D-Day

Well, here we are. Today is T-Rex's due date, not that he cares. He still shows no signs of going anywhere.

I'm at work today and have a doctor's appointment this afternoon to see if there's any progress. If not, I guess I'll just keep working this week and we'll check again next Monday. They won't let me go too much over a week past the due date without inducing and are keeping an eye on the calcification of the placenta.

In the meantime, I'm getting really. tired. of people's comments.

Mostly, there's just only so much you can think of to say to someone at this stage in the pregnancy, and it's not all the individual people's faults that I'm hearing the same things over and over and over.

But on the other hand.

If the due date is today, why have people been making comments about trying to jumpstart labor for six freaking weeks already?

Seriously. He would have been premature if he had been born at the time people first started encouraging me to walk around a lot or jump up and down. He's just now due today, people. Why would I have been trying to get him out any sooner?

Also. Why does everyone keep telling me to go for long walks? Do they think I've been sitting on my butt for the past ten months? Maybe I've invested in one of those little motor scooters?

I'm still going to the gym three times a week, plus my Wednesday one-hour exercise class. I was going to Zumba until we switched over to weekly appointments at about the 35 week mark, because my appointments are the same afternoons as Zumba class. I'm still in the habit of parking at the back of store parking lots because it irritates me to drive around looking for a closer spot when I can just zoom into one farther away and hoof it.

None of this has bothered T-Rex in the slightest so far. I'm not sure why it's supposed to tell him it's time to get the heck out of Dodge now.

Yesterday, the DDH and I did two laps of the mall because we couldn't find the store where we planned to buy the MIL's birthday present. And then we took the dogs for a forty-five minute walk (in the freezing cold! where did that come from?) that evening.

Saturday, I weeded the entire garden (finally!) and dug up a bunch of potatoes (yay!). I've cleaned the laundry area in the garage, made sure the guest beds are ready for visitors, set up the playpen/bassinet upstairs, vacuumed the master bedroom.

None of this activity has encouraged him to come yet. So stop telling me to go for a long walk. And definitely stop telling me to jump up and down. That's dangerous.

Ok, end rant. Here's a picture of me at the fabulous forty week mark:

And the profile:

Wow, the picture quality there is terrible, even for me and my sad little phone. Oops.

Everything's ready. We're just waiting now. I'm still just working and doing all the normal stuff around the house I always do.

I am dressed (don't ask much more of me)!

I have realized that I am not going to last another five weeks (technically--*gulp*--4.5) without buying some maternity tops. The few I've borrowed are a) mostly summery and b) size small, which means that they're not really effective maternity tops at this point, or won't be for much longer. Because while I love everyone who calls me "tiny" and "skinny," I am not and never will be a size small.

Anyway.

Shirt and cardi: Old Navy; pants: Kohl's;
jewelry: WalMart.

I quite liked this outfit. But all of my regular shirts...they're getting to be skintight around that baby belly and it's just not attractive.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but the shirt is gray and the camisole is baby blue, which is one of my favorite color combinations.

Shirt: Old Navy; pants: Kohl's.

This shirt, too, though cut quite loosely through the middle (I tended to belt it before to help emphasize my waist since it was so drapey), is clearly getting to be too. tight.

Top: borrowed or consignment, I forget;
skirt: positively ancient. Like, middle school
ancient.

I attended a volunteer appreciation dinner with the DDH for a program he's involved with at work and needed to try and look relatively formal at the last minute. This is precisely the type of shirt that I often bought when I was younger because in theory it looks nice, but in practice it's quite unflattering. It's more flattering when you're actually pregnant (and this one is actually a maternity top and not just an empire waist), but pairing it with this skirt was a terrible idea. I felt so frumpy and weird.

Also, it's that polyester stuff that doesn't breathe at all and blech.

Tops: Old Navy; jeans: Kohl's.

I wore this outfit to our Saturday childbirth class. Other than the fact that the camisole is really too tight, and these maternity jeans are unnecessarily uncomfortable and kind of don't fit (I've learned I should not have bought any pants with that sort of thick half panel. It doesn't fit me right now that I'm bigger, segments me like an ugly worm, and is uncomfortable. Blah), I love this outfit.

So in other words, I like the color and style, just the clothes don't fit.

