Maternity Clothing: Lesson Learned

Here at Red Stick Mom, we offer dozens of ideas from diverse perspectives in our mom hacks, tips and tricks category. From taking road trips from Baton Rouge to meatless meals to natural cold remedies, we’ve written about it. We are here to help everyone as we navigate through this wild ride through motherhood.

A lesson I learned about maternity clothing.

I am currently six-and-a-half-months pregnant with my first baby. I couldn’t wait until I started showing, going around telling my mother, my sister, my friends, “I think I’m showing, don’t I look like I’m showing?” To which they would kindly inform me that no, I didn’t really look pregnant yet; and it was all in my crazy head. I just couldn’t wait to experience having a bump, and I couldn’t wait to dress it! I’m not going to lie: I spent quite a bit of time in the beginning imagining what I would look like with a belly, swearing that I wouldn’t resort to sweats and leggings, and that I would be a “cute” pregnant lady.

How have I done? Well, I don’t know how cute I’ve looked, but I think I’ve done a pretty decent job of picking some clothes that looked okay on me. I have definitely had my days in leggings, especially once the weather started cooling and my baby started growing more rapidly. But I think overall, I’ve done pretty well so far dressing myself. But in order to do that, I had to venture out into the wonderful world of maternity clothing. Here’s what I’ve learned so far:

1. Maternity clothes can be expensive.  I have been to many maternity clothing stores and bought a few things. I found that most are overpriced for my budget. I have shopped mostly at Target and Old Navy online and have been pretty lucky so far with how they fit taking into account their reasonable prices. Target carries a few maternity items in the stores, but I have not really found many in store at Old Navy. I try to wait for sales and then stock up.
2. Despite their prices, they don’t always hold up so well: Not to bash some of these designer brand maternity clothing stores too hard, but a few of the pieces I have gotten from them started to show some wear after I wore them a couple of times. Interestingly, I have had more luck with the less expensive brands.
3. You’ll grow out of them faster than you think: I remember when I ordered a pair of jeans online with the low panel (the stretchy part that still sits below your belly button), thinking I could make that work for my whole pregnancy, or at least most of it. It’s stretchy right? But here’s the thing: as your belly grows, your waist and hips sort of disappear, and if your jeans don’t come up high enough they’ll start to slide right down. Then you end up feeling like you’re back in middle school wearing low rider jeans, worrying every time you sit down that you’re showing someone your business. Be prepared to switch to the full panel. Also, the shirts, while stretchy, can start to look a little tight as you grow. You start walking around feeling like you’re screaming: LOOK AT MY BELLY!!!! And as proud of your belly as you might be, it can make you feel a little conspicuous. So take a good look at how everything is looking before you leave the house – just because you fit in it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s still a good look.

I still have a few months to go, so I will post an update as I continue to grow. With the weather changing, I know I’ll need a few more things to make it to the end, and I’m already on the lookout for some cute fall/winter things!

What are your tips/tricks/thoughts on Maternity Fashion?