To Maternity or Not To Maternity?

Here's a nice silly dilemma for a Monday morning. Should I be wearing maternity tops? I am now 20 weeks along, but due to my already rotund shape, I'm not really showing at all. All of my usual, non-maternity tops still fit me comfortably, and I have no expectation that they'll ever stop fitting. When I was pregnant with M, I never actually had to switch to maternity tops, and remained in my standard V-neck t-shirts the entire time.

This time around, I again have one maternity top, and I actually have worn it. Not coincidentally, it was while I was wearing this shirt that I was actually pegged by a stranger as being pregnant. When I'm in my normal clothes, people offer me alcohol.

I kind of like the idea that when I wear certain clothes, people can actually tell I'm pregnant. But my cheap little heart rebells at the idea of buying clothes I don't really need, especially since maternity clothing isn't inexpensive. I have no doubt that, like last time, I can make it through this pregnancy with the clothes I already own.

But then there's this little anecdote from late in my pregnancy with M. I was about 34 weeks along, and The Boy and I went to our prenatal education classes. I was, as usual, wearing a normal v-neck T and my brand-new maternity jeans. As we left the hospital the first day, The Boy noted wistfully how nice many of the women looked. They were, of course, all skinnier than I am/was, and were all wearing cute little maternity tops. I know that The Boy didn't mean anything by his comment (and in fact, he has no memory of the incident at all), but it stayed with me. I always assume that how I look is way less important to The Boy than what I spend (or don't spend). That comment, however, has had me thinking. Maybe it's worth a little money to look a little nicer?