Second Trimester Fashion Limbo

OK, let's be completely honest, I haven't been satisfied with my body probably ever, though I realize now that no one is harder on themselves when it comes to their body than a young woman, so at some point – likely around the time that I wore a size 8 and all my skinny jeans didn't have to come equipped with some sort of Lycra – I should have been happy with my body. In hindsight, that at least gives me a measurable goal to get back to in the war on weight loss. A war in which I win some battles and lose some.

For example, while prepping for my week-long trip to Santorini, Greece, I have my usual ‘winning/losing’ routine: lose the customary 5-10 pre-vacation pounds. Then, as is also customary, gain it all back gorging on strong wines and rich food while gone. (Apparently the Mediterranean diet doesn’t work when wine becomes a main dish.)

Once I return, after being stateside for a few short weeks, one very determined swimmer calls one of my unsuspecting eggs home, just as I was tipping the scale at my highest weight yet. The shock and elation of finding out I was pregnant is quickly followed by the dread of what the scale and my body will look like in the coming weeks and months. I pray for morning sickness. It comes, but only in the form of mild to moderate nausea – like being hungover all the time. I can’t eat much and when I do all I want is salad, fruit and eggs. I lose a few pounds, but more importantly maintain what I have so that at 13 weeks I’m still fitting fashionably into most of my clothes. Then comes week 14. My clothes are no longer fashionable. My pants button, but with a stuffed sausage-like quality I’ve been able to avoid all my life. (Throughout the war, I’ve always managed to maintain a fairly slender core.) I take an early leap into the maternity section for a few holiday dresses, but only end up looking twice as far along as I actually am. To me, it’s just a testament to how big I’ve gotten and how quickly. Accentuating the over-sized tummy that I’m not yet proudly owning. I’ve hit second trimester fashion limbo. Not fitting well into my pre-pregnancy clothes, but not quite ready for maternity wear. 

I decide maybe I can keep things steady or even generate a minor weight reversal, so after the holidays I get back into the gym only to get a little ahead of myself and end up in the doctor’s office. Nothing serious, but I’ve been restricted (by Rick) from stepping foot onto another treadmill. I sneak in quick 20-minute core workouts when Rick’s not around, but, inevitably, on the morning of the start of my 18^th week, I find the button of my pants coming up about an inch and a half short. Whoops! Now, I’m where no woman should be: unable to fit her clothes, but without any maternity clothes on hand! I somehow make it through the day with leggings and a recently purchased over-sized sweater.

But the much appreciated outcome of reaching the pinnacle of the second trimester limbo is that it’s time to go shopping! That’s when I make the next majorly important discovery: maternity clothes are extremely trendy these days. I feel like I’m going to have to upgrade my post-pregnancy closet in order to maintain the benchmark I’ve set in maternity clothes. Plus, now I’m able to “own the bump”. Not that I have a choice. I’m 20 weeks in and it seems my belly is getting rounder by the day. And I couldn’t be happier.

Happy Holidays from the Ramirez Family!

Rick and I got a nice little break this holiday season with my parents coming into town and his family having their usual Christmas Eve party. It was an easy split with my family's traditional Christmas Day party. No missed flights, no last minute calls from work, or no forlorn phone calls to one or the other's family hundreds of miles away. The usual suspects were absent. "Usual suspects" being overwhelmingly represented by my immediate family. Sister, brother, niece, nephew...we know the drill. The recentness of the wedding which brought a bunch of my family out of the woodwork makes the absentee pill a little easier to swallow.  Rick's family has outgrown any of each other's houses, so this year they utilized an old bar belonging to a family friend.  This is the same abandoned bar where Rick celebrated his Bachelor party.  When he told me the guys were concerned that the strippers wouldn't come inside the place I was sure that having the Christmas party there was out of the question.  I mean this bar hadn't been occupied - or even kept up - for years.  But after weeks of clean up and the decorating expertise of a family friend, it was surprisingly clean and festive. In all it was a really great time, although Christmas day was made quite difficult by the Christmas Eve party.

I've come to build an interesting relationship with Rick's oldest sister and her husband.  I'm actually becoming more and more aware of the relationships that I have with Rick's siblings as individuals.  With such a large crew it's hard to realize how you really interact with each person singularly.  Rick's oldest sister and her husband are the kind of people that we can stay up all night with just talking and drinking.  Not doing anything special; just sitting around the table, sipping good tequila, and talking about life.  Clearly all that talking got away from us because it was after 5am when we finally looked at the clock. With my parents coming to our house that morning to open gifts I knew we were in for a rough one. Rick was lucky enough to get a second wind once he got home and walked the dog at which time he insisted we open a few presents. We were two presents in when he started to fall asleep sitting up. By that time it was easily 6:30am.  My parents did us the justice of not showing up until around 11am, but we still were rather rough for the wear.  Opened presents then back to bed.  We weren't ourselves at my Grandmother's house, but it was probably better that we couldn't have any of my Dad's (knock-you-on-your-you-know-what) egg nog.  As usual  my family brought back many great memories and made even more.

Looking forward to the all the great things this New Year will bring.  On the menu so far: a real budget that should have us back in the market for a house before the next decade (yay!), a lot of Cancer killing, maybe a 'Cancer-cation', preparations for my Golden Birthday, babytalk (from everyone besides us), and much, much more to come!