I love this dress! And the great thing about it is I think I may even be able to wear it now. I love that flowy, empire waste clothes are in fashion right now.
This skirt is just super practical and will be great for Spring and Summer.
This dress I also may be able to wear sooner rather than later. It's great cause it will work for all seasons. And I love the fun pattern instead of just plain black.
This skirt is just super practical and will be great for Spring and Summer.This dress I also may be able to wear sooner rather than later. It's great cause it will work for all seasons. And I love the fun pattern instead of just plain black.I may be a little ahead of the game here, but I've got to take advantage of the holidays, right? And since we're on the topic, what is your advice for maternity clothes, oh wise mothers of the blogosphere? I know I'll eventually need to get some jeans and pants for work, but I'm going to put that off as long as possible. What other items do you think are absolutely necessary?
Gaucho pants...a must! Skirts are wonderful b/c we have summer babies and are in the heat of it when we're huge. I found I could buy lots of normal clothes b/c the style is the empire waste look.
ReplyDeleteWhere in the world are you finding those darling dresses...please share. I love.
Rach, I put a link in the text for them. I'll bold it to make it more obvious. The first dress is from Old Navy and the skirt and second dress are from Gap. Each item was under $30!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely necessary? Uhh--nothing. (Child #1--we didn't have any money and I wore husband's clothes and t-shirts (luckily I don't ever get too huge)--kinda glad I don't have more than 1 or 2 pictures of me. I must've looked very frumpy.)
ReplyDeleteBUT...there are a lot of cute, FUN things! You need no help finding those. :)
so how come the maternity dresses at old navy are infinitely cuter than the regular ones? i desperately want to buy the exact same dress as you because a) it's adorable, b) it's super inexpensive, and c) we live on opposite sides of the country so it's ok if we accidentally wear it on the same day. except that d) i'm not pregnant, which kind of leaves me disinclined to purchase a maternity dress. such a dilemma...
ReplyDeleteI second gauchos. I had a bunch of them that I rotated every day with my last pregnancy. I SO wish they had been in style with #1! They're so, so cute with long flowy tops. And invest in about 10pairs of different styled flip flops. Cause come June and July it's all your poor little feet will fit into. It's hard to resist buying stuff now, isn't it? ;)
ReplyDeletejust speaking from a straight-out girls perspective, not as a mom or mom-to-be....
ReplyDeleteget things that you will feel super cute in. Because I'm thinking that feeling will be a rare commodity over the next 9 months. ;)
Jen, after the dress comes I'll let you know how "maternity-looking" it is. If it's not obvious, I say you should totally get it!
ReplyDeleteI agree, Gaucho pants a must-and SOOOOOO comfy!!!! A swimsuit if you plan on any relief. SANDALS, loose flip flops. (summer baby, right?!) I love that first dress especially.
ReplyDeleteAND, my friend recently posted this.
http://benandemy.blogspot.com/2007/11/attention-all-pregnant-women.html
I love the styles now too! The waists on my pants were the first to get tight, but I still wear normal pants most of the time with a hair elastic fastened around the button. But I did break down and buy a couple of nicer maternity pants. They're still kind of big, but they're okay rolled down.
ReplyDeleteAs for shirts, I haven't bought a "real" maternity one yet! I still fit into most of my bigger shirts (though they're getting tight), but I go to stores like Forever 21. They have so many cute options that aren't officially maternity but work just as well.
I love the maternity dresses you posted though--those are more of a "must," I think. I'm down to basically two things I can wear to church.
Sorry for the long comment! I have lots of opinions on this right now :)
Hmmm...I just didn't buy a ton of maternity clothes because I hated spending money on something I wasn't going to wear for very long. I wore most of my regular clothes. I think I went in to deliver both girls still wearing non-maternity jeans, as a matter of fact (and Rachel is right, the elastric trick will get you a LONG way!) but in terms of musts...for me, it was super cute pants, even though I said I wore my regular jeans, but anyway. I did have one pair of cropped jeans that were SO adorable that I tried to keep wearing them even after I had Jules, but it was sort of ridiculous because they kept falling down.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, if you're going to splurge on something, splurge on pants that you really feel gorgeous in. My faves were the Gap maternity pants, which were pretty pricy, but I felt like it was worth it to have one or two pairs that I really loved.
