My Doctor High Fived Me Today...

...When he saw that my weight had not changed since I got pregnant. Well, it did go down during the first trimester because I was sick all of the time. But other than that it's been pretty static. I was a little startled at his reaction. One, because he's not a "high-fiving" type, and B, because I've been reading these American pregnancy guides that have you thinking you're dissing the fetus UNLESS you pack on the pounds.

Here are some examples:

"Now, as you know, women are having babies in their late twenties, their late thirties, and even into their forties. We're coming in older and heavier, and we're packing weight in proportion to our age! Good news: The doctors (lots more of them are women, now, too!) and books say gaining twenty-fve to thirty-five pounds is normal nowadays. But I've done a little research myself, and I think those books and experts are even a little off. Most women I've talked to gained about fifty pounds. Sure, there are are annoying exceptions, but I swear most were in the fifty zone. Even my doctor said fifty was pretty normal. Of course, I surpassed this new normal by ten pounds, but you get what I'm saying. Maybe Mother doesn't always know best, you know?" 

Jenny McCarthy in Belly Laughs

This was the chapter she was complaining about how Boomers (including her mom) had stricter weight gain rules when they were preggers. 

Here's another one from a different book:

"By the way, you might be as secretly gratified as I was to notice that women who are what I call 'professionally thin' - meaning they have to be skinny- often really pack on the pounds during pregnancy. I'm talking sixty to seventy pounds for some of the most svelte women you have ever seen on television or in magazines."

and 

"My girlfriend Shannon, who is a gorgeous actress, started each pregnant day with eggs, bacon and so much white toast that she would go through a loaf every other day. She just had a fabulous time, and after the baby was born, she dieted and worked out until she was thin and fit and even more beautiful than she had been before. That is precisely what the other beauties have done, and you can, too, so go ahead and EAT. Heck, you might as well; you can't get drunk, you can't slink around in a sexy black minidress, you can't even take medicine when you are suffering from a cold. What other joys are there for pregnant women?"

Vicki Iovine in The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy

BTW she also calls pregnancy a great excuse not to exercise (You're gonna get fat anyway!) and says it's okay to dye your hair if you can't face the gray. 

and here's another one.

"Fortunately, nature offers some protection for the babies of mothers who are too queasy to eat well during the first trimester: the fetus's need for calories and certain nutrients during this time is not as great as it will be later, so not gaining early on isn't likely to have an effect. But not gaining weight from here on in can have an effect- a significant one- because calories and nutrients will be more and more in demand as your baby-making factory picks up steam. So don't worry, but do eat. And start watching your weight carefully to make sure it begins to move upward at a satisfactory rate..."

Heidi Murkoff, Arlene Eisenberg & Sandee Hathaway in What to Expect When You're Expecting

So, I told my doctor all of this and here is what he said. 

"Um, excuse me, but are you really going to the Americans for advice on weight gain?" I guess he has a point there.