All the Frills: Vacation From Myself

I honestly keep forgetting that I own this wig. I bought it as a sort of joke when out with a friend but I genuinely do love the sea foam shade and the chance to occasionally put in on and take a little vacation from myself. Which is exactly what I did here. Usually I’d wear it some place fun but I wasn't really doing a lot of “fun” stuff when these were taken on account of being so uncomfortable, so I basically just wore it out for dinner and then a drive around our area with my helpmeet. I find driving to be a really good distraction actually; it forces me to pay attention to something and gets me out of my own headspace. And why not kick my drive up a notch with a little wig action?

Weekend Reading:

• These fashion ads really did go too far.
  
• This review of some pretty choice Lindsay Lohan tweets is hilarious.
  
• This piece on child marriage in the US focuses on a deeply troubling issue.
  
• This piece on gender disparities and “emotional labour” is really interesting.

Hobbit Feet

At the time when these photos were taken, it had recently become apparent to me that my feet were starting to swell and I could no longer wear the majority of my shoes because it was just too uncomfortable. That included the pair that I’m wearing in these photos, unfortunately; they were my go to black flats. Sigh.

flats: Aldo / leggings: ASOS Maternity / t-shirt: Old Navy / blazer: Simons / necklace: Target / sunglasses: Aldo

The Bulge

My last post, which largely centred on how different I look now that I’m in the final stages of my pregnancy, makes me once again feel a deep appreciation for the magic of this cape. It’s like the ultimate pregnancy hider!

pants: Thyme Maternity / shirt: ModCloth / shoes: Zigi / cape: BB Dakota / tote: yeah, that’s my Dorinda Medley (she of Real Housewives of NYC fame) tote

The Face That Launched a Thousand Ships...In the Other Direction

Worn to the movies. I seriously can’t get over how big I am! It’s just bonkers to me – and even though I’m basically right where I should be with respect to weight gain (they say 25-35 pounds is normal and I was at about a 27 pound gain with 8ish weeks to go when these were taken), I feel like I look so much bigger than that. It really does make me chuckle. The look of profound annoyance and discomfort on my face also really makes me chuckle. Man, my face game is on point you guys.

Also, as those of you who follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram may know, I had an emergency C section at 36-37 weeks on Tuesday and now have my beautiful baby girl. I'm currently recovering in hospital and she has some issues with her heart rate which the doctors are nurses are engaged with so I'm just going to power through with all the scheduled posts I have and hopefully, by the time all those out, she and I will be healed and rested and I can move on to telling you about the insanity of her birth! See? Something for us all to look forward to.

dress: Zara / leggings: Thyme Maternity / shoes: Aldo

All the Frills: One Can Never Have Too Many Antlers

My helpmeet recently gifted me these amazing antler earrings and matching necklace – I’m utterly smitten (especially since I have quite the predilection for deer themed things when it comes to my home décor).

Weekend Reading:

• I’m totally guilty of this inaccurate usage of terminology when it comes to lady parts.
  
• Egon Schiele is one of my favourite artists, and this photo series is just mesmerizing.
  
• Let’s all take a tour of this breathtaking castle.
  
• While it’s great that the Marines are trying to reach out to women, maybe just making sure that those currently serving don’t get harassed and humiliated because of their gender would be a better start (yeah, I’m talking about the recent and utterly disgusting photo mess).
  
• This piece on ballpoint pens is seriously far more interesting than it has any right to be.

Put a Cape On It!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love me a good cape!

cape: ModCloth / pants: Thyme Maternity / boots: Aldo / ring: House of Harlow / sunglasses: Banana Republic

Things I Won't Be Missing About Pregnancy

You know what I will not miss about being pregnant? It’s a pretty long list but appointments with my ob-gyn are pretty near the top. Understandably you’re working around their schedule (which by necessity is determined by when their patients go into labour and how long that labour lasts) but the result is that you have little to no say in when your appointments are scheduled and then you typically hang about in the waiting room for hours waiting to be seen. And, for all that, the appointment itself (unless your weigh in, preeclamypsia test, or blood pressure are "off," or the doctor wants to do a cervix check) lasts for 10 minutes! I guess the upshot is that I’m getting a lot of reading done…

pants: Thyme Maternity / shirt: Winners / shoes: Aldo / jacket: H&M / necklace: Stella and Dot / sunglasses: Aldo

All the Frills: Pregnancy Portraits (It's Not What You Think)

So one of the sections of my forthcoming book on honor among the early modern English elite deals with so-called pregnancy portraits – this relatively new development in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century portraiture in which elite women commissioned portraits of themselves while visibly, heavily pregnant. Basically I argue that they see these visual displays of their fecundity as connected to their honor - although it's a bit more nuanced than that, of course.

