Not Drinking – For Two!

February 17, 2008

“Things started out great. I ate what my mother ate – and my mother loved chili.”

 - Homer Simpson (on life in the womb) 

You may have noticed (or may not have noticed depending upon how closely you were paying attention) that over the past few months I haven’t been blogging as much as Kevin and Rob. I’m ready to come clean now about my apparent lack of interest in beer (or at least my lack of interest in writing about it.)

I’m pregnant! I’ve known since the middle of December but, due to cautiousness (or maybe just superstition) decided  to keep it  hush hush (and by hush hush I mean, not announcing it to the world by blabbing about it on a blog) until I passed that critical first trimester marker. So here I am entering into my 13th week of pregnancy and I’m ready to start talking openly on this blog about what it’s like to be  pregnant and a beer-lover. (Note: For all of you guys out there – and I’m assuming that’s the majority of our readership – I will do my best to not get into any the graphic details of pregnancy and birth and will try to stick to only things beer-related.)The first question I feel that I must  address, and which most frequently comes up, is: “Was it really hard to give up beer?”

I have to admit, that as shallow and self-centered as this sounds, this actually was one of my biggest fears about getting pregnant.  I  didn’t lie awake at night worrying about the pain of labor or whether or not I was responsible enough or financially secure enough to have a baby. But the thought of going for nine-plus months without a beer was actually a little scary. Okay, I’m exaggerating a little, but it was something that I did think about.  So much so that the last real vacation that Kevin and I took before we decide to try to have a baby was our Michigan brewery tour.

On the surface that may sound like I have a problem. But keep in mind that this worry wasn’t just about missing drinking beer itself. It was also about all of the social structures that have been built up in my life related to beer that I felt like I would would be missing. What about all the great beer events and gatherings with craft beer lovers? Would I have to give these up altogether? And if I did go to these events, would I (being one of the only sober people) somehow find the people obnoxious and the conversation - usually centered around beer -  uninteresting?

The surprising and comforting answer to all of these questions is: “No.” While I have given up beer I realize that I don’t really miss it and that I can still appreciate beer and the company of beer-lovers. Here are a few things that have made this so easy:

1. Being pregnant may give you an aversion to beer.One of the amazing things about the human body is that the hormones produced by pregnancy (at least during the first trimester when the risk of miscarriage is greater) cause the body to have a physical aversion to potentially toxic substances. Even substances that the individual may have never had an aversion to prior to pregnancy. However,  a few weeks after I found out I was pregnant and had already stopped drinking, I noticed that the thought of beer just wasn’t appealing to me anymore and that the smell of beer (whether in a glass or on Kevin’s breath) made me sick to stomach. Now that I’m entering my second trimester, that aversion has pretty much subsided. However, I’ve learned that really beer on anyone’s breathe, especially when your not drinking, is pretty repulsive.

2. Being pregnant doesn’t mean you have to give up beer-related social events.  Last week Kevin and I went to the Slow Food Detroit Drink and Think beer and chocolate tasting at Detroit Beer Company for Valentine’s Day. I still had a great time tasting all of the different decadent chocolates and listening to Rex Halfpenny talk about the history of beer, chocolate and Valentines Day. I will admit that I did take a tiny sip of few of Kevin’s samples (not even the equivalent of a tablespoon for anyone out there that might be worried about this) just so I could experience a particular pairing with the chocolate. The orange chocolate with the IPA was amazing. Next weekend I’ll be attending the Winter Beer Festival in Grand Rapids but, instead of drinking, I will be volunteering at the Rochester Mills Brewing Company booth. The nice thing about this is that I get in free and I have something to keep me busy (and warm) for most of the day instead of just standing around watching everyone else drink.

3. Craft beer people are fun to hang around with – even when you’re not drinking. Yesterday we went to a stout tasting party for our friend’s birthday. We didn’t get there until after 3 p.m. and most people had already been there since noon. I was a little worried about what people’s disposition would be. But I realized that, craft beer drinkers (at least the ones I know) are responsible drinkers who don’t drink to get smashed and they’re still the same funny, friendly and interesting people even when I’m not drinking. And yes, their beer conversations are still fascinating.

4. The calories that you  no longer consume from beer can be replaced with calories from food – without additional weight gain. This one’s pretty self-explanatory but I was still surprised to find when I went for my check-up on Friday that I hadn’t really gained any weight even though I feel like I am eating constantly (this is normal for the first trimester since you don’t really start gaining any actual baby weight until after the 12th week – any weight you put on during this period is usually just fat from additional calories)

And finally – and most important: 

4. You start to love this tiny person growing inside of you more than you love your favorite beer in the whole world. You don’t miss beer because you realize that as great as beer is, it’s unimportant in the grand scheme of things.  It kind of makes me a little teary just writing it.

And I’m assuming it’s making you guys out there a little teary too… Not the part about the baby but the part about beer being unimportant… because you probably really can’t think of anything you love as much as your favorite beer right now can you? 

I kid of course.

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