Am I the only person who doesn't appear to be capable of keeping to things you should and shouldn't do while pregnant??

[iwouldgoouttonight]

I'm only 11 weeks and so far I have accidentally eaten vegetables that weren't washed, done loads of gardening and then realised I'd forgotten to put gloves on, lifted DS (nearly 2 stones!) up and down the stairs, put hydrocortisone cream on DS and then read that you shouldn't use it when pregnant, and then today I used a small amount of cream for (ahem) feminine itching before reading that it shouldn't be used when pregnant without consulting a doctor.

Needless to say I washed it off, and washed hands after gardening, etc but why do I seem incapable of following simple instructions??

Can someone please reassure me that this is normal or I shall spend the next seven months in a complete state with worry that I've done something to hurt my unborn child.

Entirely normal, I'd add, I've eaten soft cheese, actually eaten food which turned out to be off and undercooked. Carried my 30lb DD around quite a lot, ignored signs of illness, built walls, climbed scaffolding, the list is endless.

Let's be honest here, if your baby is going to die, there's usually bugger all you can do about it

Sad but true. I was an absolute perfect pregnant person and miscarried twice. With DD I fell off ladders a total of three times (each time about 20 feet) and with this pregnancy I manage to poison myself with refrozen ice cream and yet DS is still kicking around.

Don't beat yourself up. The problem is these days we have so much info we worry constantly. Which is bad for your BP as well as your mental health

I'm a strong believer in using your common sense.

You're pregnant, not having chemotherapy.

Everything in moderation is the most sensible advice, I think.

and eating sushi, drinking a glass of wine here and there, eating unpasteurized cheese etc etc etc
our parents didnt have all these restrictions and we're here

I managed to eat mouldy bread yesterday, with mouldy jam - nice

Have also, more knowingly, eaten soft cheese, drank two beers yesterday (I genuinely didn't realise there's more than one unit in a small bottle of beer!) and unwashed veg. We also have an allotment so I do loads of gardening and even with gloves, your fingers still get grubby. Oh, and I do loads of lifting of my two older DDs. I'm not proud of all this but neither do I worry about it either.

don't worry about it, chances are you'll be fine!

I am 17 weeks into my second pregnancy and so much more laidback than my first, when I followed all the rules religiously.

Things like wearing gloves when gardening - I forget a lot of the time, I just make sure I wash my hands afterwards - but then I wash my hands about 20 times a day anyway, what with all the bottom-wiping and potty-emptying.

My DD is over 3 stones and I've carried her up and down the stairs a few times. She's only 3 and I like cuddling her and carrying her around! If it's any comfort to you my GP told me that there is no evidence to suggest that heavy lifting is particularly bad for pregnant women - haven't researched this myself, but it made me feel a lot better!

god it's completely normal. I don't think the lifting a toddler is remotely risky. I always understood unless you were doing hard manual labour, the real risk was to your back/ligaments not to the baby.

Glad I'm not the only one! When I was pregnant with DS we were renovating our house so I spent a lot of time up ladders, sanding paintwork (which it only occurred to me afterwards could have contained lead) and painting ceilings. DS is fine so I should know not to panic but I seem to need to find something to worry about!

I think the problem is definitely having too much information - I start reading about one tiny side effect of one thing I've done wrong and end up convinced that the baby will be born with two heads or something.

Yes, the only reason you can't lift heavy weights is because with the relaxin in your joints you're more likely to do yourself an injury. (Unless you have some kind of pregnancy complication where it may have a bearing)

Read a newspaper article about ante-natal depression which suggested that sticking rigidly to the published rules about what you can and can't have can be construed as a symptom of AND. That said, I did pretty much keep the rules but it made me sodding miserable. (think in retrospect I also had AND) But I still will if I get PG again as have had a previous late loss.

I wouldn't worry about lifting, I'm 28 weeks and still lifting and carrying 5 yr old dd, you'll know if it's not comfortable!

Chances are you've had toxoplasmosis

and we've all done some of these

Don't worry

I didn't know I was pregnant until gone 14 weeks, and I'm really glad as I couldn't feel guilty about not sticking to the 'rules'.