Sigh.

Top: borrowed; pants: Kohl's.

This outfit is tragic. Tragic, because it's adorable and I love the top.

Except the friend I borrowed maternity clothes from wears a small. And the armholes on this shirt sliced through my skin because it was juuuuuuust too small through the shoulders and ribcage.

Ow.

But it fit fantastically around the giant T-Rex belly!

I just can't win.

Shirt: When in doubt, guess Old Navy;
pants: Kohl's.

I can never decide if I love or hate this shirt and its weird sleeves. I loved them when I bought it. Every time I wear it I change my mind. Either way, it's getting to small for the T-Rex belly. Le sigh.

Oh, my new arm sweaters came in handy when wearing that shirt, though.

Overshirt: borrowed; cami: Old Navy;
pants: Kohl's

Last but not least, quite a reasonable outfit here. I like layers. I wish a maternity camisole didn't cost upwards of seventeen freaking dollars so I could get several to wear for the next few weeks. Because it's getting to the point where you can see the outline of my belly button and exactly where the support panels on the maternity pants end and it's just depressing.

I need to go through my sweaters this week to see which are baggy enough to wear. If I have a couple, maybe I can get away with just a long-sleeved t-shirt type thing or two. And some nursing camisoles, since I can use those afterward, too.

Blah! I was so proud of myself, not really buying anything new, clotheswise, and just making my normal wardrobe work for me through this pregnancy. But I am not getting any smaller and I still have a month to go. I'll try to stay away from anything too terribly season specific, but with my luck it'll be July or something next time I'm this huge :-)

What are y'all wearing these days? How do you dress for that final ginormous stage of pregnancy?



I am all over the place.

The DDH found a figurine of a Tyrannosaurus Rex breaking out of an egg. It's going to be the cake topper for the cake at the baby shower his office is throwing us. Because it's not just a T-Rex, it's a BABY T-Rex being BORN. Aaaaah, so cute.

Also? The fact that his office throws showers for the "pregnant" dads who work there and not just for the moms. It's such a great idea. He loves working there (and not just because they give him presents) and loves the people he works with. It's a real blessing for one of us to love his job, anyway. ^_^

Is it possible we're going overboard with the dinosaur theme? It's possible. Yeah.

Hey, but look at what happened to the nursery Saturday morning while I was at work:

Paint! The magical hobbit door blends right in now!

And I don't have before or after pictures, but the DDH made miraculous progress on the office last night. We may be able to clear all the extra stuff out of the guest room and once again have two guest rooms by the end of this very week. Which considering we're having a pile of people coming to our house in eighteen or nineteen days and expecting to have somewhere to sleep, would be a good thing.

The fact that he made a bunch of that progress by moving things into my finally!clean craft room is less awesome. But oh well. Priorities, I guess.

We spent all Saturday afternoon and evening at the Tulsa State Fair with the DDH's mom and step-dad. It was incredibly nice to hang out doing something with someone other than just the two of us. Also, I love fairs: fried food and fluffy animals and all that. I may have overdone it on the walking around, though. Ow.

Cake tree of cakes.

Tired cow is tired.

Sunday I took a small friend to a birthday party at this place filled with bouncy things (you know, those inflatable jumpers and races and slides and stuff). It looked like a great deal of fun, actually. But. Oh dear. The chaos. The noise and the disorder and the not-listening and the noise and the grabbing and the rapacious greed and the NOISE. Is it too late to say "just kidding" to this whole parenting thing? Ow.

In other news, it's October. Eek eek eek it's October. Help.

In other other news, ostensibly I joined Pinterest (username SingingPenguin) to help me learn to dress good. I was supposed to use it to help me discover the sorts of looks I like and learn to invest in pieces I will actually wear or learn how to style the pieces I own differently. All the stuff all the fashion blogs and books and things say to use Pinterest for.

That lasted about three days before I turned it into a giant electronic recipe file. I don't even look at anything people post anymore unless it's food. Or maybe a little household tip or craft project. Turns out, pictures of clothes bore me.

Food > fashion every day of the week.

I am dressed (don't ask much more of me)!

I don't know if it's allergies (usually is) or a cold (the coworker in front of me has had one all week), but for whatever reason I have been blowing my nose every ten seconds since 2:30 this morning and it's getting really. old.

