stylish pregnancy

I am sitting here sipping Lapsang Souchong (I still haven't decided whether I like it or not) and dreaming of eating rubber or cement.  Pica has hit me hard, all I dream of is chewing on a rubber eraser, or inhaling some cement powder.  In addition, for the past three days, I have felt continuously so full that I am uncomfortable, and I seem to have lost the function of my lower esophageal sphincter completely.

Despite the fact that I am becoming a nice round blimp I am still pondering on what makes for a stylish pregnancy.  I am reading books on style and realize that very few of them refer to pregnant women.  I am not talking about specific maternity wear, or specific ways to cut one's hair, or any such prescriptive advice.  I was just thinking about style in general, that thing that makes one feel chic and rich in one's own's skin.  The truth is that style is individual, and what makes me feel chic and rich might not work for someone else.
However, here are, in no particular order, some of the things that have worked for me so far, and some new things that I have had to add recently in view of my ever-expanding blimpness:

1.  shoes.  Always beautiful, somewhat (un)comfortable shoes.  The other day I put my feet into runners and nearly fainted of surprise at how comfortable they were compared to my usual shoes.  It has been more than six months since I have worn runners, given that I am not allowed to exercise, and I wore them to walk once around the block in the rain.  Yes, they are comfy things.  However, they are UGLY and the antithesis of stylish.  Even though they are fresh white with pink trimmings, they are still no Fluevogs.  I continue to wear heels (mostly midsize, I don't like very high heels) because that's pretty much all my shoes, and also because all my pants are hemmed for heels, hence if I wore flats I would have to re-hem them or else they would trail behind.  I think that on a scale of 1-10, where runners are a 10 in comfort and spikes would be a 1, I aim for a 7-8.  Most of my shoes are an 8 in comfort, and they are all beautiful, making my outfits look more pulled together despite the fact that my pants ride downwards and my blouses lift upwards requiring rearrangement every five minutes.

2.  pants.  I had two pregnancies during which to acquire maternity clothes, and I can say that pants can be very poorly made and fall off constantly.  I had to donate two pairs because of this problem.  I have settled in the end on one fabulous pair of jeans (which fit so well that my non-pregnant friends want a pair) in dark blue denim, one pair of pants in brown, one in black, and one in grey.  I have one white pair that falls off and is only worn if I really need white, and one pair of linen pants that are waiting patiently for summer, if we ever have such a season this year.

3.  I have three nice tops (a white loose shirt, a burgundy synthetic knit, and a pink good quality knit with lace trims), and whatever long sweaters or T-shirts I can still pull over my belly.  I never buy maternity tops, they are not well made for the most part and they are highly avoidable.  Just wear whatever nice tops are long enough to cover the belly, and a jacket that one does not need to zip or close up but that needs to be long enough to cover the end of the blouse/top otherwise it looks weird.  I have three jackets that qualify, two are leather (red and brown), one is the Chanel.  All of them match all my tops, and pretty much every top matches every pair of pants.

4.  with a very small wardrobe like this, I have been very happy.  I might take on the lesson and apply it to the remainder of my wardrobe once I am done with the pregnancy.  To ward off clothes boredom, I play with accessories:  I have three hats (straw, white silk and man style fedora--addendum, MrH pointed out that the fedora is HIS and hence cannot be written about using the words I have) and about five scarves (one in white silk that I got to cover my shoulders on my wedding day, one in bright red silk, one dip dye Hermes 90 carre in pink/green pattern, another silk that fades in from brown to cream that I bought in Paris when I was a student and I had no money), and one supercheap pink lacy one that I got at Winners and that goes so well as a belt, as a hat wrap, and as anything I want.  I also stole MrH dressy man TagHeuer watch to wear with a white shirt, and he has a nice assortment of man hats that I look surprisingly good in, so lots to play with.

5.  hair.  Being in Vancouver is conducive to only one hair style: long and limp. For everyone else, pregnancy is a nice time to play with hair styles, because hair is so rich and dense and it grows fast.  Hair and skin have been my most fabulous features during this pregnancy.

6.  skin.  One word: fabulous.  Not much make up needed, just some very light foundation (which I wear all the time, so I can't get out of the habit), eyeliner, and mascara.  Glowing is the right word for this period in my skin's career. Since I still can't stand smelly creams, I have been quite minimal with skincare, only removing makeup and applying whatever I feel like whenever I feel like, absolutely no discipline at all, but it is working.

7.  body.  Although an expanding midsection is very cute, a bloated fish face is not, and hence out the window go for me all salty things.  The fries I had yesterday with ketchup? deadly.  2 lb of water.  Sushi? out of the question, unless someone wants to rescue my eyeballs from a sea of edematous eyelids.

8.  along the same lines, regurgitating stomach contents non stop is not stylish nor does it make me feel fabulous, so I will likely have to restrict myself to vegetable casseroles and easy salads/smoothies, that go down without a fuss.  A slice of pizza resided in my esophagus for one whole day, and the steamed sole from two days ago revisited me in my nightmares, sending me seawater flavoured burps all night long.  Gross.  Two words: never again.

That is the brief stylish diaries as I am entering week 26 tomorrow.  I will probably redo this topic in the third trimester, because at least some of the topics will require adjustment as my feet begin to swell.