pregnancy and work

Last week, I had my first important business meeting since I began to "show." It was with a brand new client whose business I've already won, and I was meeting with them to discuss the first project. Up to the this point, all of our contact had been over the phone or through email.

When you work from home the dress code is pajama casual so off-site meetings require a little wardrobe planning. Throw pregnancy into the mix and the fact that all of the maternity stores are carrying summer clothes while the temps hang in the mid 50s to 60s, and I had a real mess on my hands. I managed to pull together an outfit of prego charcoal gray dress pants and a top that was a bit too dressy, but at least had sleeves. The pants are the kind that go over your stomach in that unattractive, dumpy old man sort of way, but with a long top it's difficult to tell. The only trouble is they're still big on me, so the belly "pouch" sticks out further than my actual stomach, making me look bigger than I am.

So I go to the client meeting, and immediately I sense an uneasiness from the 2 women I was meeting with. While they both refused to acknowledge my condition directly, they kept making odd word choices. At one point, the topic turned to why there aren't more women engineers, and they concluded it's because women are too nurturing to be in engineering...but that women make great obstetricians. I don't know if they were unsure if I was pregnant and they wanted me to mention it, or if they were sure that I was, and it made them uncomfortable. Either way, I was there to discuss their logo job, so I tried to keep them on track.

In the end they seemed more urgent to get the project completed than the original schedule, and it may be that they thought I was going to have the baby before they had a logo. As I left the meeting, I thanked them for their time, and told them that I had enough information to begin the job...the last thing the client said to me was "let's get this baby started!" :)