Coming to terms with my expanding... everything.

Coming back to work from a 2 week vacation last week was a real shock to the system, in more ways than one. Although I had been feeling physically better for a week or so, I found that not being able to snack on a second's notice made things a little tougher on my tummy. By mid-afternoon on my first day back, I was feeling the blah's all over again. The other surprise was that over the two weeks off, my work pants had shrunk! Or my butt had grown... although I prefer to think it was the former. The final straw came Friday night though, as we were getting ready to go out to dinner with some friends. My jeans (which had been snug but still worked if I wore them unbuttoned with a Bella Band just a week before) would no longer tolerate the stress. I couldn't even pull them up over my hips.

I finally broke down and decided it was time to invest in some maternity clothes. Even though this was something I had been looking forward to, I have a REALLY tough time spending money on clothes so as it is, then you throw in the fact that I'm only going to be wearing these for 6 months or so and it really irks me to have to shell out big bucks for this stuff.

At least it was super easy to gather 3 pairs of pants that suited me. I pulled two different styles of work pants and a pair of jeans into the dressing room, and was relieved to find that all three styles fit the same, which means I can order from Motherhood's website with confidence that what I choose will fit. They are also a bit big, which means I should have room to continue to grow into them and not have to buy a larger size later on. Right now I need to use the bella band to keep the pants up, but that's OK with me. After all, that's part of what I purchased them for.

The only really irritating thing to me was trying to find shirts there. It's tough right now because I am in between regular clothes and maternity wear. I could probably go find some cute flowy shirts that would suit my body for a bit, but I am afraid that like everything I already own, they will be too short to hide the funky, waistband-less look of my maternity pants. All the shirts at Motherhood seemed expensive to me, not to mention that I'm basically trying to shop for 3 seasons all at once (things I can layer over to keep warm now but will be cool enough to wear into June and July). I'm hoping to get out to Target sometime soon to have a look around at what they have.

SO - 3 pairs of pants, a pair of shoes (time to ditch the heeled boots in favor of something more practical and less likely to help me fall), some new knee-highs and a few bras in my new, larger size later, I am starting to gather the makings of a wardrobe fit for a mommy to be. Thank goodness for Christmas money! I promise, I'll be working on those thank you notes this week...

14W2D