Christmas drinking

[Amyw367]

Christmas drinking advice !

So ‘tis the season upon us. I am 5 weeks pregnant, so far only my husband knows. We have so many festive plans coming up soon with friends. How do I hide the not drinking?! My friends will smell a rat instantly as I do drink and would go to the pub regularly on weekends and am known for my cocktail Christmas gatherings haha

Also any advice on when to tell people. I feel like if it was January I could hibernate from the world haha

You can’t drink whilst taking the antibiotic metronidazolehttps://www.nhs.uk/medicines/metronidazole/about-metronidazole/#:~:text=Metronidazole%20is%20an%20antibiotic.,vaginosis%20and%20pelvic%20inflammatory%20disease.

There are loads of pretty decent alcohol free drinks now, so you should be able to get away with it if you/your DH order drinks out of earshot of others. Peroni and Heineken 0% lager is very good (just make sure you decant into a glass at the bar). There are loads of 0% gins, too. Or you could opt for a non-alcoholic cocktail (they look just a regular cocktail in the glass).

As for when to tell people... My personal rule of thumb is only to tell people early if I'd feel comfortable and supported if I had to face telling them I'd had a miscarriage down the line. If that answer is no, I wait until the 12/20 week scans (depending on who it is etc).

I’m the same, I’ve got a work Christmas party and Christmas Day at a friends. Someone suggested antibiotics….. perfect white lie

I had to go on a work trip when I was about 7 weeks where there were a lot of dinners with wine on the table etc and I'm never usually one to refuse. I used the "antibiotics" excuse and told people I'd had a tooth problem.. no one was any the wiser 😊

We also ended up having an early reassurance scan so we felt more comfortable telling a select few family members as we had some birthday dinners and things to attend & I'm a terrible liar!

Definitely time to drink mocktails.

Just order yourself something that can be passed off as alcohol, lime and soda rather than vodka lime and soda, alcohol free beers, whatever you’d normally drink but non alcoholic. People usually think this is a much bigger deal than it turns out to be!

Tell them you're on anti biotics- the type that you can't drink alcohol with. Or just for laughs tell them you realised you have a serious drinking problem and have decided to quit!

Anytime I’ve ever said I’m on antibiotics, even when I genuinely was and I wasn’t pregnant, people assumed I was lying and I was pregnant. So unless you have some old left over tablets to keep in your pocket to casually show people as ‘evidence,’ I’d be surprised if that works as an excuse, it wouldn’t in my friendship group anyway.

you can try saying you’re the designated driver, but again that’s raised suspicion before though.

I think sometimes saying you already have a hangover and you need to take it easy tonight, is a good bluff though.

Recovering from a stomach bug - but you need to sell that a few days before as well.
otherwise just get things like soda water and say it’s vodka soda, or mocktails.

or you can try change the plans now to food, but if you normally drink wine with a meal then again that will look sus

i stopped publicly drinking a few months before we started ttc. Loudly telling people I was cutting back for health. But i could ‘have one’ or convincingly tell them I wasn’t pregnant if they were suspicious: So then it wasn’t suspicious anymore when I was pregnant, would definitely recommend that to anyone in future!

You could say antibiotics.

I tried pretending I was drinking vodka and lemonade and my friends literally guessed straight away.

Everyone will know you’re pregnant if you tell them you’re on antibiotics. That excuse is as old as time!

Antibiotics is like a big neon sign on your forehead flashing pregnant.

Metronidazole is the only one you can't drink on and it's mostly for vaginosis so not great if you don't want to discuss your vaginal health with others...

Just don't drink, you don't have to explain. If you're normally a drinker everyone will know anyway.

Claiming to be on antibiotics is equivalent to announcing "I'M TOTALLY PREGNANT!"

People only notice whether or not you refuse a drink. Accept it and then just put it down somewhere, or discreetly pour it away when you have a moment. No one ever, ever spots that, because no one actually monitors whether you're lifting the glass in your hand to your lips or swallowing.

Just say you have to drive home. Do the responsible driver thing. You might get taken as the taxi driver for everyone else though.

Accept the drink but don’t drink it. Swap glasses with your partner

I just said I had a raging hangover (tbf I felt constantly hungover anyway during T1), nobody questioned it at all.

Don't say antibiotics. You may as well say you're pregnant.

Either you're driving, you're still rough from last night or you're just not feeling it/on a health trip. You could even go as far as saying you have the fear after a particularly bad session.

Swapping drinks is a good idea as long as they won't judge when they do find out thinking you were drinking.

Congratulations

Ha just read the PPs. Assume you know by now not to say antibiotics haha 😜

Unless you’re really private, if anyone asks, can you just quietly say you are pregnant but don’t want to talk about it as early days?

People who are close to you will likely know in any case if you say the old antibiotic line.

Just walk around with a big glass of wine have DH chug some, chuck some away in the loo, put it down and forget about it etc. A friend of mine had a NYE party and hid no alcohol Prosecco in her bathroom cabinet so nipped to loo, chucked the real stuff down the sink and topped up with the fake- genius as everyone saw her pouring it, and also drinking it so no one suspected a thing!

No one believes the antibiotic thing, you may as well just tell people outright because they’ll all be thinking it.

Absolutely don’t say antibiotics. You may as well announce you’re pregnant. Better options:

• Order alcohol free beer / cider and decant into a glass at the bar. Nurse it slowly. Once people have seen you drinking they back off a bit.
• If your DH is there, accept drinks but subtley swap glasses. Works best with wine during dinner.
• Order a mocktail but be careful it actually looks like a real cocktail in case someone asks what it is and they want to order the same thing. You can tell them the name of the real cocktail.
• Drive
• Say you’re hungover and again nurse a non alcoholic drink very slowly.

This also works really well if you’re hosting!

I hid non alcoholic beer in a cool bag in my bedroom, wandered ‘to the loo’ to swap out the real beers for a non alcoholic version in a glass.

If your friends are half decent even if they see through the antibiotics / migraine type excuse they’ll never say anything, people will have their suspicions but hopefully keep them too themselves until you’re ready to announce. I know most of my close friends had guessed I was pregnant when I didn’t drink at a big birthday party but were tactful enough to “believe” the story and not ask any questions :). My sister guessed when she saw decaf coffee in my cupboard but kept to herself! Good luck with your pregnancy!

As other have said don't say antibiotics as that's lame and means you may as well announce your pregnancy. Work with your DH here. Get him to order drinks at the bar and make yours an non alcoholic version or mocktail. You basically need to be drinking in plain sight as it were. Lots of pubs now do No-secco versions of things etc. you could also get the bar person or wait staff on board. I did it once when I went out with friends. Got their early for brunch and made sure they knew when I ordered a bloody Mary it was a virgin one. You almost need to work out a strategy for each event depending on what they are whether your DH is also going to be there.

I agree that the best tactic is to make the minimum fuss. Alcohol free beer, plain tonic, a glass of wine that you discreetly tip away/swap with DP.

Also unless your friends are arseholes, anyone who noticed and guesses should maintain a discreet silence anyway.

Is there one person you can tell? I did this when I was first pregnant and then I could drink a tonic water easily pretending it was a G&T. She helped me get the non alcoholic drinks