In other news, I've been remiss about doing my What I Wore Wednesday posts because, well, I just haven't been feeling that creative, wardrobe-wise. I've officially outgrown every belt I own, and my clothing options are becoming more limited by the week. And outfits that are just a top and the same rotation of work pants don't seem worth photodocumenting.

But here are a few anyway.

Shirt: Old Navy; jeans: Kohl's.

This is from August 25. It's just (maternity jeans) and one of my favorite in-rotation t-shirts (it's striped, but you can't tell in the pictures). It's too small now.

 

Also, this is almost a month ago now and look how huge T-Rex looked then:

But I think it's partially a trick of the shirt, because here I am the very next day:



Shirts: Old Navy; belt: Goodwill; skirt:
consignment; shoes: Target.

I guess I don't have a belly shot. But look how much less pregnant I look in a looser shirt. Or maybe it's the belt. Belts are magical, after all.

 

Also, that's a maternity skirt and it's black with white polka dots and I love it.



I fished this shirt out of the donate pile when I found out I was pregnant. I had decided the babydoll cut was unflattering and made me look pregnant when I wasn't. Now of course, that's the idea:

Shirt: Sears; cami: Old Navy; pants: Kohl's.

I got these brown maternity pants at a consignment sale, and I was so happy to have a third pair to toss into my work outfit rotation. But the band rolls so. badly. that it's pretty uncomfortable. I'm wearing almost this exact same outfit today, and man. Blah.

Shirt: borrowed; cami: Old Navy; pants:
consignment.

Here is an attempt to perk things up by pairing a casual t-shirt with a skirt. I was enjoying the outfit well enough, and then I found those sandals while I was out shopping and yay:

Shirt: Hard Rock Cafe; skirt: Old Navy;
sandals: JC Penney.

Apparently, however, the outfit was not so flattering from the side, heh:





Also, those are platform heels and make me over six feet tall. I tower over the DDH a bit in them. Do not care. Too cute.

 

Anyway. Here's a dress I borrowed from a friend, I think. Classy:



Dress: borrowed; necklace: gift.

I've very much been appreciating dresses lately. I can't wear them to work because it's too cold in the office, but it does help me feel like I'm coordinated and wearing an outfit now that I have so few options:

Dress: Loft; shoes: JC Penney.

Also, heels again, because mama loves them.

 

Here is possibly the most unflattering picture in the history of unflattering pictures. Even the beagle is looking at me and wondering why I thought this pose was a good idea:

Shirt: borrowed; pants: Kohl's;
beagle: Animal Aid.



 This is from Saturday, so pretty recent. My comfortable clothing for our all-day childbirth class:

Sweater: borrowed; cami: Old Navy;
jeans: Kohl's; Labrador: followed us home.

It was pretty comfy, too. Layers are my friend right now.

 

And finally, Sunday's outfit, in which the strappy red super sandals make another appearance:

Dress and sweater-thing: Old Navy;
shoes: JC Penney.

 

Also? Old Navy seriously should be paying me for these posts. Apparently almost everything I own comes from them....

 



Phew! Are you tired of looking of mostly-headless pictures of me? ^_^ What has everyone else been wearing lately?

I am dressed (don't ask much more of me)!

It's been a few weeks since I did a What I Wore post, so I have a backlog of pictures. But something is messed up on my phone or Picasa or something, because it's not letting me upload more recent pictures. Grr.

Anyway. T-Rex is pretty obvious now (especially considering the most recent of these is from ten days ago!).

Shirts: Old Navy; belt: Goodwill; pants: Kohl's.

 

I'm actually starting to wear fewer belts now because they barely fasten even at my narrowest point. Sigh. But for awhile I was wearing them every day.

 

I love this blue shirt and yesterday noticed that it's starting to look a little...icky...around the armpits. *sob* I need to find a new one, I guess. The color is so cheerful.

 

Shirts: Old Navy; belt: Goodwill;
skirt: Old Navy.

I wore the shirt and belt with the pants above for work and with this miniskirt that evening. Maybe I'm starting to be at the age/life stage where I can't wear miniskirts anymore. But this one is so comfortable. And why not go for it for as long as I can, amirite?

