My dearest maternity pants,

Where to even start? You have changed my life is so many ways and I become overwhelmed when I think about just how very much I love you. But I want you to know just what you mean to me, so here's my best attempt.

When I began to get my baby bump, I was foolish and believed the rubber band trick to extend the button was "the best thing ever". Now don't get me wrong, it was good, but it didn't support me the way you did. I was able to avoid what I then thought to be the beginning of the end-it starts with maternity jeans and ends with me wearing nothing but mom jeans in just a few short years that make my butt look ginormous and tell the world that I have given up completely (ps. none of my super cool mom friends have done this, they are all way cute, I just have a fear of me going down that dark road).

Then one fateful morning I woke up and the only pants that fit were a pair of drawstrings capris from high school. To say they were ugly would be putting it lightly. Low and behold my parents were coming to visit that very day. So after my mom rubbed my belly and squealed a few (again, putting it lightly) times we got ourselves to the mall for what seems eerily similar to some kind of rite of passage, it was like we were shopping for my first bra all over again. I tried on a lot of pants and decided that having some nylon panel cover my belly when I am ginormous and dying of our south Texas heat wouldn't be a good option. But then my match-maker of a mom found you.

The second I pulled you on, well, it was love at first wear. You showed me that I could still be cute and pregnant at the same time. That was four days ago and I have worn you every day since. I also learned from you what a complete nuisance buttons and zippers are! I am literally going to save dozens of minutes in my lifetime no longer buttoning and unbuttoning the 25 times a day I have to pee. Our first night out together we went to Chuy's. I ate more Mexican food than I had ever eaten in my life (and that's saying something!) because I didn't have that pesky waistband to remind me that three baskets of chips plus queso might not be a good ideas. You are so comfortable, oh-so stretchy, and well perfect. I hope you are ready for the next 25 weeks because I have big plans for you and I. Thank you for being making the bottom half of my body and the whole part of my heart feel so good.

Yours forever (or at least till I start getting weird looks for wearing maternity jeans and not being pregnant anymore),

Ashley Luksys