Tuesday, November 23, 2010
By popular demand...
Ok, I heard you...you wanted a picture of my baby bump, you got it! This is my bump at 13 weeks :)
And yes, those are maternity pants! Love those elastic waistbands...I feel like I can finally sit and eat comfortably. For some reason, I couldn't get a good full-length picture of myself so maybe for the next baby bump picture Al will be home to lend a hand. I'll try to post more pictures as I inevitably get bigger. Omar's going to be a big boy! :)
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Misadventures in Maternity Pants Shopping
The past few weeks, I've started gaining some weight...and noticeably. I've had a love-hate relationship with this weight gain. For one thing, it makes me happy because it makes the pregnancy more real for me. With no major symptoms during my first trimester, its been hard to believe that I actually am pregnant (even with seeing all the ultrasound pics). But now that I have a little baby bump growing, I can tell he's really in there! On the other hand, my belly is not the only thing err, expanding. My trunk has been gathering a bit more junk which has caused a few wardrobe malfunctions. As a result, my rubber-banding-it-instead-of-zipping-and-buttoning-it method is now obsolete.
So, with my drawstring linen pants now being the only bottoms I have that are big enough in diameter, it was time to go shopping for some real maternity pants. Lucky for me (and not so much for him), Al was on hand for me to drag along to the shopping spree. The first store we went to was Mothercare. It was hard for me to distract myself away from the cute baby clothes but I was on a mission. I desperately needed some pants that didn't require an antelope mating dance to get into.
Mothercare had a pretty good selection of jeans, but when I started looking through them I realized I had no idea what size I am now. And further, I didn't even know how maternity pants were sized! So naturally I went for the smallest size I found, which was a 10. Ok, so I know that I've started widening in some areas, but no way did I move up 8 sizes. Now remember that there's no fitting rooms to try on clothes for women here in Saudi (which made this whole expedition even more difficult), but even just by eyeballing it I knew I'd have to multiply myself in order to fill out those pants. Al and I went through rack after rack of maternity jeans trying to find a better fit but with no luck....so I started panicking. What if all the stores are like this? What if I can't find a size that fits me? I'm finally shedding my stick-figure and I still can't find pants that fit right? What am I supposed to go pant-less?? THIS. IS. NOT. FAIR!!!!!!!
While I was throwing my mental temper tantrum, my more resourceful husband had found other types of pants for me to look through. I found a pair of black maternity leggings which I thought would be cute with some long sweaters and boots in the winter. They looked like they could fit, and the sizes were much simpler to work with...small, medium, large. See? Now why can't they make everything like that? (That was a rhetorical question). So I came out with a small pair of black leggings from Mothercare, some relief, and hope that they will actually fit once I get home to try them on.
We went through a couple of other stores with no luck. Not because of the size issue, but because they didn't carry maternity clothes at all. I had no idea which stores had or didn't have maternity clothes here so that was another problem. I heard that H&M had a small maternity section, and with it being my favorite normal people clothes store, I had high hopes that I'd find something cute that would fit me there.
I immediately felt better with the first pair of pants I picked up. Cute grey corduroys that actually looked like they could fit perfectly (size 36 in European sizes...can't we use some kind of universal sizing system?). Then I found a 38 which looked like it would give me some more room to inevitably grow. But dammit, I couldn't try them on to see which fit better! Solution: buy both. I had to try them on at home anyway, and I didn't want to risk getting the wrong size then going back and not finding the right size. I also found a pair of jeans, some dark khaki pants, and some comfy black pants that I called my "overseas pants" because they looked comfortable enough to travel overseas in. I was sooo happy and felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders (cause obviously it hadn't been lifted off my butt or belly) and Al was happy because that meant that this shopping trip was over with hopes that my nagging would be over with it. I was still nervous about going home to try all the pants on, but was confident I had done well.
Turns out, I got some mad eyeballing skills because all the pants I bought fit great, and I was right in thinking that the size 38 corduroys fit bitter because they'd still fit even if I continued to gather some more junk (which I will). So I only have to return one pair (the size 36 corduroys). So far I'm doing ok with the tops that I have, but I'll probably have to start buying some maternity tops within the next month or so...so stay tuned for that shopping trip adventure! I think Al will probably purposely try to be out of town on a job for that one...hehe :)
So, with my drawstring linen pants now being the only bottoms I have that are big enough in diameter, it was time to go shopping for some real maternity pants. Lucky for me (and not so much for him), Al was on hand for me to drag along to the shopping spree. The first store we went to was Mothercare. It was hard for me to distract myself away from the cute baby clothes but I was on a mission. I desperately needed some pants that didn't require an antelope mating dance to get into.
Mothercare had a pretty good selection of jeans, but when I started looking through them I realized I had no idea what size I am now. And further, I didn't even know how maternity pants were sized! So naturally I went for the smallest size I found, which was a 10. Ok, so I know that I've started widening in some areas, but no way did I move up 8 sizes. Now remember that there's no fitting rooms to try on clothes for women here in Saudi (which made this whole expedition even more difficult), but even just by eyeballing it I knew I'd have to multiply myself in order to fill out those pants. Al and I went through rack after rack of maternity jeans trying to find a better fit but with no luck....so I started panicking. What if all the stores are like this? What if I can't find a size that fits me? I'm finally shedding my stick-figure and I still can't find pants that fit right? What am I supposed to go pant-less?? THIS. IS. NOT. FAIR!!!!!!!
