#3 "Maybe you should cut back on the junk food, you're gaining a lot of weight."

That’s right… it happens… people say this.

I’m sure you’ve met the well intentioned woman who had 46 children and knows all of the ways that are best to grow your child. Granted, she probably does know a lot about it, never knock experience. BUT, maybe she just doesn’t know how to politely share her opinion, or maybe her children were born 40 years ago and things have changed a little since then. Whatever her excuse, she is NOT a doctor, which makes it easier to laugh at this comment.

EVERYONE wants to give advice to a pregnant woman. Eat more fish, don’t eat fish. Sleep when you want baby to sleep, just sleep anytime you can. Breast feeding is best, you should bottle feed. Lay on your left side, don’t lay on your back, lay on your right side. You shouldn’t wear those shoes. Don’t stand up without help, exercise more often. Don’t take a bath, do take a bath…. And the list goes on.

I truly think that the worst advice that can be given is advice that has to do with your weight. Again, we fall into the trap of never saying something like this to a non-pg mom so WHY on earth would you say it to someone who is currently in the situation. What would this advice REALLY accomplish aside from making her feel fat? I don’t know about you, but I eat when I feel fat. I know, it’s kind of the opposite way to solve that situation but… I can’t help myself. Eating is my comfort tool.

I’ve been pretty lucky during this first pregnancy to only really crave fruit. I’ve kept my weight down (mostly) and I don’t really have a lot to deal with after Autumn is born because I know exactly how much I’ve gained and exactly how much I have to lose. My mom on the other hand gained something like 80 pounds when she was pregnant with me and she’s a small woman to begin with so stacking 80 pounds on her 5’3” frame is a lot! But both of us received the same well meaning comments about how we should slow down on the weight gain so that we’d have small babies that are easier to give birth to. Lol

Anyway, I think the lesson of this post is to remember that none of us are doctors so we should keep the weight gain comments to ourselves. They have no place in your conversation with a woman who is already on the verge of exploding over the McDonalds being out of Apple Pies.