I am sorry for having been rather vague about my "health issues" that have been causing me to gain weight. Actually, I've only gained about 3-4 lb, but it's all concentrated in one place--my apple tummy! AKA Baby Bump! Finally nearing the end of my first trimester so it's time to stop hiding the bump! Actually I was outed by one of the nurses today when I wore a fitted buttondown shirt--I guess the skirt wasn't structured enough to rein in the bump. She said, "How come I'm the last one to find out that you're pregnant?" I laughed and said, "Actually, I haven't told anyone yet and no one else has been rude enough to say anything!" (I thought you weren't supposed to ask a woman if she is pregnant, unless she is in labor!) She felt so bad about it, but I made an announcement to everyone, so she wouldn't have to keep a secret. I was actually planning to make an announcement next week when I hit 2nd trimester, so I almost made it!

I'm sure some of you must have suspected something was up, with all the closet angst posts I've been posting over the last couple months since I found out I was pregnant! Like these ones when I was panicking about losing my wardrobe after I thought I was finally "done":
http://goldenpig.lookfab.com/p.....te-outfits
http://goldenpig.lookfab.com/p.....ackle-next
http://goldenpig.lookfab.com/p.....lf-veteran
http://goldenpig.lookfab.com/p.....-and-color

Or the many threads a couple months ago where I started trying to buy stretchy peasant blouses and loose tunics and posting K/R's on (secretly) maternity jeans and boyfriend jeans even though I normally wear very fitted clothes (although I ended up returning the peasant blouses because they just made me feel like more of a whale).
http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....-jeans-krs
http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....nd-husband

Or maybe you were wondering why I had lowered my standards on my K/R's and kept this dress even though my tummy looked a little too large in it? LOL!
http://youlookfab.com/welookfa.....wrap-dress

Actually, I thought I had been doing a pretty good job of hiding the bump, considering none of you have said anything about my tummy in my recent WIW's! (Or maybe you're just more polite than my coworker!) Surprisingly, I've still been able to wear most of my clothes despite the growing belly. I've put away all my jeans now--I decided to jump straight to comfy maternity jeans instead of messing with Bella bands and unzipped jeans that could fall down. But so far I can still fit into my sheath dresses and pencil skirts, and they actually worked the best to minimize the bump. My stretchy jersey dresses are certainly comfy, but they don't hide a thing. They'll be perfect for 2nd and 3rd tri though, now that the secret's out! And I can still wear my jackets and cardigans open over maternity tanks and jeans. I will still be able to wear a couple of my stretchy skirts and maybe 1/3 of my dresses. So I think I'll be OK, just living on a much smaller subset of my wardrobe (I guess I'll finally have to explore this capsule concept that Angie has been touting!)

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that what works best for apples also works for hiding a first trimester bump. That was my biggest revelation so far. But I'm amazed at the difference cut and structure makes in figure flattery. Take for example pics 1 & 2, both taken on the same day two weeks ago (week 11). The first one is a maternity top with diagonal stripes and maternity shorts, I was just trying it on at home but saving it for later when I get bigger. I look like I'm going to go into labor any minute! But for work I wore a pencil skirt (amazingly, they all still fit, probably because they're so high waisted) and buttoned a jacket over it, the bump nearly disappeared. And pics 3-7 in my sheath and wrap dresses were all taken in the last week (week 12) and I think it's still hard to tell. But in pics 8-10 today (week 13), I guess I let it all hang out a little too much and got caught. Oops!

I read somewhere that maternity fashion goes like this:
First trimester--Hide the Bump
Second trimester--Embrace the Bump
Third trimester--Flaunt the Bump

So now I'm moving on to embracing the bump! Still scared about growing out of my clothes, because I don't want to invest a lot in maternity clothes (especially since this is going to be our last one). My plan is to keep wearing what I can out of my current wardrobe until I can't stretch it out any more, then I'll have to break out my 6 year old maternity clothes. That is going to be a sad day--I know they aren't going to feel as fab now as they did pre-YLF (when I loved them so much I used to wear them even when I wasn't pregnant, LOL). But it'll hopefully only be for a few months and then maybe I can squeeze back into my old clothes ASAP! Or else you'll just have to put up with me wearing my Bailey 44 dress seven days a week!

Thanks for putting up with my previous vagueness! I didn't mean to worry you--we're both perfectly healthy and doing fine (I haven't even gotten morning sickness once)! I promise I'll post a WIW recap of my first trimester style soon!
Natalie
(PS, anyone know of any good maternity fashion blogs?)