I still think there’s a lot of truth in that, but now that I’m pregnant myself I also have an appreciation for how, just on a purely corporeal level, pregnancy and all the wacky things it does to your body sort of makes you want to weirdly commemorate it. It truly is an odd experience. I feel both more connected to my body than ever before but also, paradoxically, very separated from it. It is something almost unrecognizable to myself now - something new and different and generative. It's also a very public thing now. I think as women we all accept from a very young age (unfortunately) that our bodies are always, to a degree, public things (certainly more so than men). People will observe our bodies, they will comment on them, they will judge them, they will sometimes think they are entitled to have uninvited physical proximity and/or access to them. But pregnancy adds a new element to this for me because the very inner, very private workings of my femaleness are now on display in a palpable way (not to mention the few times people have tried to touch my stomach and damn near lost a hand). What my biologically female body is capable of is unambiguously on display for all the world to glimpse. It's a very unnerving realization, to be honest.

Anyways, tangent over (sorry!) but here are two of the early modern pregnancy portraits that I consider in the book.

Weekend Reading:

• Oft touted stats about how long you could reasonably wait to try to have a family always used to terrify me…until about two years ago when I read about how they were mostly based on French demographic information from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
  
• Jesus Christ, what is happening at this school? This is horrific.
  
• The various “prohibitions” placed on what pregnant women can eat, drink, etc when pregnant are just a minefield. I’ve spent an insane amount of my pregnancy navigating them and doing my own research (rather than just trusting in the tyrannical “wisdom” of books like What to Expect When You’re Expecting)…thankfully the silly stance on limiting fish was not something I listened to.
  
• This article about the archaeology of the dead (well, really about different historical burial practices related to stopping the “restless” dead) is pretty fascinating.
  
• Aliens is seriously my favourite series of movies of all time. And it totally is a feminist franchise.

The Panic Of An Impending Deadline Sets In

Now that I’m getting into my final weeks of pregnancy, I’ve entered full panic mode trying to wrap up some outstanding work before the baby comes. Top of the list right now is trying to get through a pile of about 10 books I’ve been sitting on, waiting to read. They’re mostly related to early modern history which means I don’t just read them, I also log them in a reading list and take detailed notes on them. I do this in case I want to use them for a project or something one day…so reading through all of them is actually a bit of a task and occupies a lot of my time. Gotta keep pushing on it though because time is seriously of the essence.

leggings: Motherhood / cardigan: ModCloth / necklace: Stella and Dot / shoes: Toms

The Dress Investment

We’ve had some wet weather here recently so I was forced to bust out my rubber boots when I would have preferred to pair this dress (one of the three items of pricier maternity wear that I decided to splurge on – a good dress is always a good investment, right?).

In other news, I'm basically more or less just spending more of my time getting increasingly freaked out about my impending due date. I'm legit scared guys. I know I have no reason to be because my body knows what to do but, still...thank god I am working with a doctor I really like and, perhaps more importantly, an amazing, intuitive, and very calming doula. So I've got a good team...but I'm still scared! I'm not saying this in the interest of hearing platitudes (again, I 100% rationally am aware that it will all be fine and my body knows what it's doing); I just think it's important to acknowledge anxieties.

dress: Thyme Maternity / boots: Kamik / jacket: H&M / necklace: Stella and Dot

All the Frills: Rocking Chair

So when we were setting up our nursery we invested in one expensive piece of furnishing (literally everything else in the space is from IKEA, a friend, or was purchased used) – a rocking chair. My logic was that I will be spending a lot of time in that chair and that, once we no longer need it regularly for the baby, we can move it into our den and just have it as a regular, comfy chair to curl up in. Acting on that logic, I invested in this gorgeous, reclining, sea foam green number that finally got delivered (I bought it over two months ago)!

Weekend Reading:

• The sea is such a magical place!
  
• I would LOVE to go to this exhibit.
  
• Am I pretentious for frequently making use of semicolons in my writing? Maybe. But I have no intention of stopping.
  
• Tiny (and adorable) shops and restaurants for mice!
  
• Someone rounded up all the various fake magazine covers from The Simpsons over the years.