Everything Old Navy.

This is from the last gasp of super summer heat. Knit tank, knit skirt. Cool and comfy all around.

I love that skirt, by the way. It's so soft and comfy. If it had pockets, it would be perfect.

Top: borrowed; pants: Kohl's.

Now for something different! I borrowed some maternity clothes (mostly tops and some dresses) from a friend of mine who had a baby last October. I really like this grey one, as it's cool and comfortable but still looks nice. I'm not really sure what the point is of the strip of fabric hanging down the front (it feels like there ought to be another so you can tie them in a bow or something, but there isn't), but it works, I guess.

Top: borrowed; pants: Kohl's.

Another borrowed maternity top. I do like that purple color, and ruffles are fun. My friend has good taste. I should have her buy my clothes.

Everything Old Navy.

Perhaps this was actually the last gasp of summer heat...the same skirt as above, but a different tank. I have mixed feelings about this tank. I almost got rid of it before I got pregnant, because it's an empire waist and very loose around the belly, which I have finally realized is a terrible look for normal me. But obviously it's quite appropriate for me now. ^_^

Unfortunately, the top part still fits weirdly. I can't figure out if it's too small or too big or what. The line tends to ride up over my boobs instead of under them, but if I loosen the straps they fall off my shoulders. I don't know. I should probably still get rid of it because it ends up being uncomfortable and unflattering.

Top: Gap; belt: Loft (stolen from a dress);
capris: Kohl's.

Purple on purple with my much-worn maternity capri cargo pants. The tie actually goes to a dress I picked up at Loft a couple years ago for less than twenty dollars, but I thought it was cute tied in front like a maternity top.

I wore this outfit to a ladies' lock-in at my church (where yes, I stayed up most of the night and slept a few hours on the floor in a sleeping bag). Purple is the organization's colors, and now that I remember that this outfit exists, I think I may wear it again to our conference next month. ^_^

Dress: borrowed; belt: Target.

I borrowed this dress, as well, and love it. I'm contemplating stealing it forever.

Dress: Old Navy; belt: Target.

Am I the only woman in the world who hates maxi dresses? This is the only one I own. I mean...it's comfortable, but not any more so than any knit dress or skirt, and less so in that it's strapless and has a tendency to...pull down a bit over the course of the wear. And I don't think they're particularly flattering. But maybe that's because I have nice long (if ghostly pale) legs and like showing them off? I just think maxi dresses make people look like tree trunks--all one thick cylinder. Bleh.

I do like that bright blue color though, don't I? ^_^

That's what I've been wearing!

What trends or popular pieces do you dislike or find unflattering, on yourself or everyone?

I am dressing the baby.

This weekend managed to be both restful and productive, which was what I needed.

Baby updates!

I don't have a What I Wore Wednesday post, but here's some pictures of cute baby clothes for you instead.

We went to the local Just Between Friends sale Saturday night and picked up:

• a spare playpen (for downstairs, since we plan to use the one we requested on our registry as a bassinet upstairs).
• a breast pump with all the little accessories (including a car charger) that appears to have never been used. Or maybe used once. For fifty dollars. Which is pretty much nothing.
• two diaper bags (don't worry, Jessi, yours will be the favorite! but the DDH wanted a manly black one, and I got a nice one so I'd have two--the heir and the spare, if you will).
• some random toddler-proofing items.
• a ring-sling. I plan to practice slinging my stuffed koala bear, Croc, in hopes I can get this skillset down before the actual, more breakable baby comes along.
• a lovely stash of cloth diapers (mostly Green Bees pocket diapers, but there are a couple of small FuzziBunz in there and two Thirsties covers as well as a pile of prefolds and lots of inserts).

Mostly Green Bees one-size pockets, but also two Thirsties
wraps and a stack of prefolds.

• adorable tiny baby clothing. The first baby clothing we've purchased. I was telling the DDH that I didn't necessarily understand the appeal of baby clothing, that all the gadgets were much more interesting, but we walked down the Infant Boys aisle anyway. And there were fluffy dinosaur sleep sacks and tiny dinosaur footie pajamas and a matching puppy outfit of long-sleeved onesie, bib, and hat. The end.

I caught Kaylee trying to eat the foot off the sweatpants on
the left...not sure what to make of that.

