CMers- how did you cope with work and being pregnant?

[TheBreastmilksOnMe]

I'm quite early on (7 weeks) and feeling sick, irritable, tired and generally rubbish and I was wondering how other CMers got through their pregnancy whilst still putting on the facade of being bright, happy and the life and soul of the party?

Taking time off or giving up temporarily is obviously not an option, although I'd dearly love to! I just need some sympathy, some wise words and some survival tips!

Paste on a big false smile, and think of the money and the fact my ds loves having his friends round as he sees it.
I'm 35 weeks now and planning on going to the wire. Might regret that the decision, but parents are on standby for a phone call at any moment!

Sorry you're feeling rough TheBreastmilksOnMe - last time I found that sucking sour sweets helped (I bought the really expensive preggy pop drops thinking they had some magic ingredient, but they were just fruit flavoured sour-ish sweets). I guess you also need to try to rest whilst the kiddies do and try to plan some quiet periods into your day for you to recuperate - sorry if stating the obvious here.

Watching with interest as hoping to get pregnant later next year and not sure how compatible it'll be with CMing!

Also curious about how parents reacting to your potentially being off at short notice and how long you're planning to take off...

I'm not a CM but a nanny - but lots of Cbeebies and napping when the children napped got me through the first few weeks!.

Well it's my third pregnancy (1 miscarriage)and with my 1st pregnancy I basically was as honest as possible with the parents and let them know in advance of hospital appointemts etc, however I did bring a mindee along with me to see the midwife on more than one occasion but these were short visits. I never tended to be off 'at short notice' really. Everything was always planned.

I suffered towards the end of my 1st pregnancy with SPD and should have finished earlier ( finished with 4 weeks to go) so I am going to finish as early as maternity allowance will allow this time and just take it easy.

I will tell the parents this time after my 12 week scan as I am a bit more cautious after the miscarriage last time.

Hi, sorry to hear about the miscarriage, fingers crossed that all goes well this time.

When I wondered about being off at short notice I was actually thinking about going into labour! I was thinking I would probably work as long as possible to maximise chance of keeping mindees/parents on board.

Thanks

It's a nice idea in theory but the chances are you will be knackered, vary large, slow moving and unable to lift mindees up or take part in a lot of activites. You may also have the bad luck to suffer from SPD like I do, there is no telling so you really wont want to keep working until the end, unless you are very lucky and are one of these women who pregnancy hardly affects!

I would give yourself at least 4 weeks before your due date as notice and if you can carry on then great, maybe some parents will stay but the likelyhood is if you are going to take between 6 and 9 months off then you will lose parents anyway.

i worked right up while pregnant but this was with my 1st child so at night when mindees went home or at weekend i was childless so plenty of time to relax. i use to have to just go out and walk in the afternoons with the kids (a baby and a toddler) just to stop me wanting to sleep we use to just walk to no where. i was 2 weeks early stopped finished work on thursday intending to start back monday asn normal and went into labour in the early hours of friday perfect timing lol only took 5 weeks off work though think next time may take 8 if able to