Hello again, Readers! Hopefully, there are still a few of you left.

This is Leah writing with a life update. All the Hourglassy writers have had some major life changes in the past couple years, which explains why we’ve been so quiet over here. Thank goodness Jen has come through with some new posts, so it hasn’t been completely silent!

In short, all three of us made pretty major moves from New York City to Florida, Germany (!!), and upstate New York.

Here’s where I came from:

And where I am now in upstate New York:

If there’s been one silver lining to the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s definitely been the new work-from-home lifestyle. My husband and I had wanted to move out of the city for years, but always thought we’d have to stay relatively close so we could commute in for work. That would’ve meant staying on the Metro-North train line in Hudson Valley, the lower Catskills region, or lower Connecticut—all very expensive places for home-buying with minimal open land. And part of the desire to get out of the city was to experience a lower cost of living and have land and open space.

But since we both switched to full-time work-from-home, our options completely opened up. As of last August, we’re now a 3.5-hour drive from NYC and have a house on 6.7 acres of land surrounded by corn farms and rolling hills. It’s definitely not the most cosmopolitan area (there are literally no decent restaurants), but we go into NYC often enough for work, family visits, or medical appointments that we can still get our fix of fine dining.

Speaking of medical, the even bigger news (and perhaps a little more relevant to Hourglassy readers) is that I’m pregnant! Not knowing for sure whether we wanted kids and certainly not being interested in raising them in NYC, the husband and I froze embryos back in 2021. Then when our move out of the city happened sooner than expected, we started implantation efforts only a year later.

I had grand plans of writing about the process here and then doing a whole series of reviews on maternity wear, but it took three tries to get an implanted embryo to stick, so I lost any desire to write about what we were going through. (Condensed story: The first embryo stuck, but stopped growing after 3-4 weeks and simply dissolved, the second one just didn’t stick at all and I got my period a week later.)

Now that I’ve successfully made it through the first trimester and everything is looking healthy and well-developed, I’m excited to get back into writing! Within just two weeks of the successful implantation, my boobs grew two full cup sizes—from UK 30G to 30H. I immediately bought some new bras (reviews to come) and packed away my old ones.

My former bra & swimwear collection.

My current bra & swimwear collection.

I also reorganized my closet to move all the clothes that don’t fit my bust any more to the back—which is about 75% of them! Jumping up from G cups has really affected my clothing options. It gives me a new appreciation and sympathy for women who are even fuller bust than I was.

I just purchased my first official maternity clothes this week—a couple of jersey dresses from Mother Bee Maternity and some second-hand jersey dresses from Poshmark that are brands carried on Amazon. None have arrived in the mail yet, so expect those reviews in the coming weeks. But I will say this—if the size charts are to be believed, maternity clothing is even worse in the bust than normal clothes! Most fit advice says to purchase the same pre-pregnancy size for your maternity clothes, but I’ve browsed multiple maternity brands that list a 40-inch bust as size XXL. Uh, what??? Most straight-size charts list 38 inches as size medium. It’s like these brands (and the attendant advice) don’t consider the fact that breasts grow during pregnancy too, not just your belly! Guess I’ll be focusing on retailers that offer a free returns & exchanges policy for any further purchases.