We share a lot of life moments with our viewing audience, and my current pregnancy is something I’ve gotten to share with you over the last few months.
It’s so exciting to announce you are pregnant to friends and family, let alone to those who watch me at home. It’s a very happy experience filled with lots of kind messages and well wishes.
But then you start to get bigger…
Pregnancy can really become a very revealing time when you work in front of the camera and in the public eye. The bumps and lumps on your body are changing daily. Everything is growing and expanding.
And the camera is there to capture all of it, magnify it and make it look worse than you'd like. Feedback is inevitable whether you want it or not.
Dressing for TV each day is a task in itself. Does this still zip? Can I make this work? Is this dress pulling in the wrong places?
Sometimes it's not until you see it in front of the camera that you realize how bad a certain piece of clothing looks. Those dresses don't get worn again!
Did I mention that none of this is cheap?
Maternity clothing options are pretty limited. It's either black or some crazy print I would never pick. So I tried to buy up a size or two in dresses over the winter, especially since dresses with sleeves were available. Dresses that had stretch were key so I could grow into my wardrobe as the baby grew. It's working well for now.
Jennifer's growing bump
Despite the pitfalls of dressing for TV while pregnant, so many of you have been so supportive as this little boy grows. I can't thank you enough for that. I've only received a few emails I wish I hadn't read.
As I mentioned above, feedback is part of the job and is made incredibly easy with email and social media. It has also made it very easy for some of you to send some very kind words of encouragement. The happy messages are the ones I choose to focus on!
But it's not just pregnant ladies on TV that get feedback they'd rather not hear.
Any mom out there has likely heard a comment that rubbed them the wrong way when they were pregnant. So I polled some of the moms in my life, including more female meteorologists, to get the following things to AVOID:
- You look like you could pop any day! (You could be saying this to a woman with numerous weeks -- or even months -- to go)
- Be careful you don't gain too much weight. (Does any woman ever need to hear that?)
- Your bump looks so much bigger on TV. (Yep, that's our enemy the camera again.)
- Why must you stand in front of my town on the map? (Because I have to stand somewhere.)
- Can you please not wear dresses that hug your belly? (I can't wear a tent, so at some point, you are going to notice where the bump is.)
- Anything to do with the belly button sticking out.
- Was it planned? Were you trying?
- You look so tired today. (I'm tired every day.)
I will say: I've only gotten some of those comments. I typically try to make light of it or just not answer.
I want to finish by saying I'm human. And I'm also growing a human.
I'm going to make a wardrobe choice that you may not like or not approve of in the remaining 11 weeks of my pregnancy.
And the bump is still going to get a LOT bigger. How big? Enough to cover up your town (or more) accidentally on the weather map.
But I'll do my best to focus on giving you an accurate forecast. But if possible, if the email you are about to send is only going to make me feel bad about my body, please don't hit send. I'm trying my best and I know my wardrobe has flaws.
Until then, here's to growing and hopefully "glowing" on TV! Thank you again for your support in the process.
