Welcome to the mother's world

Wore the ‘uniform’ for the first time at work today and caught some attention for it. I’m nearing my seventh month and this morning was the first time my colleagues saw me in a maternity dress. It’s a typical dress - ankle length, long sleeved, one piece with some frills above the abdomen area. I must admit that it was quite difficult to find a ready-made dress that suits me since apparently affordable long sleeved, full length maternity dresses that could fit a 5’5” person are not that easily available. I bought two pairs earlier – but I found them to be a bit senteng, so I feel a bit reluctant to wear them to the office.

However, yesterday I was in luck as I found two nice pairs (similar patterns in different colours) that suit me well in Nilai 3. I don’t shop in Nilai 3 all that often, but I was in Bandar Seri Putra so I thought I might as well try looking in the nearby Nilai 3. Actually, right after work yesterday, I went to Bandar Seri Putra to bid my farewell & bon voyage to Masni and her husband Ayie before their departure to UK. Ayie is going to pursue his PhD in Cardiff – Masni’s former university. Masni has been one of my closest buddies since high school and we’ve always kept in touch all these years, so I really did not want to miss saying good bye this time around. I’ve known her whole family too and was pleased to meet them at Masni’s place as well as to sample her mother’s cooking. Since I missed lunch and was really famished by the time I arrived there, I was delighted to be served with all sort of nice food – bihun goreng, rice with assorted lauks, cucur peneram and nice preserved mangoes and buah kuini for dessert. Well, I supposed we all know how pregnant mothers can get excited about all these jeruk stuff, kan?

After bidding proper good bye - hugs, pats on tummy and all - I then moved on to Nilai 3. I went there with my 19-year old cousin Firdhaus, who acted as my consultant, as we went shop-hopping, looking for suitable wear. I liked some of the two-pieces on sale, however since they were mostly pants ( which I could not wear to work) and the skirts were short, I had no choice but to limit my selection on the one-piece long dresses. It was rather frustrating to note that the nicer ones always came in unsuitable designs for me – either they were short or ¾ sleeved or they were knee length. But then again, since I don’t feel like getting my maternity dress tailor-made, I have to settle for what’s available off the rack, so I made my two new purchases albeit accepting that they were a bit short on the back. Bought some loose blouses too, that can be paired with some pants or skirts. At least I can alternate between wearing the dresses and some blouses.

So, I wore my new dress this morning, peach coloured with a matching tudung.

Saliah, my colleague who had been insisting on me wearing the ‘uniform’ seemed really thrilled to finally see me in it and even asked me to parade it in front of her. So did Raihan, another mak buyung who’s in her eight month but had started wearing her ‘uniform’ a couple of months ago. Even my next door neighbour Mohana, who’s still recovering from some fever, could not help herself commenting on how obviously pregnant I look in the ‘uniform’ (all these while, they have been commenting on how small my bump is). Well, who could help but grinning at all those comments, huh?

I guess, putting on the maternity dress for the first time at work could be quite a memorable experience – especially when one receives a comment like I did from Kak Wan, a senior officer, as we passed each other in the pantry this morning;

“Welcome to the mother’s world”