Also, maternity nylons are a crock, so don't bother with those. Invest the extra money in some really good nursing bras.
If I was going to say anything is absolutely necessary, way more than clothes, it's a good workout routine, because you will feel so much better about yourself when it's only your stomach getting big. :-) It's also nice to deliver and not be horribly surprised about all the excess flesh that was hiding out. I had one friend who used to "eat for two" by eating a huge breakfast, a Sam's Club muffin for a snack at 9, the lunch she'd packed at 10:30, then she'd go to the Cougareat for another lunch at 12...you get the idea. Anyway, sorry, I don't mean to go on forever, but a lot of pregnancy books tell you to eat whatever you want and quit working out, but I think that's the way to misery more than anything, because you really only need an extra 300 calories and you'll have a way easier time recovering if your body is in pretty good shape before you do all that (seriously hard!) work during labor.
but i digress. i'm sure you will be rapturously happy in your gorgeous new threads no matter what. :-)
oh, one thing that really IS essential--a good maternity camisole. Underneath your non-maternity buttondowns (even if you can only button one button) it will take you the whole 9 months! and I used to wear my buttondowns underneath one of my husband's sweaters...i didn't have to button all the buttons over my stomach, but i still looked reasonably professional.
ReplyDeleteand a good blazer. it will go over any number of nonmaternity shirts and you can just button the top button when you get the cute little bump. and don't get a maternity one, because then you can get a super cute one and not feel guilty about buying it because hey, you can still wear it later! Rachel used to have a burgundy corduroy one that i loved and thought would be so perfect for this style!
Thanks for all the advice! I really do agree that one should not buy tons of maternity stuff because you won't be wearing it that long. And I definitely plan on wearing normal clothes as much as I can. But that is why I love these dresses! I will be able to wear them more than just 2 months.
ReplyDeleteI also happen to have quite a few pairs of pants that are one size too big now from when I was a little chubbier, so I'm thinking those will come in handy too.
And I'm pretty sure I won't be needing nylons since it's gonna be freakin hot! Oh, and I already have nice blazers, so thanks for those tips, Rachael.
And Rachael, thanks for the working out motivation. I'm afraid I don't love it as much as you do, but I'll do my best to stay active! Lately, I've just been so stinkin tired!
trina, I felt like I went on a working out tirade. Sorry about that! :-) But I know a lot of the advice that I heard from friends & from some books was to just "focus on growing a baby and then exercise it all off afterwards." so I just wanted to throw my two cents in there! :-)
ReplyDeleteand can i tell you again how excited I am to see pictures of your (possibly) red-headed little tyke in another eight months or so? mini-katrina! exciting!
Rach, it's funny that you heard the opposite, because all I've read is how important it is to stay active and keep exercising when pregnant. And my doctor stressed the only 300 extra calories thing. She said just to spread my food out over the day instead of 3 large meals. She also said that most people who gain too much weight during pregnancy, gain too much in the first trimester, when really you should hardly gain any then.
ReplyDeleteThere is a really cute dress at Target that has a gold colored ribbon belt and it's a beautiful greenish color. I almost bought one and I will have no need for maternity clothes!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.target.com/Liz-Lange-Target-Dress-Floral/dp/B000Q8UWTU/qid=1198199915/ref=br_1_5/602-0695981-2198268?ie=UTF8&node=162410011&frombrowse=1&rh=&page=1
Sorry about posting the entire link thing, I am not entirely proficient yet. I think the color would be lovely on you.
(By the way, I have that Target dress and love it--it's one of the two Sunday options.)
ReplyDelete