Thrifted Maternity Closet: Week 38

IT’S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN!

Today is my last thrifted maternity post which means Wednesday is the day that my second pregnancy is (finally) over. This post goes out to those of you who haven’t felt like glowing icons of womanhood during your pregnancy. It’s been such a challenge for me this time and these last weeks especially have been an exercise in torture. I’ve documented my numerous complaints both here and on twitter and although I’ve apologized for complaining so much I’m glad I did it because I hope other woman who have a terrible time during pregnancy find my story and feel better in knowing that they are not alone. Blogs are infamous for often presenting only a polished. side of life, tidied up and arranged so their life is nothing but a series of their best intentions. I have been miserable many times during this pregnancy and have cried in frustration on a regular basis, and that is okay. This is real life. It’s dirty, it’s gritty, it’s filled with doubt and constipation and mistakes but none of that negates the love and happiness I ultimately feel for creating a new life.

These photos show off the bump to the best advantage but some of the (hidden from the general public forever) photos from this shoot reveal the absolute ridiculousness of my body: I am nearly as wide as I am tall, which was the joking prediction my friend Stefanie made earlier on in my pregnancy. Stef’s family’s cat, Betty, was infamously as wide as she was long when she was with kittens. so right now I’m basically Betty’s human counterpart. Because of careful editing and posing and selection I don’t look that big in the photos, but trust me, in the dark recesses of my hard drive, those photos exist, never to be seen by humankind.

My belly became increasingly itchy as of late, no matter how much lotion I applied, and I eventually realized it was because of my tweedledee pants. I can’t have anything touching my belly like that anymore so I’ve abandoned them in favor of dresses and muumuus exclusively for the last week or so. It’s made such a difference and my skin is so much happier. This does mean that for the most part when I stand up I resemble a floral yurt with a face but I can’t bring myself to care. The dress I’m wearing for this photo is actually one I bought and put in storage to list in my etsy shop because it was too large. I paired it with a thrifted brown shirt to avoid some of the yurtishness of my condition. I didn’t bother to wear any jewelry and under my boots I’m wearing a pair of my husband’s comfy socks.

The orange and tan bag are packed and ready to go for the hospital and filled with some robes for nursing and the bare minimums of toiletries. The tiny suitcase is filled with onesies and hats and blankets for Elias. It’s the same suitcase I packed with pink frilly onesies and bows for Isobel.

This is, of course, not the first time I’m actually excited to have a surgery, but that doesn’t entirely eclipse the my nervousness about the procedure. I’ve had lots of surgeries so this isn’t anything new for me, but because I’ve had so many surgeries I’m very aware of all the things that can go wrong. My surgery is the first of the day, and since we have to travel, Anthony and I will be leaving before the sun is up. I’m looking forward to get it out of the way, and Anthony keeps reassuring me that the surgery will go off without a hitch because it will happen immediately after my doctor has his morning coffee.

I’m glad this is my last maternity post because I’ve not managed to get used to taking outfit photos on a regular basis. It was a struggle to keep up sometimes and if I hadn’t already done this with Isobel I would have given up weeks ago. The complaint of every second child always revolves around the inequality of photos or baby book entries or or other milestone recording and I wanted to be sure that he at least started life off on equal footing with his sister. Overall it has been fun, though, and I’ve enjoyed my outfits more when I think about wearing them for a post. It’s like giving myself permission to focus on my clothes and look cute. I do think that I’ll start including more thrifted closet posts in a regular rotation once I recover and get back to my regular posting schedule.