Getting through pregnancy gracefully (part two)

Somewhere in June, I wrote this post about my desire of going through this second pregnancy with some elegance and grace.
Months have passed and now in the last month of this pregnancy, I think it is time to give myself a report card. How did I do? In all honesty, not that bad, for most of the pregnancy.



September, Joseph's birthday and one of my first maternity outfits


I was rather lucky that the designers of maternity wear in summer had a love for the maxi dress, which could be combined with tops, light cardigans, or just by themselves, and I made some rather nice finds in the outlet shops. Shoes remain a bit of a problem from the perspective of elegance, but I was able to find some mary jane style shoes in the childrens section that were wide enough. Not immediately the elegantly strapped sandal I was hoping for, but better than the previous pregnancy where I ended up with crocks for several months, because I simply could not find a pair of shoes that fit my wider feet.

My hair has actually been less of a challenge than I feared, because I actually found a shampoo that works very well for me: L'Oreal Ultra pure, sulfate free. It's a tad more expensive than what I would normally spend, but after several months of trying routines of no shampoo, conditioning only, baby shampoo or anything that would keep my hair nice and clean without going flat and greasy on day two... "I'm worth it!". I think this shampoo has been developed for coloured hair, but while my hair is not coloured, it does the trick and that is what matters, right?

I wish I had more pictures to show you, but the fact is that I usually am the one behind the camera, which is why most pictures of me are studio photographed glamour shots, like this one on the official shoot for Joseph's second birthday.






In late november, you can see these pictures, taken imprompty after church. The dress is normally worn with a little jacket because I am not that big a fan of shoulderstraps, but I needed a bit more freedom of movement while on the playground.




This one most definitely is NOT a glamour shot. On december fourth after several hours of baking St. Nicholas cookies, I proudly displayed my floury apron and big belly for my husband.







But here we are back to that picture every pregnant woman wants, even though it came about rather unplanned. You see, I had found a very pretty maternity dress on clearance for christmas this year: skimming past the knee, black and with sparkles. Unfortunately you will not see it in any pictures because a few weeks before christmas I made a rather unfortunate fall and my legs looked like I had been attacked by a wild bear or something. So we quickly went back to the summery dress, added a pretty shawl (I so love scarves and shawls) and the picture came out so much better than I had dared to hope.




I think, the trick that I have found during this pregnancy, and basically for my daily life is to just stay true to my style and not to buy things that I do not REALLY love. If they are not in your closet, you simply can't get in those yoga pants, sweats or jeans that have been washed one too many times.

While I said at the beginning that my report card for this pregnancy has been pretty good, it has not been excellent, and that is mostly due to the insane weather of these last weeks. My pregnancy wardrobe has been mostly purchased in summer, and normally with a few added touches of a jacket, cloak or top would have been more than sufficient. However cold had descended over South Carolina, and while the maxi dress was in this summer, aparently in winter we all should be wearing shorter dresses. This makes no sense at all even for non pregnant women of course. But especially if you are eight months pregnant, the idea of having to wrangle yourself into maternity panty hose to wear one of those more elegant knee skimming dresses seems ludicrous.
Unfortunately I feel it is a bit late to order myself one of the pretty long maternity skirts I have seen over at New Creations. But I know now that they are there and I feel covetous thoughts rise into me each time I slip into the one pair of pregnancy jeans that I have to keep warm.

We are now in the last month, and I am ready for a new challenge: how to be an elegant, sleep deprived nursing mother. Hmmmmm.... I wonder if even glamour shots will work on that one!