Dealing with highly active job during pregnancy...
Uh... hi. *waves* I'm 27, I'm a restaurant manager. I do not currently have any children, but since my question specifically has to do with my career and pregnancy, I figured I would ask it here.
Being a restaurant manager involves being pretty flipping active all the time. My shifts can run from 9 to 12 hours at a time, 5 days a week. I have a regular schedule, but it's two morning shifts and three night shifts...so no regular sleep schedule.
My problem is that I am horribly tired, all the time. Sometimes it's all I can do to drag myself out of the chair in my office to do a minimal round in the front. It doesn't help that eggs are grossing me out right now, and I work in a diner...so walking through the server aisle makes me want to hurl.
I am the breadwinner in my family. I have to keep this job, but I am increasingly worried that I will not be able to keep up to standards and will be let go. I've been keeping myself hydrated and eating healthily, but I don't get a lunch so I can't take a nap...which is the one thing I really think would help.
I know at least a few people on this site must be/have been in a similar situation. How did/do you handle it? Did the world ever seem to turn gray to you when you realized how much longer you had to stay on your feet, or is that just me?
My employer knows I'm pregnant, so if there's help I could get from them, please, please tell me. I already feel like I'm majorly inconveniencing them so I've hesitated to ask for anything at all.
Re: Dealing with highly active job during pregnancy...
I work an office job with long hours and I think first trimester of my first pregnancy I would just go home, lay on the floor and cry.
Hang in there! The exhaustion and nausea are usually fist trimester issues, so they should only last another month, and then you will have a LONG stretch where you will probably be fine -- you may be a bit slower and will still physically tire out more quickly (NOTHING like the first tri exhaustion) but for me the discomfort only becomes disruptive around week 32.
Have you tried various nausea remedies? Sipping watered down juice or gatorade is easier on your stomach than water. Some people swear by seabands. Others say frozen jolly ranchers help them. I also wouldn't worry *so* much about eating healthy as about eating what sounds appetizing and making sure you are getting a steady stream of food. This is the time when constant slow munching on dry snacks (saltines, graham crackers, animal crackers, etc) is really okay.
Also, I would give yourself a break in absolutely every area you can. Don't clean the house. Put off any chore that isn't essential. Make DH do your errands. Be a "bad friend" -- tell people you don't have time to hang out now. Just work (and do the bare minimum there too!) and sleep and survive. It really is short term.
Agree with PP to stick it out because it gets sooooo much better a little after the first trimester ends. I literally struggled to stay awake during the first few months.
Good luck.
Ditto.
When I was pregnant with my first I found that really cold ginger ale helped so I had a can with me all the time. Just be honest with your boss about how you feel but say you are doing your best and expect it to get better in a few weeks. Hang in there! DH used to manage restaurants so I know how demanding that job is.
Just knowing there is light at the end of the tunnel is a huge relief. I was beginning to feel like it would never end and I was going to just collapse on the floor out of exhaustion soon. I figured there had to be a way to deal...maybe the best way for me is to just keep my eyes fixed on the goal of second tri. Haha!
The one major plus is that as soon as the home office gets me a badge (I currently wear embroidered shirts) I'll be able to switch to maternity blouses. I already wear them at home and they seem to make all the difference in terms of comfort. It will be nice to be able to wear them at work and not constantly feel like I'm being squeezed, sausage like, into a tube.
Sadly I don't get 'sick pay', nor even sick days. If I call off sick, it means working a 6 day week (or a double, which is a 16 to 18 hour shift) immediately afterwards, and as tired as I am, I CAN'T work that kind of schedule. I do get decent vacation hours, which I'll be using a day or two of in the next two months to help give me a boost in the form of a three day weekend. Otherwise, I need it for when baby gets here.
I work Retail Management and was on my feet, up and down, constantly walking back and forth across the store, etc. until the day I was induced. I actually had a better time with being active than a few people I was pregnant with, since they had desk jobs and would get stiff from so much sitting. I just pieced my office work out on my desk and if I felt fatigued, would switch to it for 10 or 15 minutes and then go back out to the floor. Since you're still in the first trimester, hopefully the food aversions will go away in a few weeks.