When new pants = happiness

Yesterday I bought my first pair of maternity jeans. I’m sure some of you are wondering how I managed to get to this size without getting a pair of maternity pants:

The short answer is: because I couldn’t find any.

I’ve complained before about the lack of shopping in my town – I’ve regularly scoured the stores in the area for decent maternity wear with no luck. There are only two big stores where I live: Target (the Australian stores are much smaller than the American ones) and BigW (Australia’s version of Kmart/Walmart, but again on a smaller scale). At both stores, the maternity wear section is limited to just a couple short racks of clothes, most of which are 3/4 length yoga pants and workout tops...not exactly the cute and fashionable maternity gear I was hoping for when I started shopping!

I’ve also written about the dearth of online shopping in Australia – although there are a number of maternity wear boutiques online, most of them are very overpriced and few have accommodating return policies, so I'm extremely hesitant to plonk down my hard earned cash on an expensive pair of pants that may or may not fit and that I may or may not be able to return.

But yesterday, I got lucky. I’d seen maternity jeans at Target before, but only in sizes far too small for me to squeeze into (8 and 10, which would be about sizes 4 and 6 in the USA). But the maternity wear gods must have smiled on me yesterday, because there they were – just one single pair of jeans in my size! I grabbed them and clutched them to my chest. I didn’t even check the price tag. Those puppies were MINE.

Today is the first day I’m wearing my precious jeans, and it is BLISS. Sweet, wonderful bliss! For the first time in months, my pants actually fit! Until now, I’d been using my old pants with a Belly Belt, but it wasn’t really doing the trick – yes, technically I could wear them, but the belt sat too low and I had to constantly pull them up. Today, the sun is shining, the birds are singing, my jeans are staying up all by themselves and I’m comfortable for the first time in months.

It's amazing what a new pair of pants can do for your outlook on life!

P.S. I want to send some very special birthday wishes to little Miss Libby, as Divasaur is being induced in just a few hours! Welcome to the world, little one and congratulations Mr & Mrs Divasaur!