Telling others I was pregnant

I was a student; living in student digs...How could I not tell them! It would have been pretty hard to keep up the healthy eating and drinking fetish for a further 6 months without them looking at me in a 'you're a weirdo' kind of way. Have you noticed the bemused and shell shocked look from fellow students when you turn down the opportunity to go on a bender! Not that I've been a student for what seems like an eternity! I'm 41, I don't do 'benders' anymore...

Well, it was coming up to my 12 or 16 week scan. I can't remember now as I'm sure I had a scan at 12 weeks. Perhaps they do it differently in Scotland? The morning sickness had gone - woo hoo!! It was time to tell the world, shout it from the rooftops, write a press release, and put an advert on national television! Ok, calm down. It was not nearly so dramatic. I phoned Mum and Dad from the rather grubby university telephone! We didn't have mobiles then! Was that the night I got pulled off the grubby telephone by some Scottish Billy Goat Gruff who had obviously been tasked with setting time limits for everyone else's phone calls but his. Hmmm...I'm not sure, but if it was he hurt me and I am still angry about it! I was pregnant for heaven's sake and needed to be handled with care!

Mum and Dad had known that I was 'trying for a baby'. I don't know what it is about that phrase 'trying for a baby'. It all sounds so prescriptive and it makes me sort of giggle! But, I understand why people use it - what else would you say? Just before writing this blog I asked Mum how she felt about the whole baby thing back then because she and Dad never really voiced their opinions. She told me that she didn't really approve as she was not that keen on the father. She resigned herself to the fact and told me she had no other option but to accept it.

Is that what we do as parents? Take things in our stride in a bid to demonstrate that we are not surprised or indeed in disagreement with what our children do. I was an adult, what could they have done about it if that was what I wanted. My father would never have said anything. He was a fantastic man who supported me no matter what sticky patches I got into. And there were a few!

I quickly worked through the list of who we needed to tell and I have to say there were a couple of 'pregnant pauses'! One question that a few asked me was 'So when are you giving up University?'

Leaving university had never even crossed my mind. In my first blog 'Having a baby - planned or unplanned, I described myself as very matter of fact. Why would it have crossed my mind to leave? I was the sort of girl who 'once started, would finish'! Should it have crossed my mind? Should I have left?

I can answer that...NO, NO, and NO!

I would like to believe that perceptions have changed considerably and that it is generally accepted that women can still have a life if they have children. I have met and talked to many people who have regretfully given up very good careers because they have had children, believing in some way that they need to adopt a full time homemaker role and that partners where they existed would provide. Maybe that is one reason I feel very inspired by all the individuals I have met at Newcastle Business Mums and indeed on Twitter!

Have things changed? I wonder where I would be and what I would be doing now if I had followed someone else's path and not my own.

MORNING SICKNESS DURING PREGNANCY

Nausea Gravidarum, pregnancy sickness...or whatever we want to call it affects around 80% of pregnant women and I don't know about you, but I found it a complete pain in the butt!

Unless you really can't keep any fluids or food down and are losing weight or dehydrated, morning sickness during pregnancy poses no risk to you or your baby. Nevertheless it is wretched isn't it?

I was blessed with a rather fine vintage of morning sickness and whilst breathing through the nausea paid little attention to the available [from any good supermarket] treatments. Are they really just old wives tales? Does anything actually get rid of morning sickness or are we just lessening the symptoms rather than attacking the root cause. Who the heck knows and when you're wandering around the house feeling as if you want to throw up, who actually cares!

I remember vividly sitting through university lectures feeling greener than a Birds Eye pea! I worked part time as a volunteer in the Oxfam shop in Stirling and used to serve customers with one hand over my mouth, fearing that if I let go something awful would come out. It didn't thank goodness. I just always thought it would!

I was probably a textbook case. Morning sickness for me would start in the morning and ease off about 1pm. To my delight it also ended around the 12 week period so my Oxfam shifts and university lectures became far more enjoyable. My mum on the other hand had morning sickness that lasted morning, noon and night. I think I got off lightly!

In amongst all of the recommended treatments [bar the prescription drugs for very severe cases] I am officially putting any relief I got down to the ginger biscuits I used to line up on my bedside table. If I was feeling particularly frivolous I would throw a dry cracker onto the pile! My biscuits and crackers looked very much at home alongside the industrial size bottle of Gaviscon that I used to swig quite happily for the horrendous heartburn, which disappeared as soon as my daughter was born! Who said pregnancy wasn't sexy...

As if you didn't know...some other 'treatments' for morning sickness:

• Smelling a freshly cut lemon
• Avoiding an empty stomach
• Satisfy your food cravings and aversions [a little bit of what you fancy unless it's on the banned food list...]
• Eat little and often
• Eat fruit and veg with a high water content, such as tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, grapefruit, strawberries, lettuce, spinach, cucumber, courgettes, grapes, etc...
• Eat cabbage [not sure why this is seperate!]
• Embark on the BRAT diet - bananas, rice, apple sauce, toast and tea. [On the same plate?!]
• Ginger, in its various guises - capsules, tea, preserved, biscuits
• Eat dry crackers in the morning
• Drink liquids 30-45 minutes after eating solid food [Did my one bottle of Guiness Original count?!]

I am sure there are many many more and I would love to hear your morning sickness stories, no matter how graphic!