Maternity Clothing Wrap-Up

Warning: If you are a man, you probably will have zero interest in this post. I'll have to get Matt to post something to balance out this one :)

Maternity clothes have come a long way since our mothers were gestating, but I would still call them a necessary evil. The day after we found out we were pregnant, my clothes started getting tight. Now in the first three months, I only gained the typical 3-5 pounds, but everything started moving around quickly. By the time I was 12 weeks along, I was not wearing anything that I wore pre-pregnancy. So not only was I trying to find clothing that fit, but I was trying to find clothing that did not look maternity since I had not told any of my coworkers yet. That paired with the fact that anything with a waistband made me feel like vomiting made getting dressed in the morning particularly challenging.

Madison does not have a huge selection of maternity stores. We have Motherhood Maternity, Target, JC Penny, Kohl's, and a Mimi in our Macy's. I have also ordered clothing online from the Gap and Old Navy. I have purchased most of my clothes from Mimi, Gap, and Target, and I have made limited purchases from Motherhood and Old Navy. I only purchased stuff from Old Navy once. Everything showed significant wear after the first washing, so I quit buying from them. Motherhood's clothes are ok, but the quality is not the same as I would normally prefer. If you are looking for good inexpensive clothing, Target is best. I've been happy with Gap and Mimi's clothes for work and social outings. I find that in general maternity clothing tends to wear out rather quickly. I'm amazed that I've actually worn out a bunch of clothes that I've only worn for a few months.

Now, since I was in maternity clothes so early, I purchased a bunch of the expanding waistband or below the belly pants. These were great for the first and second trimesters. Around the end of the sixth month, I needed a whole new batch of maternity clothes. Now I need the pants with the bellys. One thing to pay attention to with the bellys is the stretchiness of the seam between the panel and the pants. I have more than one pair of pants that fit above and below the seam, but the seam itself is so unbearably uncomfortable, I can only stand the pants for a limited amount of time. Then again, wearing anything for an extended period of time is unbearable.

I was thinking that I could comment on the clothing now that I only have 9 weeks left, but I've noticed some shirts feeling a bit short these days. Wearing tank tops under the shirts and sweaters has been a pretty good solution so far. Hopefully, I'm already an expert on the topic and won't need to learn too much more before the baby comes ;)