I have a baby beer belly!

Really. I'm beginning to look like some of those old men you see barbequeing in the park on holiday weekends.

Okay, it's not really that bad yet, because I can still zip up my regular pants.

But they don't stay zipped up all the time, and they're sure not comfortable anymore. So yesterday I did the inevitable: I went out to the garage and dragged my box of maternity clothes indoors. I put the uncomfortable pants and too-short-now shirts into another box, and figured out a combination of maternity clothes and slightly more forgiving normal clothes that should (I hope) see me through the next few months. Then, of course, I'll have to break out the MAJOR maternity clothes, the pants that go under the belly instead across, and the dresses that look really stupid until you're at least five months along.

Vicki Iovine, who write The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy, said you should think of maternity clothes like pup tents and your belly like the pole that gives the tent its shape. It just looks like a mess of fabric until you've got a big enough belly to fill them out.

Adam and I had dinner with Deanna and her new husband, Jaron, this week. And Deanna said, upon seeing me, "wow! you look pregnant!" I don't think she would have said that if I hadn't been wearing maternity clothes. That's the problem. When you're too small for maternity clothes, but too big for normal clothes, you have to make the choice between being uncomfortable or looking bigger than you actually are yet.

I think this time around I'm mostly going for comfort.

Anyway, I went shopping with my mom, post closet organization, and managed to fill out the few holes in my maternity wardrobe with a couple of long-sleeved shirts (as I'll be pregnant in winter this time), a pair of jeans, and some yoga pants (for to do karate, we hope). So I'm all set, baby: grow, grow, grow!


It's funny, after I wrote that post complaining about the ills of pregnancy, I felt much better. I mentioned this to Mom, and she said, "well, probably after you wrote it, people prayed for you." if that was you, thank you, thank you, thank you! The Lord is good, and He indeed gently leads those with young.

-Jess