“A pregnant lady does not feel amused when she sits on her side of the sofa, and the beggar collapses!” I indignantly tweeted this morning. Even I can see the funny side (I didn’t fall, just went down with a little bump), but by heck my ego just took a huge bitch-slapping! Now if I was 35weeks on with sextuplets I’d feel less fat and frumpy but I’m not, I’ll be 18wk on Wednesday!!
It may be the hormones blogging today but I just don’t care (virtual foot stamp!). We can send people into space, cure obscure diseases, clone things for goodness sakes- so why can’t someone somewhere invent something to make us pregnant ladies feel lovely, all the time. After all, it’s us superwomen who are ensuring the future of mankind through sprog-popping!
Well I won’t rant anymore, but this has brought to mind the problems I’ve had already with find suitable, stylish clothing that fits properly (therefore making me feel better dressed and less frumpy!). Being early-ish on still I didn’t expect to need different clothing yet but i have a huge bump, much bigger than I was at this stage with Kieran (not complaining really!), so my first purchase has had to be new jeans! I live in jeans, dark jeans, light jeans, funny looking tie-die jeans, so naturally I expected to be able to find a pair in maternity easy enough. Boy was I wrong! I am a comfortable size 18, 5ft 3, with very short legs and a longer body lol (gorgeous!) and I can’t tell you how many pairs of jeans i have tried on in stores or sent for and had to return. Nine times out of ten even the “short” jeans were too long! A lovely assistant in Dorothy Perkins did tell me even she found maternity trousers and jeans to be longer than usual when she was pregnant, and her legs came up to my neck (or near enough!). God bless twitter, as I had lots of people tweeting me with recommendations but only one had the right leg length, 27”, and that was Next. Now I wasn’t convinced they would fit as Next DO do shorter legs in maternity jeans but only if you are size 6-16 (sob) but I took the chance and thank goodness they are a winner!
A happy ending to my jean search story but this is ONE pair of jeans, which I wear pretty much every day so they’ll soon be washed into oblivion at a guess but I just haven’t the heart to keep looking for more clothing after weeks of previous trawling. I’m not abnormally shaped, just a short arse, so surely shouldn’t find it so difficult to find basic maternity items that fit well? To keep costs down I’ve been trying on tshirts a size bigger to accommodate bump & new kingsize boobs but these tend to hang off the shoulder or gape at the back, so what is a girl to do?
Ok, so this is a rant, but is it unreasonable to expect to be able to find reasonably priced maternity clothes, especially earlier on, when you are shorter or a larger size without wasting so much money paying for delivery, which you don’t get back when you return these items?
So, did you find it difficult to find maternity clothes, regardless of your size? Can any of you recommend cheaper brands, with reliable sizing? I’d love to hear from you if you can, and join in the hormonal rant if you can’t!
Dispelling the myths. Birth and Beyond!
When I fell pregnant we were overjoyed! I have PCOS and associated fertility problems, so a successful pregnancy didn’t happen overnight, like we assumed it would. From 14weeks when we started to feel “safe”, I was in those baby magazines, pregnancy books, read the NHS guide cover to cover- you name it. Well! I can tell you now that not everything is as it is written, from birth to the 101 “essentials” you need for baby!
The Birth! My birth was nothing like I expected, and like I said, being a good first time Mum I read the books and the forums and packed what now seems like a ridiculous amount of “birth” stuff i.e. lavender for the wrists, spritzer to keep me cool, little fan, cds, small snacks, books, the list goes on. My birth plan was neatly typed: No pain relief apart from Gas and Air
Female attendants only if possible -No students Yeah right!
July 1st 06, 5.40am I got up, went to the loo and my waters broke with a bang! I was instantly on the floor with a massive contraction. Obviously something was wrong, it must have been… I was a week early- that couldn’t be right? And besides, my contractions were in my back? I crawled to the phone- they asked me to come in as my contractions were exactly nothing apart- just constant. Picture me, curly hair everywhere flying wildly dragging huge labour bag to the door whilst screaming “owww owww owww MOVE IT” to the poor husband! I rang Mum from the car (on all fours!) to tell her it was burning and to hurry and get to the hospital!
Read More