a few inches of fabric

It's amazing the difference that maternity clothes make in your appearance. I washed all the ones that were of the appropriate season and size a few weeks ago. I have slowly been taking my normal clothes out of rotation as they come through the laundry and bringing in some of the maternity when I'm feeling brave or desperate. Maybe I was just fooling myself, but holy cow I look pregnant!

I wore a maternity dress to church Sunday and couldn't make it three feet through the halls without someone stopping me to ask if I am expecting. Maybe it was just that many people had been traveling over the last few weeks and I spend most of my time in the nursery so they hadn't seen me over the last month or so, but an inordinate amount stopped me to comment. It made me feel huge and self-conscious, but at least I know I'm past the stage where they wonder if I'm just putting on some holiday weight.

Of course, my aunt made a comment about my growing belly on New Year's Eve and Matt nodded in wide-eyed agreement, "Yeah, it just happened in the last two weeks." I guess I can't blame the clothes. I just need to accept that I'm 6 months pregnant and am going to be bigger than I was the first time around. It's hard to imagine three more months of growing when I'm already surprised when I catch a reflection of myself in profile. Maybe it's that the time that you actually start needing maternity clothes is the time that you and others start noticing how much you've grown and so the clothes get the blame for making you look like that.