While I was throwing my mental temper tantrum, my more resourceful husband had found other types of pants for me to look through. I found a pair of black maternity leggings which I thought would be cute with some long sweaters and boots in the winter. They looked like they could fit, and the sizes were much simpler to work with...small, medium, large. See? Now why can't they make everything like that? (That was a rhetorical question). So I came out with a small pair of black leggings from Mothercare, some relief, and hope that they will actually fit once I get home to try them on.
We went through a couple of other stores with no luck. Not because of the size issue, but because they didn't carry maternity clothes at all. I had no idea which stores had or didn't have maternity clothes here so that was another problem. I heard that H&M had a small maternity section, and with it being my favorite normal people clothes store, I had high hopes that I'd find something cute that would fit me there.
I immediately felt better with the first pair of pants I picked up. Cute grey corduroys that actually looked like they could fit perfectly (size 36 in European sizes...can't we use some kind of universal sizing system?). Then I found a 38 which looked like it would give me some more room to inevitably grow. But dammit, I couldn't try them on to see which fit better! Solution: buy both. I had to try them on at home anyway, and I didn't want to risk getting the wrong size then going back and not finding the right size. I also found a pair of jeans, some dark khaki pants, and some comfy black pants that I called my "overseas pants" because they looked comfortable enough to travel overseas in. I was sooo happy and felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders (cause obviously it hadn't been lifted off my butt or belly) and Al was happy because that meant that this shopping trip was over with hopes that my nagging would be over with it. I was still nervous about going home to try all the pants on, but was confident I had done well.
Turns out, I got some mad eyeballing skills because all the pants I bought fit great, and I was right in thinking that the size 38 corduroys fit bitter because they'd still fit even if I continued to gather some more junk (which I will). So I only have to return one pair (the size 36 corduroys). So far I'm doing ok with the tops that I have, but I'll probably have to start buying some maternity tops within the next month or so...so stay tuned for that shopping trip adventure! I think Al will probably purposely try to be out of town on a job for that one...hehe :)
Monday, November 15, 2010
A blog about nothing...
Hey guys remember me? Yeah, it's been a while...to be honest I haven't had anything remotely interesting going on in my life worth blogging about lately. So I've waited until I had enough random tid-bits to put together to make a semi-interesting blog post. Plus, its Monday and you know you weren't going to do any actual work anyway...so enjoy!
Ok first and foremost, Eid Mubarak* to my family. Inshallah* next year we can go to Hajj* together :)
Pregnancy update:
Other randoms:
Ok first and foremost, Eid Mubarak* to my family. Inshallah* next year we can go to Hajj* together :)
Pregnancy update:
- Yes, we're having a boy! Thanks to 3D ultrasound technology we were able to find out the sex of our baby at only 11 weeks. His name will be Omar, and I've already started buying clothes for him hehe.
- I'm slowly getting bigger (from the front and rear unfortunately) and now I'm having a hard time wearing my jeans even with the rubber band holding them together instead of the zipper. I should probably go look for some maternity pants...
- Still kicking my ass.
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| Awesome building in Bahrain |
- Me, Al, and our neighbor Walid went to Bahrain for the day a couple of weeks ago. It was Al's first time there (my second) and he loved it! It really is a breath of fresh air from the suffocating closed-mindedness in Saudi.
- We went to a restaurant on the beach that served awesome Lebanese food and I officially out-ate both the guys. Then we went to this street called Shabab* Avenue which was awesome...it had every kind of coffee house and fast food place you could think of all on one street. Definitely one of my favorite places in Bahrain so far.
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| Al and I at the Lebanese restaurant |
Other randoms:
- Hoping to be back in Damascus in a few weeks...my sister-in-law's engagement party is in December and I can't wait to go back there to celebrate with her and see our families. I really miss the organized chaos of the city, and a part of me even misses my daily cab ride adventures there. Let's hope they actually give my husband some time off...
- The weather here has finally turned from blistering hot to almost-fall like! And quite suddenly too...we had a barbeque a few weeks back with some friends on the beach and once it got dark I was actually shivering cold. I sort of forgot what feeling cold was like. And then one day last week I heard a weird noise outside which turned out to be rain! Apparently, I forgot what rain sounded like...I love the desert.
- "Eid Mubarak"- Blessed Holiday. Islam has 2 main "eids"...One after Ramadan (called Eid Al-Futur) and one at the end of Hajj (called Eid Al-Adha). Eid Al-Adha officially starts tomorrow and lasts for 4 days.
- "Hajj"- Pilgrimage. Muslims are supposed to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives. Mecca is about 16 hours west of Al Khobar, where I live. Saudi is a ridiculously huge country...
- "Inshallah"- God willing. We say inshallah for everything...like, "are you going to Damascus anytime soon?" "yes, inshallah".
- "Shabab"- slang for a group of guys...usually teenagers or 20-somethings. The counterpart to this would be "Sabaya" or a group of teenaged or 20-something girls.
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