Fall jeans or stretchy pants 4ever?

It's that wonderful time of year again when you pack away your Capri's and bring out your fave full length denim. But for me, that means 95% of my pants closet doesn't fit. Each day my black 3 length TNA stretchy pants battle it out with my black 4 length TNA stretchy pants. Ahhh! visions of my mom in 1988 keep popping into my head. You know the look - big baggy sweater, stretchy pants, perm and keds. My mom was Über stylish back in the '80s. I'm being serious, she was a hot single mama. But, do I really want to repeat that vision for Madelyn?

Last year I was only able to enjoy my fall denim ritual for about 6 weeks before my belly started to grow. I was able to use a BellaBand for the rest of the season, but that wasn't the same comfy fit of my jeans hugging my body. I was constantly worrying about my open fly being visible when the band would ride up, and I'm pretty sure that did happen one fall afternoon in Walmart. How embarrassing!

You hear all postpartum moms talking about it: "I'm NOT going to invest in the next size", "If I work out a few times a week I'll get back into my pre-pregnancy size", "I'm going to wait it out".  I started thinking about it hard this week. I actually really like my postpartum bod. Sure, I'm a couple sizes up, but who cares, I had a beautiful baby.

The thing I'm most torn up about is that my denim is a collection I've acquired over years of faves. Each pair has memories. Each pair works with a different look. What am I supposed to do? Retire them all to my bin in the basement labelled, "Cool retro jeans for Madelyn"; which is like the land of misfit toys as my daughter is in the 90th percentile for height and I'm a petite 5.3?

I guess as I near the end of this post I'm still undecided. I seriously do need to get off stretchy pants, at least take a break a couple times a week. But my heart is still torn for my old faves. Today, we have a play date at Yorkdale. Maybe if I'm feeling up to it I'll check out some new potentials while Mads has a stroller nap. Who would I really be cheating on anyway?