One-Track Mind

Academia: I'm afraid this will be a brief post, y'all. My morning sickness, which seemed to have gone a few weeks ago, is suddenly back with a vengeance, and all I really want to do is go to bed. I think the pregnancy gods heard me bragging that I hadn't thrown up once and are now smiting me. Gross.

I'm sorry to have been so all pregnancy, all the time lately, readers. I know when I was trying to get pregnant, it killed me to have to read about other people having babies, so if you're in the same boat and need to stop reading for a while, I completely understand. It's just that being pregnant is way more all-consuming than I thought it would be - when I don't feel bad, I'm thinking about what the baby will be like, or what we'll name him/her, or what clothes I have that still fit. I'm hoping my regular brain will come back a bit once I get used to being pregnant, but until then, thanks for bearing with me and my single-mindedness, y'all.

Sartorial: This skirt used to be too big. Now it fits perfectly and I don't need a belt. Yay!

Watch Downton Abbey. Seriously.

Academia: It's late and I need to go to bed, but to sum up today, may I just say that any day that ends with catching up on Downton Abbey is an awesome day. If you haven't watched Downton Abbey yet, get yourself over to Netflix immediately and set aside six hours of your life to watch season 1. And I mean six consecutive hours, because you won't be able to stop. Who knew that the inner workings of a 1910s English country estate were so completely engrossing? Well, now you do. Even if you don't give a hoot for British period dramas, it's worth watching for the clothes. So. Fabulous.

Sartorial: The only bad thing I have to say about this outfit is that it's not the clothes from Downton Abbey. Although my earrings are a bit 1915. So yay! Downton Abbey earrings! Now I just have to hunker down and wait for this look to come back in:

Seriously, I need these clothes.

Land of the Living and Growing

Check out the To Kill a Mockingbird necklace Cary got me for Christmas!  I love a man who indulges my nerdiness.

Academia: I am beginning to re-enter the land of the living, y'all. I've progressed from the "pounding sinus headache" stage of the cold to the "hacking up a lung" stage, but it's progress. I got a reasonable night's sleep Wednesday night and am starting to feel a bit more human. I also found out that I'm allowed to take Robitussin, huzzah! Plus, the hacking cough scares off students who don't really need anything but just want to complain, so I've been surviving working sick pretty well. I'm not feeling great yet, but I'm not feeling like a zombie anymore either. Maybe by next week I'll feel like a person again!

Sartorial: I wore this Wednesday, which was not a great day health-wise or weather-wise. I hadn't turned the corner with this cold yet, and it was chilly and rainy all day. A nice loose blouse over my increasingly weird-to-dress belly and some dark tights were just what I needed to stay warm, dry, and comfortable.

I don't think I would have tried a loose shirt over a pencil skirt before getting pregnant, because I felt great about having a small waist and I liked emphasizing it by tucking in my blouses. I like my growing body too, but having a constantly changing shape has challenged me to dress it differently than how I normally would. I liked how this blouse draped over my belly without hiding it. It's certainly a change from showing off a tiny waist, but I have a feeling I'm going to love this kind of showing off even more.

Sudafed Brain

TOMS

Academia: Y'all, I honestly can't remember what I did in these clothes. I have a cold, and my brain just refuses to reach that far back. On a related note, what in the world do they put in Sudafed to make it non-drowsy? I suspect cocaine. That's the only decongestant I can take right now, and it made me lay awake twitching half the night last night. So my options are apparently cough all night and don't sleep, or don't cough but feel like I had five espresso shots and also don't sleep. If I weren't so tired, I'd cry.

Sartorial: I remember this outfit being comfortable, I think. Except that my pants are just barely hanging on. I think I rubber banded them together, which is a pretty neat trick when you're pregnant but too small for maternity clothes. Just loop a rubber band through the button hole, and then around the button, and voila! Pants that mostly fit.

The button hole is hidden in this particular pair of pants, but trust me, the rubber band is there.

Professional but Fun

Academia: Check-in week continues, and thankfully it's a bit calmer than either check-in during the fall semester. Yay! I wore this yesterday to help a friend with an academic culture seminar, and to drive new students to visit apartment complexes. Rather than being in my windowless office, I was about on an unseasonable 70 degree day. Can't complain about that!

