(Mommy JD) Clothes don’t fit blues

I am 18 weeks pregnant today. I don’t usually have to wear a suit to work but I had to go to court today so it was time to get more business and less casual. What I should have done was done a complete inventory last night to properly prepare. But instead I did a mental check and figured it would be no big deal. Wrong. It’s not that I had a lot of suits to begin with (I don’t go to court that often) and I have no coordinating maternity business clothes because my sister is pregnant too (surprise!) and I had to send her all of the maternity clothes she let me borrow from my previous pregnancy.

Well now my bump is bigger than I thought- too big for regular clothes but not big enough for full blown maternity clothes. I’m sure they have a various sizes of maternity clothes, but at this time I am not in possession of any such variety. It’s all or nothing for me right now. So back to getting dressed- I quickly realized that that the bella band is waaaaaay too tight for me right now. We’re talking cutting off circulation. So I find a pair of black maternity dress pants that are a little baggy but whatever. And I find the maternity suit blazer that I bought my last go round, so now I just need a shirt. I opt for a regular stretchy blouse thinking that it will contain my belly. However, after sitting down to eat breakfast for only a few minutes I find myself feeling the most uncomfortable I’ve felt during this pregnancy so far. I don’t know what the deal is with my stomach. I’m carrying “high” as they say so there’s a lot going on above my belly button (which is odd since my uterus and the baby are below my belly button). So I unzip my blouse and go back upstairs to find an actual maternity button down shirt. I have few options and they’re all wrinkled so I just pick one and quickly iron it. It just happens to be the most maternity-like button down shirt there is- loose fitting with an above the stomach drawstring. So then I figure I’m all set but low and behold when I get fully dressed I see that the shirt hangs down past the blazer. Doh! Tucking a shirt in is not an option for maternity shirts and pants but I’m running out of town so I just have to go with it.

I am usually the only black woman in the courtroom (not that there aren’t a ton of black women attorneys- I just never see them :P) so people are already looking at me and now that I’m pregnant I get double stares. So by the time I’m ready to head into the courtroom I decide that I need to go ahead and tuck in the shirt as best as possible. Sigh...I’m done with this story but in sum, today I felt like I looked a hot unprofessional mess and I’m resisting the urge to spend money I don’t have on maternity clothes for what is most likely my last pregnancy. Sigh again.