Puppies and dinosaurs!

• a stuffed dinosaur.

I washed all the clothings and diapers and have stocked the drawer in the living room where I plan to have our impromptu changing station with the diapers. Now if only I had a dresser to put the clothes in. Or a closet. Or even a room....

But! There has been progress on that front, too. The DDH finished all the sanding:

And we cleaned up the walls, ceiling, windows, etc. of all the sawdust:

Clean me!

Cleaned.

Cleaned and holes filled.

And filled in the holes in the floor and spackled the walls.

Next step I think is to tack the floor (which is apparently using these special sticky cloths to pick up all the sawdust that the broom and shopvac left behind), then we can stain! And stain some more. And sand more. And seal. And sand more. And eventually we'll be able to paint the walls (we're doing the floors first just in case the brown we picked for the walls ends up clashing with the stain color) and at some point there might even be some furniture to go in there. Miracles happen.

Still. Progress!

Oh, and then I went back to that sale yesterday and found this:

Dinosaur hat.

And best of all, this:

Dinosaur diaper.

That kid will be themed from head to butt.

He's going to hate dinosaurs so much.

I am dressed (don't ask much more of me)!

I got a new phone (a long saga that involves the DDH taking his phone on a float trip, buying a nicer one to replace it, and me getting childishly jealous until he got me one, too), and I think there's a gap between pictures I took on my old phone but never uploaded to the intArwebz, and photos from my new phone.

But! Here's some of what I've been wearing:

Top: Old Navy; necklace: Stein Mart;
skirt: Target.

You can definitely tell the clothing stretches out more than it did when I used to wear this outfit (at one point, the skirt was so loose on me it was practically falling off--no longer!), but tucking in the shirt and cutting my midsection with the line of the skirt does create a slimmer sillhouette.

I suppose I should put in a disclaimer about what I'm doing when I talk about whether things make me look skinny or fat. Obviously I'm not in any way upset about gaining weight right now--that's the whole idea, when you're pregnant. ^_^ I am trying to keep it in a healthy range, but it's certainly not a problem.

Nor, really, am I trying to engage in any sort of fat-shaming in general. I work hard at working out and eating right so that I can feel a certain way, and for my body at this point in my life, that does also mean that I'm usually fairly slim. It helps that I'm tall and have ridiculously long legs--150 pounds looks much different on me than on someone who's 5'5". My goal isn't to be skinny, to in any way insult people who aren't, or to imply that having a certain body type makes you a better person, because it doesn't.

That said, I am genuinely interested in how you can alter your appearance with clothing. It's amazing to me how different I look just because I add or take away a belt, tuck in a shirt or leave it loose, or wear the same piece of clothing in a different size. It's just interesting, and I like to play around with these effects to achieve the looks I want.

Anyway. Onward with clothes!

Top: Goodwill; belt: Target; pants: Kohl's.

Most of my belts no longer go across my waist. I have to wear them around the bottom of my ribcage, right underneath my boobs. But I think they look cute that way! I'm still loving belts in order to pinch in and define some sort of waist, and because I think it looks nicer to break up my increasing bulk with some sort of contrasting accessory.

Plus, I stand by the statement that belts turn clothing into outfits. ^_^

For perspective, here's almost the same outfit from back in May, at about fourteen and a half weeks:

Shirt: Goodwill; belt and pants: Target.



It's a different belt and non-maternity pants, but the same top. Obviously a change!

Top: Loft; belt: Target; skirt: thrifted.

I do like this skirt a lot. Here it is dressed up with a niceish shirt and--of course!--a belt.

Tops: Old Navy; belt: Goodwill; pants: Kohl's.

It is officially too hot for me to wear tanks and shirts layered like this anymore. It makes three layers with the belly panel on the maternity pants and it's just too much. These outfits will be back in the fall though, I'm sure. They're just so cute!

And for reference: The last two pictures are from July 20 (23.5 weeks), the first is from July 22 (just shy of 24 weeks), and the second from July 24 (24 weeks, 1 day). T-Rex seems to have had a growth spurt, but you can also see just what I mean about how much clothes influence how you look.

It's Wednesday, and that's what I've been wearing.

How about you? How do you use clothing to create different effects?