I shop a lot of used stores and most trips are not particularly memorable. I go in, I browse the racks, I try on dozens of articles of clothing and purchase less than 10% of what I try on (yes, I calculated that once – I think I purchased 9 of 140 or so items tried on.)
But this trip was memorable because I found this gorgeous shirt.
It was a lovely teal satin button down shirt. The moment I put it on, I felt like a queen.
It. fit. my bust. When I spread my arms wide, the buttons in front didn’t gape. I was sold. It was sold to me.
I got it home and put it on and discovered what I hadn’t noticed in my wonder in the dressing room.
The front was at least ten inches longer than the back.
Yep, I’d just bought a maternity blouse.
I wore it anyway, long tailed bodice tucked into a skirt or slacks. I couldn’t pass up something that fit my bust so beautifully.
But alas, somewhere along the line, I lost contact with that lovely shirt – either I gave it away or… I don’t know what happened to it.
While we were in the pregnancy planning stage, I took a look at my wardrobe and decided that we didn’t need to budget too much for maternity clothing. I wear mostly dresses and skirts with knit shirts – and most of my dresses have extra give around the waist.
I figured I could wear pretty much everything I already own for the first trimester, gradually decreasing my options down to the jersey knit dresses by the second trimester. Then I can make myself a belly band and buy some bigger t-shirts to go with my elastic waist skirts for the third trimester.
What I didn’t count on was the non-belly changes.
I’d been holding off buying bras, expecting that my breasts would be changing as the end of pregnancy drew near. It didn’t seem appropriate to buy new bras if I knew I was going to have to buy still more in different sizes within a few months. So I was making do with majorly stretched out brassieres.
Then I got pregnant. Within a week of finding out, my breasts were so tender I knew I couldn’t hold out any longer. I needed better support.
I went to get fitted and walked out stunned. Two cup sizes in the first month of pregnancy. What on earth! I wasn’t expecting that until the third trimester when my body’d be ramping up for breastfeeding.
My grand plan for not purchasing maternity clothes started to fade as I tried on one dress after another before finally finding one that didn’t squish my breasts into a giant sausage extending from shoulder to navel.
My new plan is to make myself a knit maxi dress that I’ll just wear every single day for the rest of pregnancy.
Did you have any surprising body changes during pregnancy? What did you do wardrobe-wise while you were pregnant?
I can typically stay in non-maternity shirts through my first trimester, but I switch to maternity jeans/skirts almost as soon as I find out I’m pregnant.
With my first pregnancy, I had lots of hand-me-downs from my sister and friends so I wore primarily maternity clothes. With my second pregnancy, I found myself pregnant in winter (versus summer with my first) so I purchased more maternity clothes. For that pregnancy, I bought some non-maternity shirts just a size larger than I normally wear. That lasted me through most of my pregnancy, but towards the end I just wore maternity.
Before getting pregnant, I always take care with how I look. I was surprised that when I got pregnant that changed a bit. When pregnant, comfort takes precedence over looking cute. Of course, I prefer to be both comfortable and cute, but quite honestly it wasn’t always possible. Comfort always won out in those situations. :)
I expand at the waist at a RAPID (and, frankly, unbelievable) rate. And the end of the second pregnancy, I literally could not leave the house because the only thing that didn’t even fit all of the way was a men’s extra large t-shirt that wouldn’t close the gap between my stomach and pant line. I wore that shirt night and day and then to the hospital. :D CRAZY!