Buying Maternity Clothes

This week I finally received an unemployment check. After paying bills I decided I could finally use some maternity clothes. After all, I am 7 months pregnant and my regular jeans were starting to get uncomfortable. Since my mom recently lost her job too (she worked at the same place I did) I figured it would be fun for the two of us to go shopping together.

So there we are. I'm a first time preggers and my mom hasn't been pregnant in over 30 years. We're standing in the maternity section at Kohl's. We pick out a bunch of tops, a few pairs of jeans and head to the dressing room. While trying on the clothes nothing really feels right. After a small discussion we decided to head to Motherhood Maternity. We figure there we'll be able to get help with how things should fit and what size I should wear.

When we walk into Motherhood we are promptly greeted by three very nice sales women. They ask what I'm looking for and I tell them some warm tops and jeans. The sales girl explains that the sizing goes based on your size before you were pregnant. Just get the size you were before in maternity clothes and they'll fit. Then my mom asks the question we've both been thinking "How large do your sizes go?" The answer isn't what we were looking for. They only carried up to XL which is a size 16/18 pre-pregnancy. My reaction was "Oh. I guess I won't find anything here then." The sales girl looks at me and says "what size do you think you need? What size were you before you got pregnant?" So I tell her I was a plus size. She then asks how far along I am. Once she hears I'm 7 months she says they'll have plenty there for me to wear.

So my mom, two of the sales girls and I walk around the store picking out jeans and tops for me to try on. All of them in size XL. They set me up in a dressing room and I walk in fully expecting to not be able to fit into anything that I've picked out. My heart turned heavy at that thought because I had some really, really cute items picked out. I take a deep breath and step into a pair of jeans. They fit! OMG they fit!! I quickly pull on the adorable sweater that I really want. It fits too!! Needless to say I'm beyond happy. I step out of the dressing room for a little fashion show. My mom loves the outfit as does another mom helping her daughter shop. The sales girl comes over and asks what I think. "I love it! It fits!" I say. She loves it too but she doesn't think it fits. She points out to me that the top is in fact too big!! The shoulders hang way to low on me. So she goes off and gets me a size Large.

As I'm getting ready to put on the smaller sized sweater I remind myself that if it doesn't fit the larger size does. I slip on the sweater and it fits! It looks even better on me then the larger sized one! I practically ran out of that little dressing room to show off. Everyone agrees that the sweater looks much better. Then they ask if I tried "the pillow". What pillow? Well there's a pillow in each dressing room that adds 3 to 4 months to your belly. By putting it on under the clothes you know how things will fit down the road. So I go in to put the pillow on. I about died laughing right then and there! I looked so funny! Granted the pillow puts me at over due it was so amusing to see such a big "belly" on me. The good news is the clothes still fit.

After trying on clothes for about an hour I narrowed down what I was going to buy. I decided to buy the tops in size Large and the pants in XL. I was a happy camper leaving the store. Not only were the clothes cute and comfortable but I actually looked pregnant!! When I wear my other clothes I just look fat. I was very excited to wear my new outfits and finally look pregnant.

Today I wore one of my new outfits. I started getting annoyed with my new jeans. They kept sliding down. It looked like my butt was suddenly on the back of my thighs. Since Ben and I were at the mall doing some Christmas shopping I decided to stop into Motherhood to try on a smaller size. I said to Ben before we walked in "They'll probably be too tight but I would rather find out for sure." The girl that helped me the yesterday was working. She immediately greeted me and asked if I needed help. I told her the problem I was having with the jeans. She gave me a few suggestions but I had tried them already with no luck. Into the dressing room I went with a size Large jeans. I pull them on and they fit! Holy. Cow. I go out and ask Ben if they look too tight. His answer "nope". He asks the sales girl what she thinks. "They look like they fit" she says. I think they fit pretty darn good too. So I go in to get my other jeans back on. I can hear Ben ask the sales girl "So is the large a size 14/16 pre-pregnancy?" "No" she says. "They're 12/14 pre-pregnancy." I was over the moon hearing that!

Can you believe it? In January before I got pregnant I was wearing a size 22 even some size 24. Now I'm pregnant and buying size 12/14 clothing! It just goes to prove it's NEVER too late to get healthy. Plus it's a great boost to my ego