Really worried about going back to work tomorrow and them realising I’m pregnant

[Excitedmumma1]

I found out I was pregnant just after Christmas. I am very excited and happy but I’m already getting morning sickness and I’m really worried about being in the office.

With my first pregnancy I worked from home in the first trimester (due to Covid) so it was very easy to hide.

My work like to gossip and I know that it’ll be very unlikely I get to the end of the month without everyone suspecting.

I know most women aren’t as lucky as I was to be able to wait out the first trimester in their PJs, so my question is, do you have any tips?

Sending you luck, I was the same with my last pregnancy. I’m off work with stress just now but I think January is going to be awful with morning sickness too so I’m quite relieved I’ll have a doctor’s line anyway! It’s the main reason I’m taking another one and not going back. I’m a teacher so there’s really no way of me running off to be sick. I’m just gagging just now at 7 weeks but last time it fully kicked in at 8 weeks and was daily until 12 weeks. I forgot how awful the sick feeling is, you feel so out of control 🙈 If it gets really bad you could take a week off and say you’ve got a bug or the flu or something

@Excitedmumma1 hello! You could be me - found out I was pregnant on Boxing Day, struggling with the worst nausea (literally not able to eat a thing until 6pm which is horrendous) and I'm dreading going back to work tomorrow because again it's an office full of gossipers!!

I was pregnant back in Feb / March last year (sadly ended in a miscarriage) but some people at work knew about this, so I know any slight suspicion will be picked up straight away.

Personally for me, I've ordered some travel sickness bands from Amazon that have amazing reviews for morning sickness, I'm going to nibble on ginger biscuits and I found orange lucozade to be a lifesaver last time as well so I'm going to make sure I have that in.

I would say see how you get on with things like ginger biscuits etc but if it's too bad for you, you can always get a doctors note to recommend you work from home (rather than be off work for example) - I'm a manager and 2 girls on my team have done that same thing over the last year so they could stay at home through the sickness - which I had absolutely no issue with! I believe it's called a fit note xx

Thanks for the replies. Good ideas. @ElleBelleLou so sorry to hear about your miscarriage and I hope this pregnancy goes smoothly for you. I didn’t know about the doctors note to work from home, I will have to look into that if it gets really bad.

I felt this way 8 weeks ago @Excitedmumma1 . When I told colleagues at 13 weeks they were genuinely surprised. People love to gossip, but they are also very wrapped up in their own lives and unless you are visibly/ audibly nauseous you would be surprised how little they will notice. I did a lot of eating at my desk for 5 weeks (the smell of coffee and certain lunch foods was a massive trigger for sickness) and just said I was swamped with work. I found crystallised ginger really helped and they were tiny, easily concealed in a handbag or pocket. And plenty of small sips of water throughout the day.
It's actually a good time of year to have small, plain meals too - say you piled on the pounds over Christmas- could also avoid any funny looks if a bump is developing 😉