Pregnancy and Swimwear

Two weeks ago John and I went to Florida with my family. My parents own a timeshare there, so it's wonderful to have a guaranteed vacation sometime in March :) In the weeks approaching our departure I had the hardest time with finding a swimsuit that I actually felt comfortable in. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go the full maternity route or if I was confident enough to show off my baby bump. John is the sweetest and continually told me that my baby bump was cute and I should just flaunt it, but I was having an internal (probably external if John has a say) meltdown because I knew I didn't want to wear the skimpy bikinis of my youth (I laughed a little as I wrote that.) P.S. They wouldn't have fit me because my boobs have gotten bigger. Two weeks before I tried on what I had to get John's opinion. He's honest and I knew he wouldn't placate me. We found out that my bottoms were still fine and I even had two tops that were okay. Now I knew that if I couldn't find one before the trip I'd have at least have one to wear when we got there. Even trying them on was hard because my body just doesn't look the same. I feel like I'm in between the stages of being bloated and pregnant and looking really pregnant. My bump hasn't “popped” yet, but it's definitely showing. I searched high and low online.  There aren't very many in stores, maybe a handful.  The majority of maternity swimwear I could find were too "motherly" for me.  I'm ready and excited to be a momma, but not sure I'm ready to dress like one.  I still wanted to look cute too.  Is that too much to ask?  I really liked this one at Target, but it was so hard for me to buy it when I couldn't try it on.  (I may still end up purchasing it, but haven't yet.)

John and I talked a lot about what my options were and we actually did go to look.  I had a meltdown (oh the joys of pregnancy) so that made it a little more complicated.  We looked at Target, Kohls and TJMaxx.  Everything at Target was still small in the chest region.  I was looking for some support.  Kohls had a few maternity ones, but after my meltdown I didn't want to try anything on.  We went home without anything, but we looked online more and found some great ideas.  We searched for racerback tops because that made sense for the support I was looking for.  I found a couple and some were available so the search continued.

My mom came to visit for a day and we went to Kohls.  She told me it wouldn't hurt to just try on a maternity swimsuit, so I tried on two, this one and this one.  I ended up choosing the orange cherry patterned one.  It was good I didn't buy online because I ended up with a medium in the bottom and a small in the top.  The medium size felt like a bag on top.  It was very uncomfortable.  The one I choose is fitted, but has plenty of room for my belly to grow.  I hope to use it a huge number of times in our backyard pool this summer.

The other two pieces I ended up getting were just tops and I found them both at Athleta.  I bought this one in store and this one online. (Modeling It.) I wore them with a black bottom and pink bottom I already own.  I tried on both the small and the medium.  The small fit fine, but was just not as comfortable as the medium.  They support the girls well and every review I read online said that these swimsuits last a long time.  If they hold up to lots of wear I will probably be buying from Athleta again.  We'll see as time goes by.  I'm excited about these tops too because they are not strickly maternity and plan to wear them after or if I don't feel I can pull off a bikini I'll pass them onto one of my sisters.

We went to Florida and my tummy actually "popped" so I felt pretty comfortable sporting my two pieces.  I didn't even break out the maternity suit.  Overall a wonderful, relaxing and fabulous time spent with family.