A Tight Fit

Monday I went shopping for maternity clothes with my mom. I am down to just one pair of regular pants that fit. They are two sizes bigger than my normal size. And I am relying heavily on four extra-large long sleeve t-shirts to cover my top half. Even though my weight is only up a pound or two from pre-pregnancy, all of my clothes are tighter, especially in the waist.

The bad news is that most of the better department stores either don’t carry maternity clothes at all, or don’t carry them in the mall. Thankfully, there was one store in the mall devoted to maternity clothes: Destination Maternity. Unfortunately, they had next to nothing for a short girl like me (I’m 5’1″).

I did manage to find three pair of pants there, but they all need to be hemmed because they are at least three inches too long. Also, I learned that the stretchy belly panel that covers the whole belly is particularly bad for pumpers. I ended up with a lot of cord snaked around underneath and then on top of the panel before I found a pocket to put my pump in. I am hanging my hopes on a seamstress that my mom knows. Hopefully while she is shortening the length she can sew in an access hole or something. Also, one pair that I found doesn’t even have a pocket, so I will need to find some other way to wear my pump with those. Hopefully the seamstress has some ideas.

None of the shirts fit me there, either.  Everything seems to made for a super skinny girl who wants to show off her belly … and her hips and thighs and butt.  How many pregnant girls are super skinny? I’m certainly not one of them!

I did find two long sleeve maternity t-shirts at Gap Maternity. They are huge on me now, but I think they will come in handy in the next couple of months because my extra-large t-shirts are already a little on the short side.

Next it was on to the lingerie shop for the best news of the day: my bra size is a full two cup sizes bigger. Amazing.

I am still on the lookout for a couple more shirts, especially something that I can also wear now during this in-between stage, and a pair of slip-on shoes. It is getting harder and harder to tie my shoes, and I don’t want to be stuck one morning before work without any shoes to wear. I’d also like to find some sort of cardigan or other sort of layer. It is freezing in my office, but my internal thermometer seems to be on the fritz lately … I’m either hot or cold, but never comfortable.

Do you have any tips for where to find well-fitting maternity clothes for short women? It turns out that most of the maternity lines do not even offer petite options. Any other ideas?