Pregnant? Sizing? Oh my!

Do you find yourself asking the question "But, what size AM I???" Yeah.

Pregnant is not a size.  

• There are guides on how to dress your shape if you're an apple or a pear, but what if you're a pear - with a cherry?
• What size do you need with a cherry and will it fit with a honeydew melon?
• Is it "normal" to be outgrowing your clothes when you're carrying a cherry?

Dressing while pregnant is like dressing a moving target, but, it can be done with relative ease and a lot of style and fun.

So, first, 

What size AM I now?!

The easiest answer to this is: with average weight gain you will wear the same size while pregnant that you wore before the pregnancy.  Yep. From raisin to watermelon. For the full 40.  Your shoulders aren't growing.  It will feel like your back is growing because you will want to rip your bra off because it's too tight, but that's actually your rib cage, not your back. 

While pregnant, everything that you buy should be either stretchy or flowing from your clavicle bone to about 5 inches below your hip bone, because, you're pregnant!  If you go up 2 sizes, that will take you about 2 months, not to term. 

And, one more disclaimer aside from the "average weight gain", which for these purposes is around 35 pounds, is that most of us are different sizes in different styles.  That's why on our website there are four different charts for XS-L because different designers run differently, one designers' XS is a 0-2, whereas another ones may be a 2-4 and so on.  

Get the size that fits you where your baby is not growing, and while that may feel like it's your big toe, it really is between your clavicle bone and about 5 inches below your hip bone.

Do not go up a size just because you're pregnant.  If we had a dime for every woman who comes in with jeans that are falling off her, we'd be wealthy.

Do I need different clothes for different months?

We encourage people to buy clothes that they love, bump & beyond.  In fact, it's in our mission.  So try to buy things that will fit you for every trimester!  Even within a trimester a lot will change, and how one person carries a pear- or looks at 17 weeks- is different than the next.  Don't compare, your pear is perfect.

The things that get when the baby is a lemon should still fit without a problem the day before you deliver.  There is a chance that you may end up buying things that don't take you to full term because your watermelon is sitting horizontally, not vertically and some things just do not fit.  It happens.  If you've bought something that you love, then you will wear it on the trip back down.  Because that's a thing, you don't deliver and look *poof* no fruit!  Don't fret about it, just wear it after delivery. (And, if you're planning on nursing, keep this in mind from the very beginning.)

Aside: jeans are another thing entirely, people end up with 3 different sizes in 3 different jeans, so, read the descriptions and touch base and ask questions!

When should I start wearing maternity clothes?

Ah, like so many things abut parenting, and life, there is no right or wrong.  

Do you feel fat? 

It's time. 

Even if you're just at kumquat/10 weeks.  Happens all the time.  If it's not your first baby, then you'll almost definitely break into stretchy earlier than with your first.

Do you have to unzip your pants when you sit down.

It's time.

When will these things happen?  Everyone is different.  Even mangos come in all shapes and sizes.

I'm only insert a week and nothing fits, is this normal?

Normal is a term we try to stay away from.  In parenting and in life.

If your clothes don't fit, your clothes don't fit.  Going on a crash diet won't help this time, because, woohoo, you're pregnant! 

As one very wise husband said to his wife before she came in "I know that you say you're "just a little pregnant", but, the truth is that pregnancy isn't like that.  You either are or you are not pregnant, and, you ARE pregnant, so please go feel good about it!" 

In the shop, we see most people come in around this stage, but plenty come in before, and plenty come in after.

It's also important to remember this; your baby may be the size of a lemon, but there's other changes going on in that body of yours as well-like a placenta, amniotic fluid and more!

No matter what week you are, try to find things that you like and that you feel good in.  If it feels too big, odds are that you don't feel good in it unless you love too big clothes (and there's nothing wrong with that!).  If it is super stretchy but you feel self conscious, that's not good, try to find something that fits your shoulders and gives you room everywhere else.  This is a time to be open to new things, from blueberry to watermelon to forever.

Embrace this body!  It's making a human!  Be nice to it! And FEEL GOOD!