Fat or Pregnant?

Have you ever seen a woman and wondered to yourself if she was pregnant, or just overweight? If it is a stranger, no big deal, but if it is someone you know it can make the situation awkward. Although you would love to congratulate her if she was indeed pregnant, it would be an embarrassing situation for both if she had just been eating too many Ben & Jerry’s pints.

The Guessing Game

I bring this up because until recently my manager was the only person at work I told about my pregnancy, and that was just because of the time I was taking off for doctor’s appointments. As my belly started to grow and my waistline began to fill out, I started to wonder if anyone in the office noticed. I actually found it quite amusing to think of someone’s internal dialogue.

I imagined it going something like this, “Man, Meghan is starting to put on a little weight……she needs to lay off the candy bars! Or wait…..could that be a baby bump? Huh…. She isn’t married so that would be so scandalous!”

Maybe it is a bit of a stretch and perhaps self-centered to think that my coworkers would really care that much about my business, but I know how much everyone loves gossip. Either way, it gave me entertainment to keep my little growing nugget a secret.


My baby bump

Interestingly enough, I have only put on a total of about 5 pounds so far. Looking in the mirror, I think it looks like much more. I guess it is the way my uterus is expanding, therefore squishing other internal organs to the side to make room for itself. Especially during the first 12-16 weeks I had a soft and doughy pot belly instead of a nice and hard bump. It was actually quite frustrating not being able to button my pants even though the numbers on the scale had barely moved…. I felt so fat! Now that my belly is firming up I actually feel more pregnant, and surprisingly that is a very good thing.