Maternity Clothes... Already?

Being pregnant with a third baby seems to have prompted my body to jump right back into things. And by things, I mean maternity pants.

This is no joke, people. At just 6 weeks pregnant, I was already digging through my stash of maternity clothes from, oh, 2006. Six-year-old maternity clothes, while technically wearable, do not do much for my self-esteem. Apparently all of my pants legs were literally about three times the width of the ones I wear these days and just don’t make me feel like myself. And rocking skinny jeans in my non-pregnant life means that there’s little give for a growing belly. I’m still fully in regular shirts (although between you and me, I’m already in need of some bigger bras), but I’m sporting maternity pants (or yoga pants when I’m home) on a regular basis.

Funnily enough, literally the second thing my husband said to me after finding out I was pregnant was that I didn’t need to go crazy buying maternity clothes (fortunately, the first thing was along the lines of congratulations/delight). But who am I to admit that I might have already succumbed to buying a pair of maternity jeans through an online flash sale? And that I was already dreaming of a return to some of my fave maternity stores in NYC? So, yes, while I could probably run out to pick up some hair ties to extend the waistband of my pants or uncover one of my old belly bands, I also know after having done this whole pregnancy thing twice before that feeling good about myself is really important to, well, just feeling good these days. All of which is to admit to you that I happily strode over to one of those stores I love, Bump Brooklyn (which is awesome because it’s small and the owners have great taste—meaning that you don’t have to wade through a whole bunch of stuff that makes you want to gag, regardless of whether you’re suffering from morning sickness) the other day and picked up a couple of pairs of Maternal America skinny ankle jeans (shown here) that I have been wearing non-stop. Unless you saw the waistband, you wouldn’t know they were maternity pants—and in fact a non-pregnant colleague asked where I’d gotten them because she liked them so much.

I know that I don’t need a ton of stuff—I mean, I *do* have my stash of old maternity clothes back (some of which are worse for the wear after having been through both of my pregnancies, my sister-in-law’s, and those of two super-incredible friends)—but the timing of this pregnancy is also different from the others, meaning that I’ll be bigger in different seasons than before (my sons were both planned as spring babies, and this one… well, not quite as well scheduled on the calendar). And since I’m already feeling (and looking) way bigger at 8 weeks than I did with either of my sons, I’m curious to see just what shape my body is going to take this time around (I’m guessing plain ol' B-I-G). Also, eff it, I'm kind of in the mood to indulge myself a bit these days; no wine, no sushi, less caffeine... but I can still look and feel pretty awesome.

Did you find that your body jumped right back into pregnancy after your first baby? Did you get bigger much faster than before?