Melissa's Place

Morning Commute

Forget the highway between Burlington and Mississauga – that’s fairly predictable. What is becoming less and less predictable these days is my travels between the 6 a.m. alarm clock and out the door by 7.

I am a morning person, but these days, tipping my weary, slightly swollen body off the mattress without having it land in a face-plant on the carpet beside the bed has become a bit of a gamble. I will myself upright, having showers half-comatose and then wonder if I’ve used hair conditioner or just shampooed twice.

Eating breakfast has always been a highlight of the morning for me, but if time was tight I could always grab something on the run. Suddenly eating breakfast is as much a predictor for whether I will survive to nine o’clock as the presence of a pulse. It is non-negotiable and it has to be something I LOVE (so these days, that’s eggs).

But what has really swallowed up my prep time in the morning is clothing selection. I have always been a very casual girl, giving less than thirty seconds of thought into my ensemble for the day. Suddenly, I am caught between my loose jeans and my maternity jeans. See, some loose-fitting maternity pants just fall down too much right now and feel too conspicuous (possibly, overly-eager) to be sported. Maternity jeans feel nice and less conspicuous, however, the form-fitting legs and loose-middle make for a belly-accentuating style. I have to be in a belly-accentuating mood to wear them (I have yet to be stricken by this particular urge).

And tops have to be long enough to fit over the crazy, thick and stretchy (and, let’s face it, SCARY) waist-band of these jeans. My regular tops not only don’t fit the bill, but they can hardly hide my muffin tops and belly button these days. So that leaves maternity tops. Some of these are fun, but some of them make me feel like I’m wearing a parachute. I almost feel like I should squeeze every possible minute that I can out of my mainstream t-shirts and form-fitting tops before maternity wear becomes an absolute must. So thirty seconds of preparation has turned into twenty minutes and a heavy reliance on the regular laundering of these items:

- one pair of stretchy green lululemon pants

- my loose-fitting jeans

- my khaki “safari” pants

- every baggy hooded sweatshirt Mark owns

and….I fear that’s about it.

Yes, the morning commute has become somewhat more adventurous, and I fear for Mark the day I weaken and ask, “Do these make me look pregnant?”

Because, I admit, there is no safe answer to free yourself from that one.