Shhh - share your leeeeetle white lies during pregnancy with PG tips Decaf and you could win £250 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

You may know know the advice is to cut down on caffeine during pregnancy.

Inspired by threads like this the team at PG tips Decaff want you to share your best little white lies told in early pregnancy. Maybe the ones about why you're not drinking or why your usual has changed that you told your friends or work colleagues in those precious few weeks between P-ingOAS and getting a positive and feeling confident enough to be able to announce the pregnancy. Or you may have a top tip on explaining why you're not on the strong(er) stuff all of a sudden.

The team at PG tips Decaff say "With PG tips decaf, you can still enjoy the splendid luxury and taste of a nice cuppa, without having to think about the caffeine as it contains less than 10mg per cup - available in packs of 40, 80 or 160"

So share your tips, lies told and examples of when you had to think on your feet on this thread: everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky MNer will win a £250 voucher for the store of their choice.

thanks and good luck

MNHQ

[OrangeMochaFrappucino]

I was so sick I couldn't hide it. Even thinking about tea or coffee made me retch so there was no option of switching to decaff! Everyone knew pretty much as soon as I did so I didn't bother lying - just said I felt too I'll for tea/coffee/alcohol and didn't elaborate but it was perfectly clear what my reason was!

[EstoyAqui]

Mine was actually the other way. I pretended my morning sickness was a hangover.

I was giving a huge presentation to a foreign client when pregnant. I hadn't told anyone yet as we have a poor pregnancy history. As I was explaining a new process to a room full of stakeholders I suddenly felt really ill, I took a sip of water and continued but without warning I threw up all over the central table. There was vomit everywhere. I couldn't stop. Nobody knew what to do!

My boss was on the speaker phone asking what was happening and I was desperately looking around for tissues. I simply said "Je suis desolee, ive a trop bu!" (I am really sorry but I have drunk too much) I didn't want to tell anyone about the pregnancy yet so let them all think I was hungover.

Eventually they found out and were all very understanding.

[Hedgehog1977]

I am only newly pregnant and desperately trying to think of an excuse for not going on a cocktail binge in London in a few weeks, so these are all really handy!

But yesterday I faked a sprained shoulder, to avoid helping to carry a table in the office, and on Friday dh is going to buy me fake drinks (tonic disguised as gin) to cover it up. Only 7 weeks until we can tell everyone!

[Fillybuster]

I came up with a fairly good plan for my work xmas do, which occurred when I was about 10 weeks pg.

Went down to the bar it was being held at the day before and had a long chat with the bar staff.

On the day, every time I ordered a G&T (my normal tipple of choice) or anyone got one more me, they made up a lovely looking 'ice and a slice' with soda water :)

By the time we moved onto the restaurant for dinner, I was able to plead 'too many g&ts' at the bar, and stick to water for the remainder of the evening

[hubbahubster]

With DS, I went through the office Christmas party, Christmas itself and a cosy night in, just me and my BFF and several bottles of wine, all without anyone twigging. It's amazing how little drunk people notice once they're merry… never really had to use an excuse!

The not-drinking-loads-of-tea in the office was harder to hide than not drinking booze. I switched to red bush – really, really strong – and that hid the caffeine-cutdown nicely :)

[hubbahubster]

Oh, I did have a pregnant-lady-shandy with this pregnancy early doors – had a pub lunch with my mate and toddler DS in tow, so ordered a lemonade with a beer top at the bar while she watched DS at our table. Then pointed out that as I was at home with DS that day, I wouldn't have more than a pint as I wouldn't be able to cope with his destructive exuberant behaviour if I had any more…

[jollytummywobbles]

I told people I was on a new diet that meant I had to eat every hour to boost my metabolism. In reality I ate crackers to stop me from feeling so sick!

[RichTeaAreCrap]

I found out just before a big work night out - we were staying in a hotel too so no chance of me offering to be the driver to disguise me not drinking!

I told everyone at work that I was feeling a migraine coming on (I was known to like a tipple on a works night out so they would realise very easily if I wasn't drinking). This would give me a reason not to drink but also a reason to sneak off to bed early!

As my luck would have it, I was really enjoying myself, thinking I had got away with my little fib and could actually try and stay awake later than usual and enjoy the night. I ended up running to the loo, throwing up along the way due to morning sickness that was lasting all day and night! I slipped away and went to bed and everyone felt really sorry for me assuming that it was my migraine. I was gutted to have missed out on what was fast becoming a great night!

[CheeseStrawWars]

I made sure I bought my own drinks instead of doing rounds, claiming I was a bit strapped for cash at the moment. Easy to get a tonic water or a coke and claim it's a G&T or a vodka something.

[Monkeyandanimal]

I drank cold chamomile tea in a wine glass when we held a party for my son's christening and no-one could tell I wasn't drinking white wine. It had the added advantage of being soothing on a nauseated tummy! I just had to make sure no-one picked up my glass by mistake!

