can i declare an emergency shopping day?
breaking out the bella bands the other day did help, but as the days tick on i find myself getting closer and closer to a wardrobe crisis. i’m either going to have to wear yoga pants to work [frowned upon, but tempting] or rotate the same two pairs of pants — plus band, of course — because not every pair looks right with the magical elastic savior. i also have one pair of jeans that miraculously still fits sans band, due to their low [and stretchy] rise. but i think my labmates are catching on that i seem to be dressed in the same bottoms every day.

and the TOPS. i never thought tops would be an issue, but . . . they are. pre-pre-pregnancy weight gain [got that?] i tended towards tops that were fitted, because that was what was most flattering. so most of my shirts that fit nicely 10 lbs ago* are bordering on pornographic now. not exactly pediatrics-appropriate.

i guess i shouldn’t be surprised that i’m out of clothes — my selection has been pretty limited since the pre-preg-lbs made their appearance, anyway. i did have one lifesaving trip to the mall in march [see evidence below] and this is pretty much what i’ve worn since then, plus a few anthro sale tops.

i suppose i can stick it out until the end of the week, but this saturday i’m hitting the mall for some maternity and transition-wear! [my sister-in-law’s magical hand-me-down box i think has also finally arrived — so perhaps once i see what’s in there i won’t need to buy as much of my own gear].

one thing i need to shop for is . . uhh, yeah:

women, if you haven’t tried the gap body t-shirt bras, you should!
men, if you are reading this, i apologize.

i have a feeling i’m going to end up with an alphabet soup of bra sizes before this is all over, but this is an area where i refuse to skimp.

* pre-pregnancy, i ended up gaining around 7 lbs which seemed to help restore my missing cycles [more here] — and now i’ve got an additional 3 on top of that thanks to the first-tri hunger explosion! from what i’ve read, it sounds like approximately 1 oz of that is baby.

veteran moms: any shopping advice? ps: if you’re 30 weeks pregnant and still zipping up your regular size 0 jeans, i don’t want to hear about it. [kidding! sort of!]

i cooked!
as promised! i had lovely friend a and her captivating 11-month-old daughter [who attempted to stick her finger into our electrical socket the moment she arrived — note to self, need to babyproof] over for dinner, so i knew i would be motivated to actually get my butt into the kitchen and make the real dinner i had planned.

flipping through the september issue of cooking light, the shrimp fettucine alfredo caught my eye. the photo looked super-rich and creamy, but the recipe really wasn’t all that decadent — the sauce contained just 1/3 cup of half and half [which i concocted using 1/6 cup milk, 1/6 cup heavy cream] plus a small slab of low-fat cream cheese [neufchatel].

i thought it came out really nicely, and the suggested asparagus accompaniment worked well.

in other good news, our kitchen is now finally stocked again [it’s been forever] and i am pumped to make tonight’s planned dinner, also from CL.

all right, off to run!