I have made cookies and ate some of the batter only to realize that duh! it has raw eggs in it. These things have not caused me to lose sleep. Now before you go thinking I am this laid-back mama, I DID freak out over our electric blanket over the weekend. I got this book from the library and read the week 9 chapter which pointed out that electric blankets may not be safe. AHHH! I use that thing every night. I freaked out and my husband packed up the electric blanket and put it in the closet. When I came back down to Planet Earth, I realized that everything is probably fine (the book was an older edition) but I still did not allow the blanket to be put on the bed. Ahh...first time pregnancies :) Now - off to research electric blankets, ha ha ha...ha.