Shout it from the rooftops

Last weekend we reached the 13-week mark and decided we could start making the happy news public knowledge. We told a couple of people over the weekend and on Monday night we started phoning around our friends. We got very mixed reactions. Some of them were anything but surprised and others screamed for joy. However, each and every one was really enthusiastic and so happy for us. A good friend of ours got so over-excited after we'd spoken to him that I started receiving text messages from one friend while I was on the phone with another friend, who had already been informed by him. Good news travels fast!

Telling my new boss was nerve-wracking as he's a real career man and has very ambitious plans for me for the coming year. The year in which I'll be taking several months off to become a mum. I took a deep breath, blurted out my news and waited anxiously for a reaction. He smiled broadly, blue eyes twinkling and said it was wonderful news. Subsequently, he congratulated me three times and started talking about the miracle growing inside me, a dreamy look on his face. He told me not to worry about how we're going to organise the work situation but that I should fully enjoy the pregnancy instead. I was completely gobsmacked, but in a good way.

My colleagues had mostly been expecting it and two of them had even bet a bottle of wine on me being pregnant! There were several moments of enlightenment, as suddenly some of my out-of-character behaviour was explained. I'd stopped eating brie sandwiches, claiming I only liked them in summer. I didn't drink at a company dinner, whereas I normally take full advantage of the free wine. I didn't go to a trade show I normally love going to because I couldn't stay awake past 7 pm at that point. "Oooh, so that's why..."

Along with the positive reactions have come the advice. Heaps of advice. Suddenly the whole world knows what's best for me, what I'm thinking and feeling, what I should and shouldn't be doing, what the state of my hormones is and everyone I know has become a fully trained obstetrician. It's driving me mad! Just because I didn't cry at a sad film, I was apparently suffering from "reverse hormones". I've decided not to drink at all during this pregnancy, but apparently I should have a few glasses of wine because it's not a problem. I don't want a home birth, but apparently a hospital birth is "not my style". My belly shouldn't be swelling yet according to one person and according to the other my stomach is till too flat. As a friend of mine wisely said, welcome to the public world of pregnancy.

Elasticated waistbands and other fashion statements

My clothes are starting to get more than a little uncomfortable. I come home at night and the first thing I do is dash upstairs to rip off my trousers/skirt and put on a pair of nice, roomy tracksuit bottoms. Armed with the knowledge that this will only get worse, I ventured into a maternity clothing shop over the weekend. I know it's a rather expensive one from having visited it with pregnant friends in the past, but they were having 50% off everything and who can resist that? I was hunting around for "normal-looking" clothes because there is no way I'm going to spend the next 6 months in kaftans and stretchy polyester trousers.

A shop assistant approached me and I explained what I was looking for. She produced a pair of smart black trousers with a HUGE stretchy bit where the waistband should be. I laughed and said it would be a long time before I needed something that size. She pointed at her own trousers and told me she was wearing them too. Now, she was horribly slim with the tiniest of tiny bulges around the belly area. She lifted her shirt to show me how she has simply folded the stretchy bit down to make a wide waist band which was allegedly comfortable and warm. Partially convinced, I took the trousers with me into the fitting room.

I never want to take them off again. They are the most comfortable, wonderful trousers in the world. I can breathe, I can sit down without feeling like my stomach is in a vice, I can relax my stomach muscles completely and the folded down stretchy bit is fabulously warm. Buoyed by this magical discovery, I trawled the rest of the shop and ended up with a long, purple tie-front cardigan, a black top and, of course, The Trousers. My trousers. All that for less than the price of the cardigan alone!

As I have spent the whole week in The Trousers, my mum suggested I might want to go back and take advantage of the sale again. Tonight I popped back in and got another pair of a sort of tweed trousers. It's funny to have to buy new clothes already when almost nobody knows about the pregnancy yet. I'm currently combining them with baggy jumpers to hide my bulge, but I'm looking forward to showing off our good news! In any case, it's nice to know that maternity clothes can actually be nice - they're almost like normal clothes...