Spare me the judgment...

It's funny, I know I'm just as bad and I've done it too, but seriously I'm pregnant, that did not somehow turn my body into community property. Here are just a few anecdotes of the words (or looks) of advice that I've experienced since the world could tell I was pregnant. These all involve food/drink, but I could share plenty of other stories about the things people think it's ok to "teach" a pregnant woman.

At first I found it kind of funny. My husband has a serious Diet Mountain Dew habit and a couple of weeks ago (about the same time that strangers started asking me when I was due) I was picking him up some on the way home and I was amazed at the looks I got as I brought it to the cashier, you would seriously think I had bellied up to the bar and ordered a dirty martini. It's funny that to me that they couldn't fathom that maybe it wasn't for me or that if it was, it's my choice, but still funny.

My next incident (and this one irritated me) was at a coffee shop and it was the other extreme. I saw a blendy coffee drink in the window as I was walking up to the door and thought ooooh, I want something like that, but without the coffee. So I go up to the counter and I ask if they have anything that's like the icy drinks, but without coffee and the woman responds (and this is with a voice that I wish I could represent better in writing) "well we have decaf." To which I reply, but I'm not drinking coffee at all and I would like something besides a fruit smoothy like this other coffee place has a drink that has vanilla beans, milk and ice blended." Instead of sharing their options, which I did finally find out they had, she responds (in that same snarky voice) "it's not like you can't drink decaf when you're pregnant."

My most recent incident, funny enough came from a fellow pregnant lady. I was at a grocery store for the express purpose of a specific sushi roll (pretty much all of my cravings involve some sort of Asian food-different county every day, but always on that continent) they have in their deli. I picked up the package and was very excited to dig in, when the pregnant woman standing next to me, says, "you know, you can't eat that." As you have all figured out by now, I'm pretty well researched and know what is and isn't on the list and there are a few sushi rolls that are allowed because they don't contain raw fish they contain fish/shellfish that has been cooked and then cooled. Not to mention, I do think we are a little overprotective when it comes to certain things in the U.S.-I can't imagine Japanese women in Japan stop eating sushi or French women in France give up their brie-but that's beside the point, because I truly wasn't breaking any of our overprotective American standards. So I responded, "this sushi doesn't contain raw fish so it's ok, I'm sorry your doctor didn't give you the whole story" and I happily walked away with my sushi and devoured it in the car. Guess what, me and the babes are all still just fine!