I’m now 15 weeks pregnant. Amazing. But real. And the realness is proven by my constant struggle to find pants or skirts in my closet that fit comfortably anymore.
So today I faced the beast: I went shopping for maternity clothes. I needed at least one pair of pants that I could wear without having to leave the button unbuttoned and the zip unzipped.
It turns out that either very few people in the world wear maternity clothes (which I doubt) or very few retailers care enough about the women needing maternity clothes to stock a good variety of them (which seems to be the truth). I went to three different stores today. I had the best luck at my first stop, JCPenney. Initially I thought their selection was meager, but it was actually great compared to the other two stores I visited.
Here are my gripes so far about maternity clothes shopping.
1. Huge tent-like T-shirts with sayings like “Baby on Board” and “Preggo” should be banned. Along with maternity pants with the huge panels in front and zero attractiveness. Are we supposed to look like unfashionable bloated whales while pregnant? I mean, we feel like bloated whales. But dang it, we can be fashionable bloated whales!!!
2. Why must stores always stock maternity clothes right beside the plus-size section? I already feel fatter than normal. By having the two sections side-by-side my subconscious assumes that the two sections are related, that maternity = plus size. JCPenney’s setup made it even worse. They lined their sections up like this: Petites, Maternity, Plus Size. I used to be petite, now I’m maternity, and next I’ll be . . . ?
I’ll probably have more gripes as I shop around more. But, on the positive side, I came away from JCPenney, which was having an awesome sale today, with a pair of capris (50% off), black yoga pants (clearance, $5), and another pair of black pants (clearance, $8). I admit, when I tried on my first pair of maternity pants I was highly doubtful, and even a little frightened, of how they would look and feel.
But you know, they are actually pretty okay! And swapping out the capris that I wore shopping (my normal ones, with the button unbuttoned and the zipper unzipped) for my new maternity capris with the elastic waist was Such. A. Relief.
Ahhhh. My belly is happy now.
April 16th, 2007 at 9:26 am
How exciting!!!! A good reminder that you’re a mommy! And thanks for reminding me about your blog, I will remember to keep checking in. Have fun! Btw, I have no idea what I was thinking when I registered with this username, lol. Love, Jodie
April 16th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Ha, not a mommy yet. Even though my friends who have been pregnant and are now moms tell me that I’m already a mom, at 3 months pregnant, I don’t have the mom vibes yet. Maybe when I’m up at two (and three and four) in the morning wearing a spit-up stained nightshirt and chanting nursery rhymes without realizing it–then, MAYBE, I’ll discover I have those Mom Vibes.
April 26th, 2007 at 8:11 am
Don’t worry, you will go back down to petite. I know it doesn’t seem like it now, but you will see all that weight just melt off your body when it’s all over. That’s the best part of being pregnant–not being pregnant anymore! Oh wait, did I say that out loud?
Also, Old Navy has a great maternity section. And I borrowed a lot of maternity clothes from other girls. My maternity wardrobe was three times the size of my non-maternity wardrobe because all my clothes were borrowed. ;) It’s the best because as you grow you have to get new clothes like every two months. Might as well use them for free!
P.S. If you want to borrow my maternity clothes (I don’t have very many of them because I borrowed–ha ha–but you’re welcome to what I have), just let me know and I’ll mail ’em to you.
May 18th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Yeah, I got some good basics at Old Navy, but you have to find one with a maternity section (not all of them have one). The other surprising place where I found good maternity clothes was Shop-Ko. Target has some semi-cute ones right now, but they had absolutely nothing that was either cute or modest when I was pregnant. Avoid the belly-panel pants at all costs. My favorite pants were stretchy all over and still kind of dressy black pants. I wore them as my first pregnancy clothes, and at the end, they were the only pants that fit comfortably. I bought them used, though, so I have no idea where you’d find your own pair.