All about Maternity Clothes

OK, here's the deal...

I love maternity clothes.

It seems to be quite the thing nowadays for pregnant women to bash maternity clothes, complaining about how they can't find anything to wear, there are no fashionable maternity clothes, makers of maternity clothes think all pregnant women should wear big bows and voluminous tents of fabric, etc. I see this all over the place: pregnancy books, magazines, websites, etc. I don't get it. Personally, I think these writers are building up an imaginary enemy so they can shoot them down harder. Know what I mean?

Anyway...!

In my opinion, there are TONS of options as far as maternity stuff goes. Just look on the internet. Now whether anyone can actually afford a wardrobe of such maternity clothes is another issue completely! But it seems like no matter what the personal style of the preggo woman, she should be able to find something to fit her tastes. As for me, I'm basically the khakis-and-knit-shirts kind of a woman, so I've got it made.

I was VERY fortunate that I got pregnant for the first time shortly after my niece gave birth, and she was kind enough to give me all her maternity clothes. What a huge gift! Other formerly pregnant friends gave me a few items of clothes, so I really only needed to buy a small number of things. That was fantastic!

After I gave birth to Josiah, I lent my maternity clothes to my sister-in-law who gave birth to her first son 4 months after Josiah was born. She then kindly stored the clothes in her attic while we moved to Israel. On one of our trips to California to visit family, I reclaimed those clothes and took them back with us to Israel, hoping to get pregnant soon. Unbeknownst to me, I was already pregnant (found out a day after we got back to Israel)! So that worked out nicely, to say the least. :)

Now I have all of those clothes, plus a few others that my mom keeps buying for me! If you know my mom, you know that she LOVES thrift stores...and every so often, she'll come in my door, beaming at her good fortune of finding great maternity clothes for very cheap. She loves it; I love it; it's a win-win situation!

I haven't worn any real maternity clothes yet with this pregnancy--I've had the desire to!--but haven't justifiably had the need. I'm actually finding it a whole lot easier this go-around to dress during this time period of there's-no-way-I-can-zip-my-old-jeans-but-my-tummy-doesn't-come-close-to-filling-the-pouch-in-these-maternity-pants phase. This can be quite an awkward phase, and I definitely had those times of "I have nothing to wear!" during my first two pregnancies. But now several factors have helped me out. First of all, when we returned from Israel, we left a lot of our clothes there (couldn't fit them all in the suitcase!), knowing that we would have to buy some here. At that point in time, I had not lost all my baby weight from David's pregnancy so I had to buy some larger things that eventually got too big for me (that's fun!), so I laid them aside "for such a time as this." They are really coming in handy now! Also, I have more pants that have a lower waist, so I can let my baby bump pooch out over the top of the pants and still be reasonably comfortable. Another huge factor is that I'm going through this stage of pregnancy in the summer--that's never happened to me before!--and I'm finding that summer knit dresses are the absolute easiest thing to wear now. I'm especially conscious of the joy of summer dresses because I know that, if all goes as planned, I won't be wearing them very much next summer. Why? Well... Ever tried to nurse a baby when wearing a dress? Yeah. Doesn't work very well. So maybe in two summers from now, I'll be able to wear my dresses again. In the meantime, I'll be very grateful for them and enjoy them now! :)

One more thing about maternity clothes...Israel's fashion for maternity clothes is WAY different than here. Tel Aviv, in particular, is a very modern city with very modern (immodest) fashion--shockingly so--literally. Even after having lived in Southern California, a place not known for it's modesty, we were often appalled by the dress of people in Tel Aviv. That style/fashion/immodesty is reflected in their maternity clothes, too, of course. With my wholesome, country girl style of maternity dress, I stuck out like a sore thumb. And it's not that I really cared what people thought...but I have to admit that I am enjoying the fact that my clothes seem more "normal" here. Take overalls, for example. What pregnant woman doesn't enjoy the comfort that overalls gives? (OK, don't tell me...probably the really stylish ones...but obviously, that's not me.) At our local lawn party recently, I saw a very cute pregnant lady wearing a very cute pair of overalls; she looked adorable! I don't remember ever seeing an Israeli pregnant lady wearing overalls.

To each his own. To each woman, her own style. To each country, its own culture. But I'm glad I'm me, and I'm glad I live here now. (Not that I don't miss Israel, of course...I do in many, many ways. But in this particular aspect, I'm glad to be here.)

When I do wear an item that qualifies as real maternity clothing, I'll be sure to mention it here. I like to keep this blog updated on all the big milestones...you know, positive pregnancy test, first ultrasound, hearing the baby's heartbeat, wearing maternity clothes for the first time...all the major stuff! :)