Being super early on in your first trimester during the holidays is no easy feat.

It’s a time when you see (hopefully) see literally everyone that matters in your life and spend hours on end with people who know all the things about you - what snacks you like to eat, what wine you like to drink, how you like your burgers cooked, what flavor of Bailey’s you prefer while opening presents, etc.

It’s also a time when you are purposely keeping your family and friends and literally everyone except your husband (hopefully) and doctor (also hopefully) in the dark about what is currently baking in your uterus for fear that something might happen or it might not be viable or there might be serious genetic issues until you are sure everything’s okay at the 12-week mark.

As anyone who has been pregnant during the holidays probably knows, it is exceedingly hard during this time of year to 1) not indulge in your favorite things like you’ve been planning and practically salivating about all year, 2) get over the fact that even if you could indulge in all the undercooked meat and Champagne and deli-prepared chicken salad that the thought of it all still somehow makes you feel a little ill, and 3) to somehow hide the fact that you’re not eating or drinking any of your usual favorites when surrounded by family and friends for days on end.

Here are some tips that (must have) worked for me (because no one said anything but maybe that’s just because they assumed we have no plans to have a baby since we’ve been married for seven years and never talk about it):

Tip #1 - Carry Around Your Favorite Drink

If your family is a mingling type, and you often get pulled in a million conversations and do a lot of standing and walking around at holiday events, chances are no one will notice if you don’t go to refill your drink or if your glass of red wine stays at the same level literally all night.

Tip #2 - Recreate Your Favorite Drink Without Alcohol

My family always drinks Bailey’s, every Christmas since I can remember, while opening presents. So what’s a girl to do when it’s Chrismastime and everyone has that milky-looking drink in their glass and you don’t want it to be painfully obvious that you’re avoiding alcohol for some reason? The answer: recreate a non-alcoholic version that at least looks like the original!

If you’re skimming and barely reading I want to be perfectly clear what this means. It means you are creating a drink that looks passable for the thing that everyone else around you is enjoying and expects you to enjoy. This does not mean you are creating a drink out of think air that tastes like your favorite holiday alcoholic beverage. Chances are this new concoction of yours will taste like absolute dog shit, but hey, at least it looks the part!

For my Christmas day Bailey’s replacement, I mixed regular old skim milk with a tablespoon or so of coffee (to replicate the color) and voila! I blended right in.

Tip #3 - Pretend You Love Everything Overcooked

Anything cooked beyond medium-rare in the red meat department is a straight up travesty as far as I’m concerned. However, if you have been pregnant or have had any pregnant people in your life, you might notice that undercooked or raw meat of any kind is firmly off the ‘foods you can eat while pregnant’ list.

While eating aggressively cooked meat products is an affront to my personal taste buds, baby comes first, and so get ready to start enjoying tougher bites of steak and a little bit less juiciness in your life for the next nine months.

Tip #4 - Be Sick

Don’t actually get sick. (Apparently things can go from bad to worse if you actually get sick or catch the flu during early pregnancy.) But play the part as though you are sick.

What a better excuse to change your eating habits to accommodate first trimester queasiness or skip out on that fireside night cap or post-work round of drinks with coworkers!

Plus, pretending to be sick gives you a solid excuse when it’s taking a bit longer than it should to wrap up that last work project because you are foggy and a little slow all the time due to whatever hormones are raging in your body.

In closing, if you were someone that I was around this past holiday season and upon reading this you are now realizing that I employed any of the above tactics on you, I apologize (yes, in a sorry not sorry sort of way).

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