A shocking turn of events

Guess what I bought from Target last week?

Wait for it....

A maternity bathing suit.

!!!!!!!

I hate bathing suit shopping. Really, I despise it. (Jeans shopping is a close second for me, but that's more frustrating than it is traumatizing). I declared early on in this pregnancy that under no circumstances would I be buying a maternity bathing suit. If I hate regular bathing suit shopping so much, I couldn't even imagine the horror that would be involved with me and a pile of maternity suits.

Then it got hot. It's Arizona, and it's almost July, so it's not like this is all that surprising. But you almost forget how hot it gets. And how hot it stays, 24/7. There is something sickening about watching the 9 or 10 p.m. news and seeing the ticker at the bottom of the screen that says it's still 102 degrees outside. That's just not right.

I kept fantasizing about swimming. Imaging how nice it would be to feel weightless. One of my co-workers told me how his wife, who was pregnant during the summer years ago, calls this "hippo season," because she spent most of that July lurking in swimming pools up to her nose. That made me laugh... and then it made me jealous. I want to do that, dang it!

But the thought of putting on my pre-pregnancy bikini was just too much to handle. Even if it somehow fit, I'd have to wear something over it (my neighbors do not need to see my huge pregnant belly, thankyouverymuch), and I imagined that would be the complete opposite of comfortable. And comfort is what I'm going for right now.

So when I found myself at Target last week, I decided to just breeze by the maternity clothes and take a quick peek at the suits, certain that they would either be 1. sold out (people snatch up the best bathing suits in, like, April out here), 2. ugly, or 3. not the right size or style. But I actually found one that looked like it had some promise. I had a few other things to try on anyway, so I made a deal with myself. I would try on one bathing suit. If it made me yell out "uuuuggghhhhh," then I would move on, never try on another one and just live with a summer of dangling my legs in the pool. At least I will know that I had sort of tried.

Imagine my shock, when I put the thing on and it fit... and it was kind of... (dare I say it?)... cute! Unprecedented, people. It has restored my faith in bathing suits. Here it is (on a model, who doesn't look all that pregnant to me, but you get the idea):

I think I'm going to try it out tonight. Happy Hippo Season!