Sartorial: I used to belt this dress, but this belly seriously has come out of nowhere, so I decided the tights were restrictive enough without adding a belt. I really liked the gray dress with the chestnut tights and the animal print shoes; to me it looked professional, but still fun. "Professional but fun" is pretty much my motto for dressing for work, so I was happy in this all day (other than being a bit squeezed by my tights).

Transitional Clothes

Academia: Check-in week for the spring is in full swing, and check-in fatigue + pregnancy fatigue is probably going to = short posts this week. I wore this outfit on Friday to prep for this week. I remember it being a busy day, but for the life of me I can't remember what I did. So, moving on.

Sartorial: My mom bought me a bunch of transitional clothes for Christmas this year (like this lovely pink blouse), for which I'm feeling more and more grateful every day. I'm not big enough for maternity clothes yet, but none of my pants and blouses fit quite the same anymore either. I feel like this belly just came out of nowhere - on Friday, I could barely squeeze myself into these jeans (thank goodness for the loose shirt), and yesterday, I couldn't get a pair of baggy boyfriend pants buttoned up.

I'm glad because if I'm growing, that means the baby's growing, but I'm not sure how getting dressed is going to go for the next month or so. Right now, I have a bunch of rubber bands and belts and long loose shirts on hand to make my pre-pregnancy clothes go as far as possible, but I'd say I have about four more weeks before I need to go shopping. Which y'all can imagine I'm really broken up about. You know how much I hate shopping.

Limited Time Only

Academia: Thanks for all your congratulations and well-wishes on Wednesday, y'all! Cary and I both read your comments, and it meant a lot to us. Thanks!

I've been back at work this week, but yesterday was the first day I had to interact with anyone other than the other administrators and office staff. We had a new student and his parents arrive early (check-in for the spring is next week), and they wanted some help getting settled, so I went with them to apartment complexes for part of the day. They were a very nice family, and it was a great way to ease back into the semester.

Sartorial: Since I was seeing a student, and not just my coworkers, I thought it would be a good idea not to wear the jeans I've been wearing all week. I also spared y'all from seeing them. You're welcome. I'd say this pencil skirt only has about three or four more weeks before I can't wear it any more (it's already a little tight), so I'm trying to get as much wear out of it as I can now.

I'm looking forward to finding fun maternity clothes, but I'll definitely miss this skirt. It's comfortable and versatile, and it makes every outfit look more polished. Does anyone make maternity pencil skirts? Is there a way for a pregnant woman to wear a pencil skirt and not look absolutely squeezed into it? Yes, I hope?

Back with Big News

Hey everyone. I'm back.

If anyone is still out there reading this, you probably noticed that I gave myself two weeks off for the holidays. There are a lot of reasons for that, but they all boil down to one big reason, and I'm really excited to share that one big reason with you now.

I'm pregnant.

If you've been reading for a while, you know that my husband Cary and I have been trying to have a baby for three years, so you can imagine how psyched we are. Right now I'm almost nine weeks along, we've seen the baby's heartbeat, and we feel pretty confident that things are going well, so I figured now was a good time to share with all of y'all. Yay!

I'm so, so happy to be a mother-to-be, but obviously my pregnancy hasn't been great for the blog. I'm tired a lot, and all I really want to do is wear sweatpants and lay on the couch. And since I didn't have to do anything but wear sweatpants and lay on the couch over Christmas break, I didn't take any pictures. I figured y'all know what sweatpants look like!

But I'm back to work this week, and even my super-casual university tends to frown on wearing a Snuggie to work (although I got one for Christmas and man, is it awesome), so I'm going to start taking pictures again. I'm going to try to limit myself to three posts a week instead of five, though, at least during my first trimester. That way, if I have a day when I'm too tired to do anything but roll into bed after work, or when none of my clothes fit me right, I can give myself a break and not worry too much about it.

I'm due in August, so I'm sure there are some interesting posts coming about how to dress when you're enormously pregnant in 95 degree heat. I want to stay true to the mission of this blog throughout my pregnancy: to prove that style and smarts are not mutually exclusive, even for pregnant ladies. Thank you all so much for reading so far, and I hope you keep reading along with this new sartorial adventure!