Griping About Maternity Clothes

Okay, okay, I forgot to blog yesterday, but I had a good excuse...I was sitting on my Mom's couch all day. Actually, Mom and I went shopping and I went out to visit with my Dad and Sally and we had dinner with my siblings and...you get the idea. It was another busy holiday day. I didn't even realize I had skipped a day of blogging until I sat down to write tonight. Alas, I'm not very good at this "every day" thing, so get over it!

Anyway, now that all the running and visiting and turkey-eating are over, I can finally think about more important things. Like what in the world I'm going to wear for the next four to five months. My belly is getting......in the way. My jeans and belly band can get the job done for a while and they are still pretty comfy, but I have very few work clothes that I actually fit into and can wear comfortably - including the maternity clothes I bought way back when I was only 10 weeks pregnant. Buying maternity clothes is HARD, especially when it's your first time. I have no idea what size I'll be, everything makes me look fat or frumpy, and, most importantly, I can't find anything comfortable. I'm glad I'm pregnant in the winter time, but this would be a lot easier if I could just wear cute skirts, tank tops, and flip flops.

I'm convinced that maternity pants were created by the devil...or a man. They were definitely made by someone who has clearly never been pregnant before. Almost all of them have this GIANT stretchy panel in front which looks deceivingly comfortable, until you try to wear them for a whole day and realize that you're spending 98% of your time hiking them up to where they're supposed to be on your waist because that stupid panel isn't getting the job done. I thought this would go away as I got bigger, but I noticed something as I was sitting in the doctor's waiting room last week. I even pointed it out to Sylvain. I noticed that every woman who got up from the chairs when her name was called stood there for a few seconds before moving forward to hike up her pants! ALL of them, even the really big ones! They stood up, grabbed their pants at the waist and gave it the old heave-ho tug before walking back to the exam rooms. I thought, "Hey! It's not just me! It's not my size, either! It's the STUPID panel pants!"

I did find one really good pair of jeans at Target last week that do NOT have the panel, but actually have the regular button and zipper in the front. They have elastic on the sides, which is very nice. They stay where they are supposed to stay, for the most part, and I wore them all weekend. They're not nearly as comfortable as my old trusty pre-pregnancy jeans, but I'm hoping that's just because they are new and I have to break them in. I've also taken to wearing my black yoga pants to work with long, cute sweaters or shirts and I pulled it off without anyone really noticing - and fourth graders notice everything! I think I've given up on the panel pants, especially for work. I'll just spend every weekend between now and April trying on skirts and dresses and praying for a fat-girl fashion miracle.

Update: Gap Maternity has pants with different "levels" of panels! I bought a pair of "semi demi panel hip slung pants" online this morning. I also found a really cute black dress for sale. If they work out, I'm hitting the Gap outlet during Christmas break!