On Figuring Out the Beauty Thing

When I was pregnant with Lucy, five odd years ago, I was still figuring out who I was in every single sense of the word. Not that I’m not doing that same thing now, I mean, it’s a constant learning curve to figure out who you are, but at twenty-eight I feel much more comfortable in my skin than I did at twenty-two/twenty-three. And I mean that both literally and figuratively. Not only did I have no clue what I was doing as a new wife, new (surprise!) parent-to-be, friend, working mom…on and on and on, but I didn’t feel comfortable in my body.

When I got pregnant with Lu, right away I lost 15-20 pounds. And let me tell you, the first 10 pounds were pretty awesome! But after that, man, I was hungry. Most of the pounds came off due to stress (OMGI’MHAVINGABABYWTF!) and the ever-dreaded morning sickness. I am not a lucky pregnant person during those first few months, and I suffer from morning sickness pretty badly. I basically didn’t eat for two months, so obviously, weight was lost.

So up until I was about 6 months pregnant, people honestly couldn’t tell. I’m tall-ish and since I had so much weight to put back on, I really didn’t balloon out until later. And my job, though stressful, had an extremely relaxed dress code, so I spent most of that pregnancy in sweatpants and old t-shirts. I certainly had no interest in pregnancy fashion, or looking cute while pregnant, because I basically felt that was an impossible task.

This time around, things are a bit different. I still didn’t show much until later, but I definitely got to a bigger belly much more quickly then last time. And this time my job, while so much better then where I was during the first pregnancy, has a more strict dress code. I’m not wearing a suit every day or anything, but they tend to frown upon sweatpants and stained t-shirts.

*Quick sidenote: Can I just emphasize how incredibly lucky I am to have the body I do? I swear, I have met women whose pregnancies are just awful, uncomfortable months of yuckiness, and mine, truly, are not that way. I have the first two months of sick, tired, OMGIWANTTODIE, but after that, it’s pretty much on cruise control. I get tired, but not too exhausted to function. I don’t really have bad reflux or swelling or early contractions or whatnot. Maybe it’s my karma for the morning sickness thing? No idea, but I think I may need to make a sacrifice to some lady-god to thank her for this gestation luck…*

One thing that is exactly the same regarding both of these pregnancies is, honestly, I’ve never felt more comfortable in my own skin as I do when I am pregnant. I remember feeling this way with Lu and wondering if that was normal or if I was just a complete weirdo…and I’m still not sure. Maybe it’s because when I’m pregnant I feel like my body is doing something really incredible or maybe it’s because I give myself a pass on the nit-picking, as I’m supposed to look different then normal, but for whatever reason, I love how I look and have way more confidence then when I’m not with child. So this pregnancy, I decided I wanted to look cute, because damnit, I am! But, and this is where I promise this post will go somewhere, I didn’t want to spent too much money in the process.

As this is likely my last pregnancy, I definitely didn’t want to spend a bazillion dollars on designer maternity gear, but I didn’t want to spend 9 (10) months schlubbing around either. I picked up some basics early on from Gap Maternity, my go to for all new stuff, as I know it will fit and is great quality for the price. I had a pair of jeans and a dress or two from my pregnancy with Lu that I wore this time around, but that’s about it. I trolled eBay and style blogger sales looking for deals on brands I knew I liked. And I have a few lovely friends that unloaded some of their old maternity clothes on me as well.

A few weeks back, a good friend who lives far, far away asked if I would post pictures of my pregnant self on Flickr so she could watch me balloon out from afar. After a few weeks of posting my “Preggo Style” I started to think about how almost all of my outfits were non-maternity, regifted, recycled or purchased used, and how it might make for a fun little blog piece. So I gathered my good friend Katie, a stylist extroidinaire, and asked if she’d help me do a piece on maternity fashion on a budget. She said yes because I am quite convincing. And a few days back, we gathered to “shop my closet” for maternity wear. Rules were at least several of the pieces had to be non-maternity, all had to include something regifted or reused, and everything had to be my own. One messy closet later, we had five days worth of outfits to share with all of you! This is something new for Crazybananas, but since I’m the CEO of Awesome around here, I decided trying something new might be good for all of us.

Stay tuned later today for outfit number one, and let me know what you think! Feel free to mock my craptastic modeling, but if you call my giant belly ugly, I might cry. Just, you know, keep it kind, people. I’m hormonal.