Maternity Clothes = BROKE

I finally had to bite to the bullet and fork over some dough for maternity clothes. Two days shy of 15 weeks; I was bursting at the seams. I already popped most of the buttons on my work clothes, and putting on my jeans felt like I was trying to stuff a sausage. Part of me was really looking forward to the experience of shopping for clothes that would flatter and show off my changing figure, and the other part of me was certainly NOT looking forward to the cost of adding pieces to my wardrobe that would only work for the next few months.

I decided quite early on that looking and feeling good throughout my pregnancy was very important to me. (Who wouldn’t want to look and feel good right?)

I’m very practical, so I had to come up with a plan to balance the cost of looking and feeling good, and working with my clothing budget. Thankfully, a good friend of mine who has already been through the whole maternity clothing and pregnancy (and who just so happens to be one of the most fashionable dressers I have ever seen) was able to join me to help me pick pieces that looked good as well as were functional.

We met at Thyme Maternity last night. Thank goodness my friend was with me. There was soooo many different styles of pants to choose from. Low rise, classic, 3-in-one, now and after’s ….soo much to learn.
I tried on pretty much every pair of pants in the store. There were definitely styles that were more flattering than others, and thank god my friend was there to help me out on that front. After about 99 pairs of pants, your image starts to get distorted…because you just really want the next pair of pants to look good. That started happening to me. I came out of the change room with a pair of pants that were a few millimeters of material short of MC Hammer style pants. Starting to get frustrated, I exclaimed to my friend “What do you think? These aren’t so bad are they?” Being the ever so polite and diplomatic person that she is, she just smiled and said “They don’t seem like you style”. Taking another look in the mirror, I realized how right she was. I immediately burst out laughing and thanked her for her tactfulness and not just telling me they were FAT pants! The best maternity shopping advice I can give is to make sure you bring a trustworthy friend to give you the honest lowdown on how you look!

I decided I liked the “Banded” style of pants with a 2 ½ inch elastic band. They fit really well, were super comfortable and I could totally wear them after I gave birth while working off the pregnancy pounds. I doubt they will take me up until the 9th month, but like I said earlier, I went into this knowing I wanted to look and feel good, and if that meant I might need a few more items later on my pregnancy, so be it. I refused to wear something that was ten sized too big for the sake of saving a couple of bucks.

That theory might totally go out the window if I balloon so big in the next couple of weeks and don’t fit into my pants anymore, but live and learn right? Ces la vie!