The Preggo Clothing Dilemma

When I realized that I am going to get bigger and I'd better get prepared for it, I strapped a small pillow onto my belly with a belt and tried on everything in my closet. It was really kind of fun to see what I already had that would stretch over my pillow belly. (Stephen probably would have thought I'd gone crazy if he'd walked in on that.) I was around eight or nine weeks then, and was so confident that many of my regular clothes would work, and it seemed like they would.

But when the real belly began to show up, the test got nullified. My stomach has been doing really strange things ever since about week 10. I wake up each morning, and it looks pre-pregnancy normal. Then as the day goes on, my abdomen-- not my belly-- grows and expands until I look like I've got a bun cooking in there. But the next morning, I wake up and it's all gone. Other pregnant women have told me they had the exact same experience, and none of us can figure out what is going on in there. My doctor said that the uterus doesn't even begin to move out of the pelvic bone area until week 14, so any kind of pre-14 week bump can't possibly be baby. (I don't really want to know what this expanding and retracting bump is made of!)

All this strange bellywork has been making clothing kind of difficult since my body shape changes so much throughout the day. My pants won't fit over the growing bulge and my shirts like to ride up over it. Some women say that they try to wear their pre-pregnancy clothes as long as possible. Personally, I don't know why anyone would put themselves through the torture of making their pants zip up over an expanding belly. I got my first maternity purchase, Old Navy maternity jeans, several weeks ago and am super pleased with them. They look and feel like normal clothes! (Well, except for the fake zipper part.)

I didn't have much luck at the one consignment store in town with maternity clothes. Their selection was tiny and I only found two pants that even came close to fitting. These are comfy, they work, and they were only $5 each, but Stephen said they had a "bubble butt," and that was before I put them on!

After living in southern Arizona, I didn't actually have a winter wardrobe at all, much less a preggo one. So I went out and bought these basic stretchy shirts with looong torsos (long enough to cover the bulge!) super cheap at TJ Maxx. They have been great so far; real maternity shirts would just look silly on me until I get the real belly to fill them out.


When I started getting the mysterious expanding-retracting abdomen, I re-tried on everything in my closet, this time without the pillow strapped on, and found that not nearly as many clothes were going to fit as the pillow-belly had led me to believe. But here's a few that will hopefully keep working for a little while longer...

Hurrah for stretchy knee-length skirts with elastic waistbands! These puppies are good to go with some warm black tights.

Remember when empire waists were in style a couple of summers ago? I'm glad I hung onto those shirts! They just need a little layering ingenuity for the chilly weather. (Do any of these look familiar, Em? =)

Along with some other stuff I already had, like button-up sweaters, an empire waist LBD, and some long tanks for layering, I think this is going to work. (Maybe for another month?)