I had requests for topics this week! Request #1 – a bump pic in actual clothes (as opposed to workout clothes).
Request #2 – boob talk! (i.e. how big are they now?)
Request #3 – maternity clothes!
And, I will honor all requests. But first – a note of warning. This is not an invitation to criticize me and how I look. I am not interested in hearing your thoughts on my body shape or my weight gain. Unless you are my midwife, you have no business even thinking about mentioning my weight or shape in anything that isn’t genuinely and sincerely positive. The next person who says to me, in any format, that I might want to be concerned about my weight gain can count on that being the last thing they say to me for quite some time. Maybe that’s a little sensitive or thin-skinned of me, but tough. I am feeling a bit sensitive and thin-skinned right now. Gaining weight after working so hard to maintain a healthy weight for the last 5 years is hard enough, and I don’t need anyone even mentioning it.
Are we clear?
Excellent.
I am going to tackle the question/requests in reverse order.
1. Maternity Clothes
I started wearing maternity pants about midway through week 11. My other pants still fit….kind of (I was definitely using a rubberband to keep them closed), but when I put on my first pair of maternity pants (handed down to me from a woman in my office), I declared them magical. AND THEY ARE! I’ve recently had to switch to maternity shirts, although I got away with normal shirts for at least 20 weeks. This is partially because longer shirts are more in style now anyways, and partially because I’m ridiculously short-waisted, and so I had plenty of room. I spent a lot of the early fall/late summer wearing nothing but knit dresses and skirts (and still do!), and it was late November before I even thought about looking for a maternity coat. I think if I was in the habit of wearing a lot of button-down shirts, I would’ve been in trouble sooner, but I’ve never been a button shirt wearer, mostly due to the fact that I’ve always been fairly generously endowed, and shirts that fit in length AND button with no gap have never existed for me.
AND speaking of generous endowments….
2. Boobs. This is insane. I knew I was pregnant before I could even take the test due to weirdness happening. I went up an entire cup size by week 6. This is not insignificant, since I started, pre-pregnancy, at a 34/36 DD. This is honestly one of the most frustrating aspects of clothes shopping. I did buy a couple 38 DDD bras from Nordstroms in late August, but if you know Nordstrom bras, you know that they are expensive. And now, they don’t fit. I mean, I still try to cram these knockers into those ($60 each) bras, but it’s getting to the point that by the time I get home at the end of the day, I’m chafed to the point of nearly bleeding. I do have one nursing bra I bought at target in the XXL size (i.e. the largest size they carry), which is moderately more comfortable (and has been serving as a sleep bra also since late August), but I can’t often find the XXL, plus it’s really not supportive enough for all-day wear. I haven’t been measured officially since late August, so I’m not positive what size I am now, but based on my quick & dirty measuring w/ the tape, I am now a 38H. I seriously need a personal assistant to just prop these suckers up. And also a small fortune so I can buy the proper structural support. I’m hesitant to shell out the big bucks for another Nordstroms bra – I don’t know if they’re going to keep growing, or what will happen when I start nursing. I know that they are likely 50% to blame for the lower back pain I’ve been having since the beginning.
I think it’s good to remember that this probably doesn’t happen to everyone – and some people really enjoy their pregnancy boobs. I’m assuming that these are people who didn’t even realize that boobs could be an H cup. (According to questionable internet sources, each 36 DD breast weighs ~3.5 lbs. That is 7 lbs of pre-pregnancy boobs. Each 38H weighs ~8 lbs each – which is 16 boob pounds, or +9 lbs in boobs alone. That is insane. (I just went to report to the architect that I was carrying 16 lbs of boobs, and his response: “Wow….that’s…beautiful.” I was hoping for more of a “that’s crazy!” response, but I should’ve known better! 
3. And the picture. Maternity pants + maternity shirt + sweater that doesn’t really fit =the below. Sorry the dark clothes don’t really highlight the bigness. Also, I apologize for my hair. My hair is the bane of my existence. It has always been thick, but pregnancy hormones + prenatals have increased the thickness 10-fold, making it limp and boring, no matter what I do to it. It always looks as though I’ve never brushed it.
Other exciting things I maybe haven’t mentioned – I can now see Alvie Bean kick with quite a bit of consistency, but he still pretty much gets 100% motionless when the architect approaches. The architect has only felt him kick once. 
I get tired more easily then pre-pregnancy, but not as bad as the first 16 weeks (weeks 10 – 16 were particularly hard on the energy front). I think if I wasn’t also in grad school, I would feel fine, actually.
I haven’t had any swelling or other similar discomfort, other than the front torso areas.
Alvie has taken to trying to climb into my rib cage from time to time now. That is NOT comfortable.
I have not yet had to fend off any touchy-feely strangers, which makes me happy.
At my office holiday party’s white elephant gift exchange yesterday, after I got a holiday tin filled with peppermint bark topped fudge, someone said, “Well, crap – we can’t take chocolate from a pregnant lady” and I got to keep my gift! Yay! (I also won a bottle of wine in the drawing – not as awesome as it would’ve been last year.)
My main yuck symptom right now: heartburn. It’s mild but persistent (much like my nausea was in weeks 5-10). My main complaint symptom is the back pain (too much sitting + too much weight on the front side of my body). There is some significant sciatic pain from time to time – that causes numbness in the legs (yay!) but cat-cow usually fixes that right up.
Overall – this is a textbook perfect pregnancy, and I feel mostly fantastic, all things considered.
So – ~16 weeks to go! I can’t believe how fast this is going!
Happy bumpday!
