Mommy-To-Be Fashion

When I first got pregnant, I made a conscious decision to buy as little maternity clothes as possible. Why spend money on something that you can wear for just a few months? I started outgrowing my jeans around the 4th month and my coworker introduced me to this clever accessory called the Bella Band. It's kind of like a tube top that you wear around your belly. The purpose of the Bella Band is two fold: it holds up your pre-pregnancy jeans while you wear them unbuttoned or unzipped, and it lengthens your pre-pregnancy tops that have become too short because of the growing bump. The Bella Band allowed me to wear my regular jeans until I hit about 4 months. Then I broke down and asked Santa (aka Rick) to bring me some nice maternity jeans. Around the same time, I started checking out maternity stores like A Pea in the Pod and was unpleasantly surprised by how much cute maternity clothes cost! A simple t-shirt was $50 and a slightly embellished one would be $100! On the other hand, maternity clothes at lower end stores like Old Navy just don't look very nice. I soon realized that it was mostly unnecessary to buy tops from maternity stores. Now that baby dolls and longer tops are in fashion, you can find something cute and wearable at stores like Banana Republic and American Eagle without paying inflated prices. I'm wearing a top from Banana Republic in the picture above. It seems to me that maternity fashion retailers try to charge more because they know that you are in an emotional stage in your life and that you probably will easily succumb to the hoopla of over-priced hot mama fashion. However, it is getting harder and harder to stay away from maternity clothes as I enter my 7th month of pregnancy. I'll need to get a little more creative to find clothes that look good, feel comfortable and are suitable for work.

Start of the Third Trimester!

It's amazing how time flies, our little golden pig is going to arrive in just 3 more months! The first trimester was painfully slow. I remember counting down the days to 3 months so I could tell everyone about the baby. The second trimester was much smoother, I finally started to look pregnant and feel pregnant. The nausea went away and my energy level picked up. I actually felt quite great. Now that I'm officially 6 months pregnant, I'm starting to notice little differences again. I'm beginning to feel the effects of my weight gain: woddling a bit more, noticing that extra padding in unexpected areas of my body and finally outgrowing a size small at Banana Republic. A few people have been telling me about the "nesting instinct" and boy has it started to kick in! We hadn't done anything to our house for the baby in the past 6 months but in the last couple of weeks I've gotten the incredible urge to clean! Pack! Prepare! The baby's room was full of stuff so I've been on a mission to clear out all of the clutter and get it ready for a makeover. So far, we've managed to clean out the entire closet and toss out a few things while relocating a few others. This process has actually been pretty fun and I'm looking forward to seeing the room turning into a blank canvas for me to unleash my creativity on. Home Depot and Pottery Barn Kids here we come!


Here's a picture of us at our friends Howie and Vika's wedding last weekend. Good thing that's a wrap dress I'm wearing because it expands as my belly grows!

Here's a before picture of the nursery-to-be. We'll keep you posted as we make progress.

Tipping The Scale

Alright, many of you may be wondering how I'm doing with my weight gain. I weighed about 120lb before pregnancy. I didn't gain any weight during the first trimester because of the nausea and lack of appetite. I was a little worried but soon I started putting on the pounds as I regained my appetite. I started outgrowing my jeans at about 4 months and now I'm completely unable to zip up any of my pre-pregnancy jeans. Currently, at 25 weeks, I'm about 145lbs. Doctors recommend that a woman gains 25lb - 35lb during her pregnancy at the rate about 1lb a week. Although I'm technically averaging 1lb a week, I've actually been gaining about 2lb a week in the last 12 weeks or so. Most of the added weight has been in my belly since I can still fit into most of my pre-pregnancy tops. Although this is the most I have ever weighed but I don't feel heavy. The only difference is that I have this rather large obstacle in my mid-section that prevents me from putting my shoes on and cutting my toe nails easily! I do feel that my belly is rather large compared to some of the other expectant moms that I know. I look like I could be 7 months pregnant even though I'm not quite 6 months yet! It'll be interesting to see how big my belly will be at 9 months.

I'm not sure what the doctor's recommended weight gain for the expectant father is but I know that Rick has gained a few pounds through sympathy eating. :) We're both planning to start a work out regiment soon...

Above is a picture of me and Myra, who's also due in May!