Maternity clothing

Before I became pregnant, my wardrobe was looking a little worse for wear. Most of my t-shirts were quite old and had shrunken so much that they were getting a little short for dignity. Others were also looking a little faded and tatty, while my pants were not in much better shape. This bad starting point has now been made worse by my slightly expanded mid-section. I am having some difficulty in buttoning up my pants and my tops are starting to look even less flattering than they did before.

Since we leave for South Africa in less than 2 weeks, and I will be gone for 7 weeks in total, I realised today that I really needed to buy some new clothes. Unfortunately, despite P's valiant support, my first attempt was not particularly successful.

We started at Pumpkin Patch, which has a small selection of maternity wear up the back. A few of their tops were quite nice, but they only had them in a medium, large or extra-large, so I gave up on that. I did, however, find a skirt that looked quite nice, was reasonably priced, and came in a small. Bingo, I thought, and carried it off to the change room full of hope. I put it on and it immediately fell to the ground. It was massive on me and not just around the waist, much to my disappointment.

So we proceeded to a maternity wear shop just a few stores away. A lot of the stuff was frighteningly ugly, but I found another skirt that looked quite nice. Then I looked at the price tag: $160. WTF? Why would I spend $160 on a skirt that I am buying for the next 6 months of my life only? It certainly was not that nice. In the same shop, I also found a couple of tops, but once again they were absolutely massive and looked ridiculous on me. I was starting to realise that small people are not supposed to get pregnant.

Somewhat discouraged, but feeling more determined we moved on to some non-maternity shops. Jacqui-E had some nice looking skirts that even came in a size 6, but none of them had elasticised waists and so they weren't going to work. Their tops were also too short (or just plain ugly) and so we moved on.

I decided to be brave and try Sportsgirl and Portmans, but let's just say that it was a mistake on all levels. Now I was despondent. I was convinced that I was going to have to spend the next 6 months in a moo-moo, when P suggested that we try DJs. We strolled in and straight into the Witchery section, where I struck gold. Well, I found two tops that actually fit me and which had plenty of length and stretch to grow with my tummy.

Of course, I still need a pair of pants and a skirt or something to take away, but I am certainly feeling a lot better about the situation now. All up though, I had no idea that it was going to be so hard.

Image from here, but I messed with it a little.