Four months and looking every minute of it.

I received a lot of skepticism after people saw my pictures from Halloween.  Seems I didn't look pregnant enough for anyone on October 31st, (See below. Sidenote, isn't my family just adorable? Seriously though.  This woman got herself into a whole kaboodle of gorgeousness somehow.)  I've been trying to convince people I've, as they say, "popped" since then, but I figured some pictures might speak it a little louder.

 Sooooo, this post is for all of my belly-doubters out there.  BOOM.  How do you like them... watermelons?

4 months pregnant, and our little dude wants everyone to know it.  Howdy-ho world!  Yep.  Cuz my son is a corny cowboy.  Giddy-up.

And here is a my super dramatic pregnant belly pose.  I think this one is getting framed.

These pictures also feature my new favorite article of clothing:  Maternity skinny jeans.  You might argue, like my husband did, that skinny jeans may not be the most flattering look for a pregnant woman. Something about really emphasizing the ratio between calf/ankle size and butt/belly size, I don't know.  But just the same, these pants are stretchy and comfortable and allow me to wear my scrunchy knee-high boots, so I've decided to throw conventional wisdom to the wind.

Also, this is another thing.  Below are pictures of me pregnant last time, 18 weeks along to my current 16 1/2.  I feel secure that I'm looking mucho attractiver in my old age.  I think I earned myself some freakin skinny jeans.

Doncha think? Yeah you do.  You know you do.

So there's the pictures, hope they are super gratifying to all of you who were demanding either my pictures or my blood.  I can say it's gratifying for me.  See those pictures on the floor behind my feet?  Well, every single one of our pictures are on the walls now.  Yep. I'd say "it's the little things", but really, that's a huge thing.  You should all be wickedly impressed.

Because self-respect isn't something I'm too familiar with.

Here ya go:  me in my new size 6 skinny jeans.  Submitted for your approval.  Or your unrestrained ridicule.    It's cool, I can take it.  Also, I'm pretty sure that this will allow each of you to see that yes, I DO in fact look every ounce of my 147 pounds.  The red shirt picture was somehow deceptive and ultra kind.  So no more stalling, pictures posted:

This is what I looked like when I went to work yesterday:

This is NOT what I looked like when I went to work yesterday:

The super long sweater helped hide my thickness, but I thought y'all deserved to see why my college roommates dedicated the Queen song "Fat bottomed girls" to me when I started dating my own "skinny lad".  It's also important to note here that my friends are CRAZY mean.  Who says something like that?  Jerkfaces.

 I like my awkward magazine clothing model pose on the left.  See how long my neck looks?? No.

*Side note:  I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I TOOK THESE LAST TWO PICTURES.  Even more so, I have no idea why I took them and then posted them on the internet.  Apparently, to me, self-disclosure means that you must essentially represent yourself as a crazy person with a Texas-sized backside.  That's right, right?

Anyway, there's the pics, now for the review.  Not bad, decently comfortable, for the most part.  As the day wore on though, I noticed something kind of annoying.  Probably due to all of the sitting, standing, and crouching I insist on doing in my daily life, the jeans did start to bag out a big after the first hour or two.  But not completely.  They got baggy from the knees to the butt, but the calf portion stayed firmly gripped to my legs.  This meant that I was getting a sort of saggy-bunched up look around my knees.  Anyone else noticed this, or is this another "Ashley has a bizarro body" moment?  My guess is that this could be solved by getting jeans with but of elasticity to them, I've noticed they tend to hold their shape better.

However, all-in-all, I really can't complain about the jeans.  I got very enthusiastic "Holy COW you've been losing a lot of weight!" responses from a couple people I work with, and tend to see every week or two.  These people were both men, who also seem slower to notice weight loss than ladies.  Oh, and then while visiting a local high school, one of the secretaries thought I was a student for few seconds before she realized who I was.  (She's another person I see on a weekly basis.)  I could have kissed her on the face.

So, I can't say I'm terribly in love with these jeans yet.  I did feel much more conscious of myself all day, specifically my thighs.  But if for whatever reason, these jeans make me seem extra thin and 10 years younger, well, I may never take them off again.

Because I keep my promises...

I had to make a trip to Target this afternoon.  It seems that it wasn't just a fluke, I have officially dropped from a size 14 to a size 6.  Woo hoo!  And as such, as I'd promised before, today I purchased my first pair of skinny jeans.  I'll have pictures posted for you in the next day or two, again, as promised, so y'all can be the judge of whether or not I'm yet able to rock this uber-fashionista style.  

That brings me to an excellent next point:  are skinny jeans, in fact, still in style?  

I typically live a life on the outskirts, maybe the suburbs, of "stylish dress", I try to present myself decently well without having to A) Purchase a new wardrobe every year. (In fact, these days, most of the clothes I wear are 5+ years old, since those are the ones that fit the best.) and B) Worry that because one season something was very "IN", the next season it will PROBABLY be very "out".  I've purchased a few items, or been given a few items that were supremely stylish during a particular season.  I always felt horribly conflicted later:  I'll feel stupid wearing this, now that "no one" wears this anymore, but I feel cheated out of a perfectly nice dress, shirt, belt, etc.  I still have a 50's-ish Black with pink polka dot spaghetti strap dress with exposed tulle under the skirt that was wickedly in style back in, oh, 2004 or so.  I wore it a few times when it was in style, and probably a few more when others had stopped.  So now it's in perfect shape, and it hangs in the back of my closet with no purpose in life.  I see it, and I'm frustrated, and I don't like to think about it anymore.

So, I avoid buying stylish clothes.  Skinny jeans won me over, not because I'm incredibly impressed by the stylishness of them, they don't seem to have the staying power of straight leg or boot cut jeans, but because, I guess, I CAN wear them.  This chubby girl may, JUST may, be able to pull off a style made exclusively for skinny ladies.

I might be able to pull them off, still need to figure out the how behind that.  I've learned about skinny jeans and stilettos, so I can give that a try.  Apart from that, I'll have to do some research.  I'm also open to suggestions.  And yes, if you're curious, this is how mega-nerds get dressed.  

My assessment of me in the SJ so far is this:  I'm certainly not the body type they're built for.  I put them on and my thighs and booty look, how shall I say, thick.  I do think, though, that they have a really kickin effect on my calves, so that's a balance.  I think, at the very least, with the right top and some decent shoes, I won't look bad in them.  The hubs says he "doesn't believe any one looks good in skinny jeans" but that as far as they go, I look nice in them.  He's such a sweet lil spin doctor. :-)

So there you have it, my next milestone completed.  Only about 10-12 more pounds down from here and I'm at my low end college weight, and about 20 from the lowest I've weighed as an adult. (I was 20 then, and it took going to Japan to accomplish that feat.)  

Oh, and 7 weeks from tomorrow till we leave on our anniversary trip!  Bikini body, don't want to scare you off, but you have exactly 7 weeks to show up out of nowhere!!  Good luck!