[GreenRedBlueYellowPurple]

Told everyone my due date was 2 weeks later to get a bit of peace & quiet :-)

[BabyLabyrinth]

With DD it was much harder to hide not drinking tea from the pot than with alcohol. I claimed I was on a detox diet and only drank hot water with lemon at work for weeks. I then had decaf tea and coffee at home.

I only went out "drinking" once in the first 12 weeks of that pregnancy because I felt so dreadful, and I just never said I wasn't drinking. I had an orange juice, everyone assumed there was vodka in it, and that was that. I knew if I made a big deal of not drinking, everyone would suspect!

With this pregnancy I was (and am) still breastfeeding DD, so I never had to lie properly about not drinking booze - I just said I couldn't as I would be feeding DD later that evening. And I was working from home, so no one noticed my tea-drinking habits!

[Pinter]

I had always 'lost the Des coin toss' with DP so I was always driving!

Told friends when I saw them as they knew we were trying

Told work for the same reasons as PP re prison duties

I always has decaf anyway so no need there. In fact it's only now that DD is a bit older & I'm back to work that I have caffeine!

Usually drink Yorkshire tea

[skyeskyeskye]

I told XH that it would be dangerous for me to do any lifting or stretching, which meant that I was unable to use the hoover through the whole pregnancy .

[changedirection]

My patents and in laws were visiting the weekend we found out and we weren't ready to tell, so I drank lots of gin and lemonades, but without the gin. When we announced the pregnancy mum made a comment about how much id been drinking!!

[LaVitaBellissima]

I think if you are normally a social drinker and are in a long term relationship/just married then people have an expectation that you will be procreating soon. This means they are always ready for the antibiotics, really hungover etc lines.
My tip is to order a drink but not drink it, nobody notices if you just take an occasional sip. I just used to pour mine away or when it was my round order a tonic.

[ChaffinchOfDoom]

as I was suffering from hyperemesis during early pregnancy I used a bucket to throw up into at work... they all thought I had a bug I was mortified though, as I didn't want them to think they'd catch anything...

a good tip for the bar hoppers is just to drink tonic water with ice and a slice; it still tastes 'drink-y' yet is alcohol free. Never had to hide my secret though as 2 young dc means nights at the pub as rare as hen's teeth

[Applesauce29]

My office had a mouse infestation so I kept my tea in a Tupperware box in my pedistal (without box), hence no one knew I'd switched to decaf. Most colleagues are quit snooty abt their tea and coffee and don't use the stuff in the giant boxes in the tea room anyway - I just said my stuff tasted better, and I wasn't going to touch the free stuff provided in case it's been contaminated with mouse urine.

At drinks and nights out with friends, I just passed mocktails off as cocktails. Jamie's Italian does a really nice mohijto with mint, sugar and ginger beer that looks (and almost tastes) like the real thing!

[MimsyBorogroves]

"I'm going to write this assessment at home tomorrow"

(I'm going to have a massive lie in and then write a very basic assessment in an hour, in bed, so I can go back to sleep)

[ItsATIARA]

I found a somewhat over cautious website that said that pg women should avoid strong magnetic fields. I told DH that that included hand held electric mixers and the Dyson. And he had to change the cat litter of course.

[MyNameIsInigoMontoya]

Oh yes I did the driving thing too!

Also once or twice when out in pubs I deliberately ordered soft drinks that looked like stronger stuff, or pretended I was on something-and-coke when actually it was just the coke... though it doesn't work so well if someone else wants to buy for you!

[HammeringBird]

I used to try to get the first round in so that I could get a tonic and claim it was gin and tonic.

We did go to a wedding where DH and I kept subtly swapping glasses during the meal. We were on a table with a load of old uni friends and everyone (except me, obviously) got pretty drunk. DH was far worse than anyone else. He was basically drinking enough for two very drunk people. He was sick before we went to bed and felt so rough the next day that I had to do the whole 4-hour drive home. We were the first of that group of friends to have kids. After we'd confessed about that night, one of the others started watching other couples' glasses at dinners and correctly predicted that our friends were pregnant before they announced it, because she spotted a glass swap!

Otherwise, at work I said I was cutting back my caffeine. On other days, I drank decaff at home or when nobody else was about and 'saved' my caffeine for when I was having a cuppa with friends.

[KnitActually]

And there I was thinking that everyone said "I'm on antibiotics". Couldn't have been more wrong, eh!!

[lottietiger]

I found it really hard at work making excuses to get out of drinking tea! We were a big tea drinking office and it got harder and harder to make excuses. On my roundi could just say I fancied squash and near lunch I used to say no I was popping out and then not go for an hour, that brought me 2 hours! When I eventually spilled the beans the guys said they had guessed because of the lack of tea:)