Day 3: Confession #3 (maternity clothes)

Alright, so your beautiful bean is growing and growing at the same rate as your boobs, so it is time to maybe think about purchasing some maternity clothes, and some new bras.  If you are looking to wear your pre-pregnancy jeans for as long as you can, good luck. The only people who can wear the “Bella Band” or similar products have to have hips. Me, I do not. I am a straight up and down kind of gal (well, on the lower-half of me anyway) so don’t waste your money on one if you are at all like me. Hipsters, will SWEAR by them though. With my first, I was still a career women, so sweat pants were not an option (let’s get real, I wouldn’t be caught dead in sweat pants), but you get the gist. I went to Mimi Maternity (now Pea in the Pod) to get some basics to get me through pregnancy, and not only was I shocked at the sticker prices, but what the heck size was I to buy? Say goodbye to your size 6’s (don’t I wish). Now, for the next 10+ months, you will categorized as a small, medium or large. Lovely, I know. We might as well be shopping in gift shops from now on. Don’t be fooled into thinking you will be a size small in the early part of your pregnancy and a large at 40 weeks either. Everyone is different, and some freakishly lucky biotches stay the same size throughout (yeah, you!)…I did not. This being said, go to thrift stores for maternity clothes, all clothes for that matter (for thrifting tips read this). Again, wish someone had told me that earlier. With my second, I barely even needed maternity clothes (more on that tomorrow), so keep that in mind too before breaking the bank on designer maternity jeans. I ended up getting some amazing designer maternity clothes at Thrift Town, the ones I did buy. Obviously you can buy everything secondhand all the time, so Target, Old-Navy and Gap were high on my radar too. On sale, you can get some really good deals. Just be practical and realistic when shopping. You truly don’t need a maternity skinny jean in every color.

As for bra’s…go get measured at Nordstrom’s, not Victoria’s Secret (VS). Did you know that VS will only measure you to their sizes? For those of you who know me (and my mother) well, know that we are HUGE fans of VS, especially their pajama’s, so I was a little irked to find out they had been measuring me wrong for years. According to them, I was either a 34-DD or a 38-D? Well, that is because they only sell bras to 38 D’s. So needless to say, I was shocked to find out this little secret that Victoria had been keeping, from the Nordstrom bra staff. It turns out, I was actually a 34 F. Yep, who knew bra sizes even went that high. Well, friends…it does. It goes very high up the alphabet. By the time my milk had arrived, I was a G pushing an H. The cup literally was as big as my head, and lord knows I have a big one (circumference wise, of course). Please get properly fitted for a bra at a proper place, and go AFTER your milk comes in for a good maternity bra (assuming you plan to breastfeed) before spending beaucoup bucks on a bra (mine were $75 a pop). Keep in mind though that it takes a few weeks for your milk to regulate itself. You will be VERY engorged in the beginning until they connect with your babies feeding needs. I promise, they will not be watermelons for long, maybe just cantaloupes. Bon appetite!

Hope this helps. To read more about “the things you wish someone told you about pregnancy and motherhood” click here.

Advertisement