I’ll start off by saying our pregnancy wasn’t planned. I don’t mean not planned in the sense that it came as a complete utter, mindblowing shock (although I guess they all do in a way no matter what), I just mean that we thought it would take us A LOT longer then it actually did.
In fact, we had a lot of plans those first several months and pregnancy just simply didn’t fit into them. Until of course, it had to.
I will start off by saying that I was incredibly lucky that I didn’t really suffer from any morning sickness. Sure, I had nausea at some point almost every day but I didn’t spend those first 3 months hugging a toilet, thank God. Instead, it took every ounce of energy I had to get through the day before I would come home and literally crawl into bed.
Want to know the kicker? In that time I had a 10-day business trip to Europe with work. Yup, imagine trying to pull that off, yet somehow I managed to. It takes a lot of background work, and a few special people to have your back to pull it off successfully.
So what worked for me?
Pick your wardrobe carefully
This happened to be part of my style before I got pregnant so I was able to pull this off without anyone really knowing. I wasn’t wearing bags but they were baggy enough that any stomach growth wouldn’t show at all.
My best advice? start incorporating baggier shirts and sweaters into your wardrobe so that it’s not incredibly obvious if you just all of a sudden switch up your style.
If you’re lucky enough to be hiding your first trimester in the colder months then you can definitely take advantage of layers and wearing scarves!
Continue your workouts
For anyone that knows me, knows that I am a workout buff. When I found out I was pregnant my biggest worry was how it was going to affect my workouts. After reading quite a bit I actually found out that staying athletic will help to make your first trimester easier (of course, as long as your doctor says it’s okay).
Obviously it wasn’t easy getting up at 5 am most days but I found that once I did get up I felt so much better. I would walk to the gym and start a workout and if I still didn’t have the energy then I would do some light cardio and stretching. It was enough to get me up and moving and often feeling better throughout the day.
Befriend the wait staff
One of the harder things to cover-up was not ordering a glass of wine or a beer at dinner when we were out with friends. Not only was it hard to give up alcohol to begin with (I do love my glasses of red) but I knew if I said I wasn’t drinking to my friends they would spot me out immediately.
There were 2 things I did to help combat that. The first involved arriving at the restaurant or the place we were eating at earlier than my friends. I would then order a drink that could quite easily be mistaken for an alcoholic one. Virgin margaritas, mojitos or Ceasars (for my fellow Canadians) were all great choices.
If we couldn’t arrive early enough then I would have someone in the know (usually Ben) catch the wait staff right after I fake ordered an alcoholic drink (again something mixed so it was easy not to tell). He would pull them aside and let them know I was pregnant but we weren’t ready to tell our friends yet and asked for it to be a virgin drink. While it usually took a little more conniving, it was usually the best.
While I was away for work, and being in the UK where mixed drinks aren’t as common I ended up ordering ginger ale, in pint glasses. It ended up looking surprisingly similar to cider, however I wouldn’t recommend it because I think I got gut rut a few times from pounding back so much sugar!
Don’t skip the coffee!
Again I say this with a caveat that your doctor should approve everything but everything I was reading said you can have up to 200 mg of caffeine safely. That being said I know so many women who just give it up completely.
If you’re known as a bit of a coffee fiend in the office and suddenly you stop the habit out of nowhere people are going to question. I calculated that I could still have my ‘large’ cup if I switched to steeped tea. No one can tell the difference from the outside and I’m still getting my much-needed caffeine kick!
At the end of the day this is a really special and exciting time. I know I wasn’t ready to tell anyone for longer than normal because I wasn’t sure I was ready to accept that my life was – is going to change so dramatically.
Hopefully, you’ll find these tips useful in helping you keep your little secret!
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