I’m a magician

Posted in love and happiness, pregnancy by ElaineMarie

Because I turned this

into this….

Daphne Josephine is now a member of the Wrucker crew, living on the outside of my body and looking pretty cute while doing so.

we’re healthy, happy and well-cared for. i’m now enjoying all the baby snuggles and fun time after pains, along with those lovely, humbling things like starting a new breastfeeding relationship and relearning how to pass a newborn back and forth. sheesh.

life is a trip, man.

{ps. glad i had the where-with-all to snap one last maternity shot at the beginning of my labor, before things really took off}

8Jul2014

avoiding maternity clothes

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

how
i did
avoiding
maternity
clothes this week…

only one addition to the regular rotation. but it was a fun addition, a funky addition. it’s an addition that needs some recognition. fringing this t-shirt is what i spent my precious alone time doing. yep. fringe is an important accessory to me. and this t-shirt is getting me excited for rocking my postpartum mom bod for the rest of the summer. mid-drifts aren’t just for baby bumps anymore! stretch marks and blown out belly buttons will be on display soon, too!

darla came home to me wearing this and had instant fringe envy. don’t worry, we fixed her up with a style of her own. keep a look out for a post in which she dons her own fringey tee in just a bit.

seriously, wish and magical think me into postpartum clothes by next week. please. thanks!

1Jul2014

avoiding maternity clothes

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

how
i did
avoiding
maternity clothes
this week……………

^^^ berry picking in all white because i never really make good fashion decisions ^^^

^^^ dark colors and long sleeves for an outdoor festival during a 90 degree day because again…. ^^^

^^^ a very important outfit these days. i’m very thankful to my regular bathing suit for hanging in there as a maternity suit. this may or may not qualify as a good fashion decision depending on which side you’re on ^^^

* wish me luck with next week. or better yet, wish me luck with a birth and a first week in postpartum clothes!*

24Jun2014

avoiding maternity clothes

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

how i did this week avoiding maternity clothes…with a little help from my friends.

this weeks post is a tribute to a few people who popped up in life to say “hey, i have some flowy, fabricy garments. you can put them on your big body if you’d like!” it was nice to have my maternity wardrobe double in size.

^^^ prairie dress. i pretended i was a pregnant laura ingalls wilder ^^^

^^^ i love the look of a belt cinched above a baby bump ^^^

^^^ story about this shirt: i was literally walking around my house in just pants, bra and support tank top sulking to myself that i didn’t have any shirts left to fit over my body when i said “i wonder what is in this package that just arrived from my aunt?” it contained this shirt, which happens to be my power color this pregnancy, and also happens to be non-maternity and comfortable as heck. i love my family’s cosmic ways. oh and the flower was added by darla just before i left for work. she said it made me look like a beautiful senorita. how could i not wear it then? ^^^

^^^ and i’m so in love with this red dress ^^^

so thank you to those of you who gifted/loaned me something in this past week or two. i have definitely put it to good use. wish me luck with this week!

17Jun2014

avoiding maternity clothes

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

from the non-maternity files this week…

you may remember this birdie top from an earlier post. yeah i got it. and i now know why big, beautiful black women wear loud prints. i know why the largest woman at church wears the biggest hat on easter sunday. i know why the caged bird sings… living large and in charge means covering your largeness in prints that say “yeah, i’m proud of alllllllll of this.”

or you can just put conway twitty on your largeness and call it a day.

10Jun2014

avoiding maternity clothes

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

all my pants are being worn urkle style these days. and by all i mean the two pairs i fit into as of now. this outfit was the only addition to my fashion rotation this week.

i want to give a shout out to this accessory above. this is a relic from my first job at the goodwill store back when goodwill used to be a true thrift store. it’s a vintage belt and i’m happy that 16 year-old me acquired this belt all those years ago to help 31 year-old me ease through the high-waisted days just a little less self-consciously.

3Jun2014

avoiding maternity clothes

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

i think we can all be in agreement here that i don’t need to show you repeat outfits, right? you can just assume that i’m pulling out the same stretchy fabrics and wearing those around. when i’m not in those, i’m choosing to usurp husbeau’s t-shirts and forgo pants around the house. true life.

however, i do feel these gems deserve some space on the internet:

pregnant ladies in crop tops! let’s do this!! this was my watermelon music festival ensemble. mike said i was the most beautiful watermelon he’s ever seen.

and lastly, i think pairing a pentecostal skirt with my cut off meat puppets t-shirt went over pretty nicely, don’t you? really, it’s a $7 forever21 maxi skirt that has been a weekly go to. i highly recommend it to my fellow ladies makin’ babies.

wish me luck and send me all your positive lycra vibes that i’ll make it through this next week!

27May2014

avoiding maternity clothes

Posted in pregnancy by ElaineMarie

oh yeah. things are looking good over here. this is how i spent much of the first part of the week. it’s getting harder and harder to find things to cover this bump. i thought maybe we were just going to skip pictures this week and assume that any time that i was not in the above yard work outfit, i was in the black dress. But, I got a few more semi-acceptable outfits in there:

one being this outfit. these are the most comfortable pants in the world. i swear they are not pajama pants. i might have to get another pair! but maybe in a different color…and maybe in a size that will fit me post baby as well.

and this, which involved the dress i was wearing when i met husbeau…

and this romper for memorial day, which i wore in my pregnancy with darla, but it looked much different given that summer was on the beginning half of my pregnancy last time.

and one where miss D wanted to show off what she was wearing to memorial day, too.

that wraps it up. the rest of this week is looking to be gauze tents and caftans.

22May2014

bump day

Posted in love and happiness, pregnancy by ElaineMarie

i’m glad i snapped a photo of the bump from this weekend because this one shows how much the shape of this body changes from day-to-day, and throughout the day, as our little babe flips and turns around in there. i also like how this photo shows the lines imprinting into my body from my non-maternity clothes. maybe my body is needing some after all…

but what i love the most is the faint showings of some stretch marks coming through my Robert Indiana tattoo. it seems pretty poetic to me. i have been wondering if i would make it through this pregnancy without any stretch marks, as i did with darla, but it seems highly unlikely at this point. i’m counting on those marks growing along with my belly for these remaining weeks. and that’s ok.

this human, female body is just amazing to me. the transformations of late pregnancy are awe-inspiring. i love looking around a world of round bellies and imagining all the other little amazing human bodies curled up there.

this mother form is love embodied.

*and also i love the cameo of my great healthy, pregnancy hair.