When I went to my first obgyn appointment I wasn't quite sure how far along I was. I had just taken a home test so I called to schedule an appointment as soon as I could. Anyway, my husband couldn't go with me because he couldn't get off of work, and he pretty much made me take my mother-in-law along with me.....I love her but I was not up for sharing such an intimate experience with her...and not in the mood! We were living in a Central America at that time and the scale is right in the waiting room with no privacy at all, and when the nurse weighs you she says your weight loudly so everyone in the room can here it! To go along with that my MIL followed me over to the scale to see. Then she wouldn't stop commenting on how 130 pounds is a "good weight to carry the baby" meaning I had plenty of fat to support the baby, and how my face looked filled in already....I was soooo annoyed considering I am 5' 7" and 130 is by no means large for my frame, but since I am a lot taller than most women there and especially women in her family I was made to feel like a giant whale lol. The funny thing was I only ended up being 6 weeks along at the time, and my face was clearly not swollen yet. The baby is only the size of a grain of rice at 6 weeks! Then she kept telling me that since I didn't get nausea "that bad" I would probably gain a ton of weight.

I would kill my MIL in the waiting room before they even had a chance to weigh me. My husband knows to keep her as far away as possible!

Not advocating violence, and I wouldn't actually kill her I just can only take her in small doses and try to keep her at arm's length with regard to anything that doesn't directly involve her.

this has always bugged me, but now that I'm pregnant it bugs me more...the way that if you are a pregnant woman in a male dominated field you suddenly are a second class citizen and a dirt bag. I have tried to keep up with the boys but they won't even let me, I go to do something and they are like "oh no, we will do it, you just stay here" then a week later they give me crap for "not doing anything"

I think that most men just don't get it. We're not sick (at least not after MS passes). We may have some temporary physical limitations, but our brains work just fine.

I left my last firm before I could come back from maternity leave. I worked right up until the night I went into labor, and I wasn't happy there. I had a feeling they were going to promote this other attorney compared to whom I had much more experience - and he was still a law student working summers when I started working there. He's a good guy and a good attorney, but I know I was better. However I knew he would be promoted instead of me given that he had yet to get married, have kids, etc., meanwhile I was about to start a family. I understand that with its being a smaller firm, they might have needed a guy without kids, but the thought that I might be passed over based on my having a baby really stung. Frankly if I had come back, and they had promoted him, I'd have quit anyway. It turns out that shortly after I told them I wasn't coming back, they promoted him. (I have nothing against him and actually still talk to him from time to time, since I often give them referrals, as I don't work in the same field anymore, but I think they were probably hoping I'd decide not to come back!)

Point being, it sucks how pregnancy and maternity leave can mess with your career. I just wish we could be more family-friendly in this country when it comes to the workplace.

Also, I have to make all of these lifestyle changes and am expected to be happy about it. I understand I am pregnant but that doesn't mean that I as a person do not matter anymore. It's really not all about the baby. I'm still here!

I have to say, this is what I feel most of the time. When people want to discuss with me the personal aspects of being pregnant (not counting the ladies here, since, well, that's what we're here for, among other things), it makes me feel like a science experiment. For example, when I was about 8 or 9 weeks pregnant, my MIL asked me if I had to get up and pee in the middle of the night yet. The answer was, and still is at nearly 25 weeks, no, but would that be an appropriate question to ask me if I weren't pregnant? Absolutely not. In which case, it shouldn't be asked.

On top of it all- I'm not disabled. I can and will do things on my own and am a BIG girl to ask for help when I need it. I am tired of people who think and treat me like I'm incapable of doing something.

This one bothers me, too. My husband made a comment last night that I was not "mobile." I had a good laugh about it - what he meant was not that I'm not mobile but that I can't carry heavy things around - but I told him that if he keeps it up I will make sure that he is no longer mobile

But seriously there are people who are acting like I shouldn't be doing ANYTHING. We rescued a puppy in mid-January, and unlike our other dogs who can hang at home during the work day, since he needs to be let out often, we bring him into the office with us. One day he pooped on the floor of my office. I cleaned it up, no big deal. Our receptionist (who believes in old wives' tales) told me that I shouldn't be cleaning up dog poop because it could make me sick. I told her it was cat poop that poses the greatest risk, and it's not like I was cleaning up diarrhea. It was basically: go grab a bunch of toilet paper, pick up the poop, flush it down the toilet, and spot clean the carpet. No big deal. Then she saw me carrying the puppy, who's now about 15 lbs, and scolded me for carrying him. I told her he is hardly too heavy for me to be carrying. Heck, I carry my 31-lb son if I have to (though thankfully he prefers to walk).

She also says dumb *kitten* all the time... For example, if I'm trying to decide what I want to eat for lunch, she'll ask, "Well, what does BABY want to eat?" Seriously, don't make me smack you. Baby doesn't give a *kitten* about what s/he wants to eat. I eat, s/he gets nutrients. What matters is whether *I* want to eat it. I do exist outside of my uterus, thanks.

Well, here is a funny one. I met my husband for lunch one day. I look very young. I am almost 37, but sometimes am still asked if I am still in high school. My husband, well, he pretty much looks his age.

I met him for lunch one day. He was wearing his wedding band. I wasn't, since I have some afternoons when my hands swell at this point. We were seated at a fairly private table at the back of the restaurant. There were 2 other tables that seemed to think that I may be carrying his love child instead of being his wife, kept glaring at me and staring through our meal. On our way out, one of the tables even commented, how disgusting! Yeah, how disgusting that a couple that has been married for 16 years is having a child together!

My best friend from high school (to whom I still talk fairly regularly) is like that. She just looks young - and at 33, that is now starting to pay off! She had a baby last May, and she heard a ton of crap from people who didn't know her about how she was too young to have a baby, etc. She would just laugh and say, "I'm 32 and married, but thanks."

Oh, and she's an anesthesiologist. I can't even imagine what these people would say if they came across her in the hospital if they think she's too young to be a mother.

I can't believe someone had the nerve to say something out loud about you! Did you respond? I think I'd have to have something on reserve for comments like that. (I'd have been tempted to say something really scandalous, like, "Oh, I'm the babysitter." But I'm also non-confrontational, so I probably wouldn't have said a word. You could pull out your driver's license to prove that you're not a teenager, and they'd probably judge you for some other reason, so it's likely not worth the effort to correct such rude people.)