Holy crap, Brenda, FIVE kids? You must be supermom.
OK, so I've done the maternity thing a mere two times, but the first time around there was an element of novelty to it, so I sort of enjoyed dressing my weirdly shaped body (once I'd got past the stage where my head was down the toilet all the time, that is). The formula that worked for me was to get three pairs of high-quality, not-cheap maternity jeans, a couple of stretchy skirts, and then a bunch of inexpensive tops from places like Old Navy. I had two pricier tops, too, for evenings out (one of which showcased my temporarily inflated boobs, which isn't my favourite look, but what the hell are you supposed to do with them when they're that big??).
After the pregnancy, it was sweat pants and milk-stained tee shirts for three months -- FRUMP CITY -- so I have no good advice there. Then I got a few pairs of pants a size up from my usual, which lasted me until the last of the baby belly went away, a full year after I had given birth.
I wore mostly the same clothes with my second pregnancy, along with some yoga pants that had a roll-down waistband. By the end, I wanted to set all my pregnancy clothes on fire.
I read a post on maternity clothes recently on the Smoking Lily blog. It's a clothing store based in Victoria, BC, and I love their stuff:
http://smokinglily.blogspot.co.....n-and.html
I don't know where your friend lives, but maybe they can ship there.
The only other maternity/nursing garments I can think of are Bravado bras and nursing tanks. They're super-comfy and supportive. I wore them all the time. You can get them online.
