Pregnancy Hiding

At 15 weeks pregnant, I sent a picture of my stomach to my sisters. "How are you hiding that?!" asked one. "Why are you hiding that?!" asked her roommate. The why's are many and complicated, an explanation I don't have time for. Mostly, though, it was on a whim. In college art classes, we spent a lot of time learning how the eye perceives things, and I was pretty confident I could manipulate my appearance easily enough to keep anyone from noticing my bump till week 20 (the halfway point). I got bored with it, though, and decided to tell family around 16 weeks instead. That was before I hit any sort of challenge. I did, however, promise my sister I'd take some "hiding photos" for her to compare to the belly shot.

Here's #1. I lucked out because looser tops and tighter bottoms have been in lately. (I'm not posing, just hiding my crazy bedtime hair!)                                   

 Here's photo #2. This time, a tunic top with leggings. If you notice, I'm not standing at a straight horizontal. That helps. People don't notice your tummy quite as much as you do when you're standing horizontal to your mirror. Also, there's a bright scarf. I also have some chunky wooden necklaces that are very distracting.

 I wanted to add that when trying to show off the belly, one should simply place a hand on top...

 ...or below the tummy, preferably both.

 And here's the last one. A less than flowy skirt with a loose T-shirt above it.

I could always have thrown on a hoodie for a quick cover-up. And black always would make it look smaller, while hiding shadows of a belly curve. I never had to use any drastic distraction measures, like bright lipstick or a hat. Usually, having a cute toddler on my hip was enough for everyone.

Oh! And before I took all those other photos, here is the one I sent to my sisters:

(Excuse the mess.)

I wanted to point out what visual manipulations I used on this picture. It's a tight shirt. The horizontal stripes draw attention to the curve, and most importantly: It was in the evening after dinner. Besides a uterus, there's also a stomach in there, digesting some food. When you're past the point of holding it all in, you've gotta pay attention to the little things.