Gift from the Retail Gods

So we all know pregnancy is hard. For everyone. In their own special way.
For me, this time around, gaining weight and getting bigger is hard. Very, very, excruciatingly hard.
More on that someday later.
Now that I'm 23 weeks along, I'm suddenly not fitting into my normal clothes as well.
Especially my jeans.
I tossed my skinny jeans about 3 weeks ago and I've been squeezing into my other jeans, sans buttoned button, only for special occasions. Otherwise, it's yoga pants, leggings, or sweatpants. Every day.
My maternity jeans are still uncomfortably big, so I'm stuck in this weird, awkward, uncute feeling stage of life.

Thus, I decided to go shopping.
Since our budget is minimal, (I was using Christmas money), I always hit up Marshall's and Ross before the mall. Usually one is better than the other and for me it's usually Marshall's.
On this particular day, I browsed around for a minute before coming to a random rack placed in a random area that contained random clothes in random sizes.
Right on the end a beautiful, long, dark grey, maxi skirt caught my eye.
Of course I grabbed it, I've been dying for one.
It happened to be the softest material I've felt in awhile and it was also Express brand. I thought for sure it'd be over $10, if not closer to $20.
Imagine my surprise when I found the tag that said "$5.99". Into my cart that went.

I meandered about keeping my eyes open for anything else that looked cute and fun and right as I rounded a corner, something definitely caught my eye!
The exact faux leather jacket I have been pining for since October!!!!
I found it in the mall before we took family pictures and couldn't find my size. I decided to search around to locate my size, but after Black Friday, it suddenly went missing. And by it, I mean all of them. Everywhere. So I waited. And waited. And waited. Then I decided I would probably never find my perfect jacket again and I would just have to ooh and ahh at everyone else who had a cute leather jacket.
Imagine my surprise again when they had several in my size! Into my cart one of those went.

I kept looking around thinking maybe I ought to try on some jeans just for kicks. However, they had no maternity section and I was a little unsure about what size to try and if I would actually find something that worked.
I found a relatively cute pair of boot cuts in the juniors section.
Then I thought "women's sizes are usually a little more curvy, maybe I should look there?"
So I did.
After one glance through a bunch of too-high-waisted skinnies, I almost gave up.
On my way to the dressing room I checked the other side of the rack just to make sure and out popped a super, duper, ridiculously cute pair of skinnies. In a size 6. In a sweet brand. With a great price.
I grabbed them and headed to try stuff on.

Now, when I say the following has never happened, believe when I say: "THIS NEVER HAPPENS!!!"

I slid on the skirt. Perfect fit.
I slid on the jeans. Perfect fit. 
1 pair of jeans. 1st pair I tried on. Perfect fit. Pregnant. Non-pregnant jeans.
THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN.

Even when I'm not pregnant and at an ideal body shape, it takes me about 25-50 pairs of jeans before I can find one that sorta, kinda, feels almost right. (just ask my hubby, he'll agree)

Of course I bought all three items with a huge grin on my face wondering how in the heck I got so lucky.
One of my most successful shopping trips of all time.
I fully believe that when you're pregnant, if you dress cute, you'll feel cute and it will lessen the blow of feeling huge and pregnant.
So now I feel a little more cute and a little less huge and pregnant.

Although, after a week or two of craving, and satisfying those cravings, of chocolate, sugar, treats, late night snacks, potato chips, and pizza, I decided this week to start:

"Tracking my food so I consume the appropriate amount of calories in a day versus consuming about 4,000 calories a day"

*which probably actually happened...on the night we had a normal, good, healthy, dinner and then had fries, frosty's, and a JBC at 9:00 pm. Oy. Did I mention the Wendy's 2,000 feet from our door opened? Not good.

I know I shouldn't be concerned about dieting and losing weight while I'm pregnant, and I'm not. But I should be concerned about what foods, and amounts of food, I put into my body, which I'm trying to do. The healthier I am pregnant, the easier it'll be to bounce back! Right?
Now if only I could find some motivation to exercise...oh wait, it's 19 degrees outside.

Happy Monday and thank the Retail Gods for a little wardrobe update!