Luckily I've had very relaxed midwives and GPs who have said me chilling out is way more important than any of these rules, and even told me to have a small glass of wine with dinner while on holiday! GPs both warned me about unwashed food but said it's mainly because I would feel extra grim with salmonella etc, rather than it harming the baby.

you shouldn't worry bout doing any of these things - pregnancy is not supposed to demand some sort of radical lifestyle change (unless you are a major party animal). Women are actually designed to be almost continuously pregnant (shudder) so lifting a toddler should not be out of bounds unless you have a specific problem. Doing or not doing any of these things is not remotely likely to influence the outcome of your pregnancy.

My reflexologist gave me the most useful insight into the do's and don't's of pregnancy.... she said that an embryo/foetus/baby was essentially a parasite and that drug addicted women living rough and surviving on coffee and alcohol manage to give birth to relatively unscathed babies (admittedly these babies have some challenges but you get the idea) yet we get stressed and beat ourselves up for eating a prawn - ridiculous !

I have taken the view that as long as you are sensible then moderation is the order of the day and a compromise must be reached between the babies wellbeing and the mothers sanity.

I am 23 weeks and I have eaten all the banned foods occassionally, but only when I am confident in the quality, and have had about six G&T's since I was 13 weeks, but baby boy is 2 weeks bigger than dates and very active

I'm with expat - common sense is key. I've been emptying the cat tray without wearing rubber gloves pretty much all the way through this pregnancy and not worrying about it, because I know how (and when) to wash my hands thoroughly.

completely normal!

So far I have managed to:

garden without gloves on (despite 2yo daughter handing me gloves helpfully and saying gloves on mummy)
clean up dog sick (who else is going to do it)
clean up dog poo (ditto)
carry toddler around the place
continue working as a personal trainer and class instructor
eat blue cheese (hidden ingredient in friend's delicious soup)

and I still eat rare-ish steaks, soft eggs and have the odd glass of wine.

I'll probably get lots of stick for this too, but I also went skiing at 8 weeks pregnant - on the grounds that I've been skiing/active all my life so for me, it's not a big deal.

I used to have a lovely doctor who told me not to worry about all these things too much, that the most important things were eating well, not eating liver and sleeping and relaxing. She also said that you would be at risk if you'd never eaten pink meat or soft eggs, or done the gardening etc but given that I've been doing this stuff forever then not to worry too much. She used to laugh at the gardening thing and say just give your hands a good scrub afterwards!

When I was pregnant with daughter #1 I also had an X-ray not knowing I was up the duff, and had a 10 course New Year's Eve feast in France that included almost every banned food and so much wine that I was passed out by midnight.

I hasten to add that I was desperate to get pregnant and utterly value the importance of good health in pregnancy and love my daughter to bits (before anyone tells me I'm a bad, bad mother!).

Big boozy new year knees up at about 1 week!
Skiing at 8 weeks (but already booked and paid for before I knew I was pg)
Mountain biking at 24 weeks (also a few tiems before that but the 24 week trip was longer and more technical)

Like hatcam I've done outdooe sports all my life and had confidence in myself. Was more careful than usual to look out for other people aroudn me though. The misery of staying at home and not going out would have done me more mental harm!

Now 30 weeks, have stopped mtb'ing as bump too big.

Snap bikerunski. Spent first 6 weeks totally plastered on wine and vodka unaware I was pg (it was over christmas & new yr!!) Went skiing at 12 wks for 1st time ever and more or less rolled down a mountain (really, really rubbish at it)Spent 2 months up ladders decorating, carrying heavy doors and rubbish sacks, still lifting weights in the gym. And I am the clumsiest person ever. Ive eaten every time of shellfish going, uncooked eggs. Picked up after dog poo/sick.
As far as I know all is well as little monkey is kicking the crap out of my bladder!!

I unknowingly: took the pill for the first three months, took Avloclor antimalarial tablets in weeks 10, 11 and 12, took diazepam 5mg twice in weeks 11 and 12 to calm my fears about a flight to Dominican Republic, and naughtily got very drunk on the flights in the process! I had a hot jacuzzi and went in the steam room in week 12 on holiday, and also had a massage, I clean out cat litter on a daily basis, I spent a month hand-rearing kittens (their mummy got mastitis so I had to feed them every 4 hours day and night) getting very stressed and very little sleep in my first month of pregnancy! I've had lots of sushi and goats cheese and unwashed vegetables a few times too. I also took cod liver oil by the tablespoon too.

