Last time this orange dress fit. |
Around Week 28 at the start of Trimester 3, I had to admit defeat and start retiring my regular wardrobe. I am pretty much exclusively wearing maternity clothes to accommodate the bulging belly for my last 4-6 weeks of pregnancy. Being frugal me, I have tried to keep my maternity wardrobe to a minimum. I want to spend as little as possible on maternity wear because it's only used for a short period in the scheme of things.
I outgrew my work skirts at the start of Trimester 2 and got away with wearing regular tops with these brilliant, bargain-priced Kmart skirts with elasticated waistlines. They were only $25 each and gave me a good 4 months of almost daily wear. However, now my belly is huge I cannot stand having anything on my waist - it's floppy maternity dresses only from here on in. I also bummed around the house in their maternity bike shorts for a while too.
Elasticated waists for the win! |
H&M has a big range of affordable maternity wear called MAMA. The cheaper end of the catalogue has no-frills but comfortable designs, though you can get some dressier items too if you prefer. I browsed the many maternity wear stores but they're expensive for items I may only wear for a month so I opted for cheap, fast fashion for now.
To try and extend the life of my maternity items, I've looked for dresses where you can free the boobs for breastfeeding so I can continue to wear them after birth. Although I plan to breastfeed there's no guarantee that I will be able to (Mum Pham formula-fed all Pham siblings, and many mums struggle to get milk supply up long-term) so I also don't want to stock up on too many breast-feeding friendly clothes until I know I can breastfeed long-term.
In short, some mornings you'll find me walking around the house half-naked to get freshly washed maternity clothes off the drying rack because I've kept my items to a minimum and if I slack off even for a day or two with laundry I run out of comfy clothes to wear.
Last day in my beloved Beauty & the Beast dress |
Our fertility and pregnancy experience
- Fertility is a F-word
- IVF hormone injections and symptoms
- IVF egg collection
- The wait for embryo news
- Accidentally, intentionally pregnant
- Early pregnancy scans & tests
- Early pregnancy symptoms & cravings
- Pregnancy and the Glucose Tolerance Test (GTT)
- Gestational diabetes rant (For baby!)
- Diet-controlled gestational diabetes
- When is baby due?
- Gender reveals
- Hiding early pregnancy
- Pregnancy glow (Trimester 2)