Maternity Clothes

All right, so if I’m going to write a post to whine and vent about maternity clothes, I guess I need to post that yes, we’re pregnant w/ #2. This Thursday, I’ll be 20 weeks, and we get our ultrasound this Friday! So, there you have it….that’s my excuse for sporadic blogging….that and our move from an apartment to a single family home (i.e. a lot of work still to do). So, September has been a very busy month for the Hamiltons!

But anyway, back to my real reason for blogging today….feel free to tune out now if you don’t feel like listening to me whine. So, I thought that after all the money we spent on clothes when I was pregnant w/ Rachel (it wasn’t that much, but it was in my world and for that matter, Ben’s world), that I would be all set for future pregnancies and shouldn’t have to buy anymore clothing. So, when I pulled everything back out this time around, my reaction wavered from “what was I thinking?” to “is this everything?”.

So, I’ve scored a few basics – things that I should have purchased the first time around…again spending more money than I prefer. But even after scoring a few basics, I look at my closet and drawers and think, I’ve worn the same outfit a couple of times, I think I need to alter something. However, there wasn’t anything to alter it to, really. I even just looked online for clothes, and I looked at Kohls over the weekend….after doing searches at Gap, Old Navy, and Motherhood in the past 2 months, and everything I see annoys me.

I really need a basic black cardigan…..that doesn’t have rhinestones, isn’t ¾ length sleeves (seriously people, I get cold, so I’d like long sleeves – why is this so difficult?!??!?!?!), doesn’t have a funky pattern, doesn’t button right down the middle (when it looks bad on the mannequin, you know I don’t stand a chance!) and oh, did I mention I want black (i.e. not hot pink, purple, blue, brown or every other color but black). Why is it so difficult to find a simple sweater? It’s probably b/c of the one operative word: simple.

See, when people “design” maternity clothes, for some reason, they think that you suddenly want to look bold and daring. They don’t usually make things simple, classic, and that stand the test of time (something that I’ve been striving for recently in my wardrobe). Basically, these timeless items are typically hard to find on the sales racks…..which is where I’ve been shopping all my life since I like to buy many things, but I have a hard time laying down money for any one item that is over 20 bucks. This is where Ben and I differ…..he saves and then spends in larger amounts and doesn’t have a problem w/ that. I tend to spend in 5-20 dollar increments. Big ticket items tend to make me nervous, so I spend money on dumb things like soda, coffee, gum, candy, sales items at Target, etc. This past year, I’ve tried to stop doing this, so now, when I pull out my old maternity clothes, I find a lot of sales-y items that should have been left behind.

But anyway, even non-sale items at maternity stores/sections have large prints, stretchy material (meaning it shrinks w/ the first washing…..which happens to be a MAJOR problem when you’re tall and grow big babies), and did I mention large prints that often happen to be ugly too? I just don’t understand why it’s so hard to find some basic maternity attire. Maybe I’m a little picky. Maybe. But, I also don’t think I should spend 52 bucks on a cream sweater (cream means that Rachel or I will get something on it w/ in the first 3 weeks of purchase) from Kohls…..isn’t Kohls supposed to be more sales-oriented anyway?!?!?

So there you have it….my whining about the clothing industry...sadly, I could go on, but I'll spare you. I’m sure my mom is thrilled to be reading this…..it’s been almost a whole week since a new picture of Rachel. Well, I will see what I can do in the coming days, but I really needed to get this off my chest today…..I’ll just try not to make whining a typical post.