BTW you probably gathered I only found out I was pregnant at 3 months, missed all the signs as I put them down to being on the pill. Doh!! My baby looked normal in the 12 week scan, but i'm a very anxious person so i'm just hoping everything really is ok with all the wrong things i've done...

Soft eggs...mmmmm... say, do you think if I were to allow myself one that a supermarket one or one of my sil's would be less risky?

I read a scaremongering U.S. book on eating in pregnancy the first time around and started avoiding lots of stuff it mentioned such as cured meats and smoked fish; none of this is mentioned in the NHS book they give you so this time around I'm just pretending I never read that book.

That should be one of my sil's chickens' eggs!

a lot of those 'recommendations' given in the US is because they are a very litigous society.

and as for femine itching - I went to the doctor and they prescribed the same cream for me - though they did tell me I can't take the oral pills for it!

HEY EVERYONE, JST NEW TO THIS WEBSITE AND THIS WAS THE FIRST TOPIC I READ...........AND CAN I JUST SAY THANKS VERY MUCH TO EVERYONE FOR MAKING ME FEEL NORMAL!! I ASWELL WORRY ABOUT EVERTHING THAT I SHOULD OR SHOLD NOT BE DOING.......I STILL WORRY ABOUT MY LITTLE BABY AS I DIDNT FIND OUT I WAS PREGNANT TILL 6 WEEKS GONE AND WAS DRINKING AND SMOKING LIKE IT WAS GOING OUT OF FASHION......WAS TAKING DIET PILLS & SKIN-HAIR AND NAILS TABLETS.......IM A NURSERY NURSE SO WAS IN CONTACT WITH CHILDREN SLAPPED CHEEK SYNDROME & CHICKENPOX....WENT TO DOMINICAN AND TOOK MALARIA TABLETS AND GOT HEP A VACCIANATION.........THE LIST GOES ON & ON NOW SO WORRIED ABOUT THIS SWINE FLU VACCINATION AS I FINK I HAVE PUT MY BABY THRU ENOUGH!!..... EVERY WEBSITE/ARTICLE U READ ITS "DONT DO THIS & THAT"... IM JST SO PARANOID ABOUT EVERTHING! THAT I CANNOT ENJOY MY PREGANCY !! THEY SAY DNT TAKE A LEMSIP OR IBRUPROPHEN.........BUT HAVE A VACCINATION THAT HASNT BEEN TESTED ON PREGANT WOMEN .........ARRGH!!!

ANYONE ELSE FEEL THE SAME? ........... OR AM JST PARANOID ANDROID LOL ..XX.

With 1st baby, took long flight to Saudi Arabia. Extremely hot and surrounded by 2 million pilgrims from all over the world packed in a tiny space during fasting period. Imagine the potential for catching something nasty. All was fine with me and baby during the preg.

This preg, sat at home for the past few weeks in safe surroundings with my feet up. I haven't taken a single risk. Result - missed miscarriage.

I have...

been to vietnam and stayed in cockroach infested hotels, eaten raw seafood straight from the beach, plusevery other kind too, had lots of cocktails (they had fruit in them!) and been rock climbing (and falling!) all up until 6 weeks pregnant. Since have eaten rare steak, pate, runny eggs (but dont get them from the farm I used to, from the supermarket now) have had one or two drinks each week for the whole time, have eaten my own weight in peanut butter, and spent nearly every weekend doing various diy jobs and doing my very active job for 10 hour stints.
However, won't empty the cat litter tray.. (makes me gag, and I figure if I can get DH to do it..well why not!)
Fact is, I am really relaxed (so far) in this my first pregnancy, and feel good. Just take it all with a pinch of salt and weigh up all the pros and cons - you'll decide what is right for you.

I lifted my toddler right up to 40 weeks last time, and she was around 2 stone. I am 17 weeks and it wouldn't occur to me not to lift DS (age 3.5).

re: cream, you were applying it to DS and not you and anyway small amounts of HC cream probably ok anyway. my DS has eczema and i apply it to him.

i've also riden a bicyle, gone down really fast water slides, eaten rare steak, peanut butter drank wine, eaten liver (small amounts), and i am not worried!

re: eggs supermarket safer as hens vaccinated against salmonella