I can’t find maternity clothes anywhere. I have been looking for over two weeks now and have so far determined that babies in southeast Virginia must be delivered by storks.  How else to explain the fact that maternity clothes are as rare as rainbows around here.  So far, I have tried Old Navy, Target, JCPenney, Dillard’s and even Sears.  I was willing to skip the department stores and hit the maternity stores except the Motherhood Maternity in the mall I shop at most frequently has closed.  Seriously.  A three-story mall that has not one single maternity store but has no fewer than four stores dedicated to babies and toddlers.  Unbelievable.

Only one local Old Navy has a maternity section and it consists of a few racks of stretchy pants that look more like workout gear than anything I’d wear in public, a few pairs of maternity jeans with that ridiculous band at the top (no under the waist jeans) and a few tops that don’t look any more maternity than anything else in their store.  I found exactly three racks of maternity clothes at Target and the only thing that wasn’t hideous were the maternity tanks.  So I now own one maternity tank top to wear under the non-maternity tops I own (which came from Old Navy, actually).  JCPenney and Sears had a few measly racks of picked-over clothes in bad styles and patterns.  Dillard’s doesn’t even have a maternity section.

I still haven’t checked Macy’s and a store search revealed there are a couple of local Motherhood Maternity stores, including an outlet in Williamsburg.  There are a few “maternity boutiques” in Virginia Beach, which means over-priced clothes in sizes I can’t wear.  There is always the mail order option and I have thrown a bunch of stuff into shopping carts at Old Navy/The Gap and Motherhood. But I hate mail order-- nothing ever fits and I end up returning things and paying postage.  I’d much rather have the option to try things on and take them home now rather than having to wait a week to find out I need a different size/style.

I’m glad I started hunting for maternity clothes early.  I am still squeezing into a few pairs of pants and most of my tops fit fine, but I’m not more than a week or so away from absolutely needing maternity pants.  I hate having to buy clothes I’m only going to wear for a few months-- especially since I’m going to go from summer to fall/winter maternity clothes, but wearing yoga pants or sweats in public is just not an option. 

Of all the possible complications of pregnancy I might have imagined before I got pregnant, I never thought finding maternity clothes would be one of them.  Sigh.

Posted by Kristina in Pregnancy and Baby in Pregnancy 2009 at 05:43 PM Permalink