Not everyone is comfortable sharing the news they’re pregnant right after they get that positive test result. It’s fairly common to wait 12-15 weeks before sharing the news with friends and family. I know that was the case with Justin and I. But it’s not like the world just stops and waits for you to get to that point where you finally feel comfortable to share the news with everyone. There are still parties, casual get togethers, dinner and drinks, sports events, and maybe even a wedding or two for good measure. So how do you hide your pregnant before you’re ready to share the news? It can be really hard especially if your family or group of friends like to have drinks in hand and know that you do too. It’s not like I’m a big drinker or anything but I do love my champs and so whenever it’s offered I never really turn it down, I mean, who would?!! So here are just a few ways to hide your pregnant that I found helpful when I was in my first 12 weeks (which ended up dragging out to 15 weeks) before we publicly shared our wonderful news!
1. Show up with a drink in hand. If it’s just hanging out a fiends house or meeting at a bar, if you show up with a drink in hand people are less likely to question you after you turn down an offer for an alcoholic drink. I did this for the Super Bowl this year. I showed up with a huge (and I mean huge) water bottle full of orange juice. At first our friends joked if there was anything else in there besides OJ and then offered up a glass of champs but I just said I’m ok for now and then the longer we were there they maybe asked me one or two more times and I just said I’m ok but if I change my mind I’ll grab a glass myself. As an extra side note, my friends had very thoughtfully made sure there was a bottle of champs so I would have something to drink since I don’t really drink beer.
2. Give the bartender a heads up. When you’re going to a bar with friends for HH or going up to the bar at a wedding give the bartender a heads up when your friends are not around that you’ll be needing you drinks made virgin. My first try at this was at our friends wedding in February. Justin and I weren’t ready to share our news so I ordered sparkling water with cranberry juice and a slice of lime throughout the wedding. For the champagne toast, I tilted the glass back but didn’t take a sip and by that point no one noticed. During the after party Justin and I went up to the bar with our friends and I ordered a pina colada, he ordered second and softly mentioned to the bartender to make mine virgin. It’s definitely easier to tag team it when you can and many times Justin just went to the bar by himself and brought back a drink for me and no one was the wiser!
3. Mention how it’s been hard to fit in your workouts. Some people are afraid that they will start to gain weight, or “show” before they’re ready to share the news. I read somewhere (I can’t remember the source now) that if you start to drop subtle comments like “Work has been keeping me so busy lately and I’ve been having to stay at the office late.” “I’m bummed I’ve been missing my favorite workout classes lately” or something else along those lines that when you start to put on a couple pounds no one will even think twice.
4. Wear oversized clothes. One way I definitely kept them bump concealed at first was by wearing my oversized chambray shirts (like this one). It wasn’t like I went out and started to buy new clothes right away so I went to my closet looking for the looser fitting clothes that I owned and wore those. That way after lunch when my little bump got bigger it wasn’t noticeable to anyone.
5. Mention you haven’t been getting a good nights sleep. Maybe you can blame it on your dogs…I know I did. Or the fact that your husband got an early morning work call like at around 4am. Another excuse I used because it’s true and does happen fairly regularly. These comments helped when I got tired mid-day and wasn’t drinking coffee nobody questioned it.
PS I also sometimes showed up to work with an empty coffee cup so that people would think I had finished it on my ride into work. I know that might sound crazy but I was a huge latte drinker and would have one daily so I figured that would have been a big red flag before anything else. Ok, so maybe that on could stand on it’s own as number 6.
I hope this helps anyone who might be pregnant and hoping to keep it a secret just a little bit longer or if nothing else was entertaining for the rest of y’all!
