1st Trimester (Non)Fashion

So...I'm pregnant!  The reason I haven't updated this blog in a while is that I didn't want to announce my pregnancy until after the 1st trimester, and all my thoughts on clothing were about how to cover up my growing belly.

Honestly, it's been a really frustrating time for me, clothing-wise.  I thought it was hard to cover up a little weight in my belly area before I was pregnant, but I had no idea how hard it would be after I actually was pregnant!  For some reason, I think I thought that whenever I got pregnant, I would immediately be able to wear cute maternity styles, like empire waists, and belts between my chest and my belly.  I didn't realize that I wouldn't (and I still don't) have a cute pregnant belly.  I just look chubby, like I ate a few too many cheeseburgers.  I spent the past two months trying desperately to cover up my belly, while at the same time feeling completely intolerant of anything tight on my waist.  I realized that my wardrobe really wasn't sufficient for the new way I needed to dress.  Plus the style of baggy shirt and tight pants was never my go-to, since my legs/hips have always been the biggest part of my body.  I had always tried to call attention to my upper body to attempt to hide my legs/hips, and so it was really difficult to dress for my changing body type.  

I saw on puttingmetogether.com (http://www.puttingmetogether.com/2014/03/casual-day-3-magical-top.html) a recommendation for a "magical top," and the reviews on Amazon were equally raving.

I bought two shirts like this from Amazon. I was so excited because not only would they be awesome for the 1st trimester, they would be perfect for postpartum belly problems as well.  Let me just tell you that for me, this top was NOT MAGICAL!  I was incredibly disappointed, because I had put a lot of hope in this style getting me through the new area of covering a growing belly.  I'm not sure why this top didn't work for me, but maybe it just doesn't work for women who are more pear-shaped.  My chest is not significantly bigger than my belly at this point, so my belly shows like crazy in this shirt.  It actually almost seems to accentuate my belly and make it look BIGGER!

So basically, even though I had planned a decent-sized capsule wardrobe for March-April/hiding early pregnancy, I ended up wearing basically the same 4 shirts with jeans every day for 2 months.  It was so depressing and boring.  Since I don't see the same people every day, I was able to cycle it pretty well with my Stylebook app, so that I wouldn't look like I was wearing the same thing every day, but it was difficult.  Before this capsule, the most I had ever repeated any outfit was 3 times.  During these two months, I wore one outfit 9 times, two other outfits 8 times, and another outfit 5 times!  There were a few occasions where I mixed it up a little, but basically it was more repetitive than I could handle.

Here is my Stylebook calendar from Feb/March/April:

 For the second half of February, you can see a lot of the pink plaid shirt...6 days in 2 weeks.

 In March, there is more pink plaid, my denim chambray with leopard scarf, and the light blue "San Diego" shirt.  Also, you can see that I wore the same shoes every single day (except 2).

In the first two full weeks of April, I wore that same "San Diego" shirt 4 times.  On April 19, I actually bought a few new shirts, but I'll talk more about that later.

Overall, from February 19-April 15, I wore mostly these 4 shirts:

( Btw, the days without listed outfits are days I didn't have a meeting outside the house, so I just wore comfy sweats.  Monday is our day off, and there are some days where I don't have a meeting in the city.  Honestly, in March, I deliberately didn't schedule as many meetings, because my nausea was so bad.)

 One thing that bothers me (just a tiny bit) about Stylebook is that if you change one small thing, it counts it as a completely different outfit.  This also messes up the statistics feature, so it's harder to tell how many days I wore the same outfit.  Since the weather is ever-changing in the spring, if I wear essentially the same outfit, but change my shoes or add a sweater, it counts as a different outfit.  For example, I wore these five "different" outfits:

The only difference between these outfits was the weather.  The first version is the outfit I wore 4 times, and the others I just wore once.  (The difference between the 2nd and 3rd is that the second is boot cut jeans, and all the rest are skinny jeans.)  So, really I wore this outfit essentially 8 times.

My highest number of wears was the pink plaid shirt:

I didn't have any other variations on this outfit, because if it was too warm for the boots, it was also too warm for the long sleeve flannel shirt.  I wore this 9 times.

Next up is this outfit (with two versions for different weather):

The first version I wore 5 times, and the second I wore 3 times.  So basically I wore this outfit 8 times. 

The next outfit (with no variations):

I wore this 5 times.  You can see why I was getting bored!

After that, the repeats slowed down a lot.  These are the outfits I wore to church:

Each of these I wore once, with the exception of the last one, which I wore twice.

These are the other outfits I wore:

The first outfit I actually wore three times (once to church, twice during the week).  That poncho is really good for covering up a belly, but the temperature has to be pretty warm to wear it.  The second outfit I wore twice, but again the weather has to be just right to wear a warm vest with no coat.  The green plaid shirt is a little smaller than my pink one, so it was a little tight on my belly and I only wore it once.  The last outfit was an especially warm sunny day.

So, overall, fashion-wise my first trimester was pretty boring and a bit depressing.  I also didn't have any energy to put into my wardrobe, because I was so nauseous and tired all the time.  A lot of the clothes that I had picked out to be in my capsule turned out not to work very well, so I ended up repeating a lot.

I hope that my clothes for the second trimester will be at least a little bit more interesting.  As I said earlier, I still don't really look like I have a cute pregnant belly - I just look chubby - but I decided last week that I don't care anymore.  If people look at me wondering if I'm pregnant or fat, who cares?  I'm sick of trying to cover up my belly all the time.  It makes perfect sense that it would grow gradually, and that is what's happening.  I can't yet wear maternity styles, but I'm just going to accept the way I look each day as it comes.