How to stretch your wardrobe into pregnancy.

While we are in the business of selling clothes to pregnant women, I also know all too well how hard it is to give up your carefully curated wardrobe when you face expansion.   

So how do you stretch your wardrobe when you're pregnant?  

For my first pregnancy I thought a hair elastic would do the trick and extend the life of my jeans. I was wrong. Not only did it not hold my un-bottoned waistband together, the strands of hair still cascading from aforementioned elastic was rather unsightly.

Then I discovered the Bella Band - my very first maternity purchase and it was a revelation! I could comfortably wear my old jeans, pants and skirts with its help. If you're not familiar with a Bella Band, its a wonderful and simple stretchy tube that you step into and wear over your waistband. Its snug fit holds everything up.  I've started to use mine again recently as a boob tube, and used it while nursing to cover my stomach.  Who knows what use I'll discover next.

The other wonderful option is the Muffin Top Stopper.  Perfectly named, this super handy waist band expander adds at least a size to your pants or skirts. Hand made in New York from re-cycled denim, the muffin stop stopper has a button hole and button, just like your jeans. Insert your jeans button in the MTS hole and the MTS button into your jeans button hole - easy!  Cover with a belt or a long shirt and no one will be the wiser. Along with dental floss for stray spinach, a mini first-aid kit for my accident prone children, I'm considering adding a Muffin Top Stopper to my bag for when I eat just a little bit too much!

Gratitude

(The Bump Boys)

I probably shouldn't start to write about all the wonderful things that have happened as a result of opening Bump as it would make for a very, very long blog entry, but I can't let the weekend pass without expressing our gratitude.

First of all, I have to thank Blue Marble Ice Cream for providing us with their exceptional ice cream. For some reason there was initially some hesitancy to stop for free ice cream (I know!), but a lot of people turned in their tracks when they heard it was Blue Marble Ice Cream we were giving away!

I would also like to thank Women In Need, Inc. for being there for women and their children when they have no where else to turn.  We are so glad that we were able to support your amazing work.

And to our customers, a huge thank you.  You are so incredibly supportive of our store.  Many of you came out of your way to support us on Saturday when your need of our services have long passed.  There are many ups and downs to small business ownership, but it is your continued support and enthusiasm that keep us going.

Finally, and personally, I have to thank my children, for making me a mother.  It is the most important thing I will ever do with my life, and I will spend every day I have being the best mother I possibly can to you.

A Mothers Day Challenge

I'm a NPR junkie.  I suppose after all the years of resisting, somehow we do all turn into our parents!

Serendipitously about a year ago I happened to listen to "This I Believe". It was about a woman who had suddenly lost her mother and wished she had known her better.  I was so struck by the piece because I too had lost my mother suddenly when I was a child and I have spent the past 25 years wishing I could ask her questions about her life.  

There are many things I can ask my Dad, my Grandfather, or Aunts and Uncles about, but it was the little things I wanted to know - the smaller pieces that when put together make a more complete picture.  I didn't know who she first voted for when she turned 18, what her first impressions were of my father, how she took her coffee (if she even drank it), and where she longed to travel.

So last year I sat down with a pen and began to write down some things about me that might be forgotten over time.  It's wasn't a journal - I absolutely don't have the self discipline for that - but it was a collection of some of my little jigsaw puzzle pieces.  I voted Labour in 1996, thought my husband was far too handsome to be a nice person (thankfully I couldn't have been more wrong), milk with 1 sugar, and I have a hankering to take a trip on the Trans Siberian Railway.  It's a work in progress.

I hope, of course, that I will share a long, healthy and happy life with my treasured children, a life that will be filled with all sorts of questions and answers.  But if for some reason I can't, this little notebook will hopefully help them know me a little better, and answer some of the questions they might have, or provide answers to questions they didn't even know they wanted to ask.

So my challenge is to think about what stories you have that you would like your children to know about you, and to write them down. And if you're really lucky and you still can, ask your mum those questions you've always wanted to, because I also believe that we should truly know our mothers.

Bump Brooklyn