Karen Koster talks to MummyPages about relationships and social life during pregnancy

Whereas it used to be men and makeup, its now backaches and buggies on the chat agenda when I meet up with my girlfriends. And we've traded prosecco for pancakes as we've exchanged late nights for early brunches.

 

I'm so lucky in that, out of my immediate gang of gals, two have babies and 3 of us are over halfway through our first pregnancies. In fact when I tentatively rang my best friend to tell her that I was pregnant, (albeit by about 5 minutes), she shrieked and told me she was pregnant too! So that explained why both of us had been ducking out of big nights out.

 

It’s been invaluable to have close friends to share bumpies (selfies of our bumps) with. So between us, we're running the gauntlet of pregnancy symptoms. Though I seem to be getting off relatively lightly, and my mates are having a tougher time of it. They'll have the last laugh I know, as they'll have angel babies, while I won't get a wink of sleep until 2016.

 

All of us have been taking our pregnancy supplements, and though we've all got different doctors, we were all recommended Pregnacare. It just gives us all the reassurance that we're providing ourselves and babies with the right nutritional support.

 

Speaking of advice, lots of people have been telling me to make the most of our free time, and go to the cinema, go for dinner etc. But right now the only place I want to be is home. I read somewhere that first time expectant mums always smell of fresh paint as they go on a massive nesting spree. And while that's not me yet, I'd much rather a night sprawled on the couch than stuck in a cinema chair, apologising to my fellow movie goers for needing to get by them for a toilet break for the umpteenth time, before the trailers are even over. Also I can only do early bird dinners, and they can't go over an hour. Hey, you can't swing your swollen trotter onto the dinner table and ask for a footrub in a nice restaurant. But you'll get away with a "will you just rub my feet for a minute?" during an XFactor ad break. And they are the best footrubs ever! Even if they only last 3 minutes.

 

So that's where you'll find me on a Saturday night, feet up on the couch, giving my husband the glad eye hoping he'll give me some foot love. Or failing that, I'll just make do with sending the gals a "bumpie".