Sorry once again to be reviving this long-buried thread.
I wanted to let you know how wonderful and kind you all are. You know how to flatter a mommy-to-be!
I also wanted to respond to AJ and Joy.
We are having a boy! He is due around beginning of December, so he might decide to arrive on my birthday!:)
Joy - Congratulations to your son and his wife. We seem to be due pretty much the same time. Your DIL is absolutely right that the choice of maternity fashion is very limited. Everything is either too expensive, hideous or both. What has worked for me so far:
- I pretty much sized out of all my bottoms around week 14, excluding a few skirts, but most of my summer tops, which are very fluid and roomy, still fit at 20 weeks. So my strategy was to find some bottoms that would coordinate with those tops. I got 3 maternity bottoms: a jean skirt, a navy skirt (work appropriate), and a pair of taupe pants that can be dressed up or down. Now, I am lucky enough that my sister is about 2 sizes larger than me, so I raided her closet and came away with 2 work skirts and a casual skirt. Buying skirts 2 sizes up also worked for another colleague of mine, who is due any day now.
- I went through all my summer dresses and put aside anything that didn't fit or was made of any material other than cotton. I just decided that it is too warm to wear anything but cotton, especially now that I am feeling the heat more intensely. I was left with a nice selection of about 7-8 dresses and I've been rotating them. As you can see in this thread, I also got a few dresses as gifts from my MIL, and my mom just yesterday passed on 2 summer dresses to me as well.
- I didn't buy any other pants, jeans, capris, or even shorts (which I normally don't wear anyway), because our climate is too warm, and I can only bear to wear skirts in summer.
- I have to pretty much go through my collection each weekend and remove anything that no longer fits. Also, if anything is getting tighter, but not yet too tight, I make a point of wearing those things as much as I can before size out of them and leave the roomier clothes for future use.
So this is my plan until the beginning of fall, when I will be needing long sleeved shirts and pants - it will not be before mid to late September here, I think. At that time, I am planning to make another raid into my sister's closet to see if I can find any roomier winter weight tops, skirts, or dresses. I don't think the pants will fit, but you never know. Then I will take another stock and slowly shop for anything to fill the gaps. At least, that's my plan!
Good luck to your DIL, and to all the pregnant ladies on the forum.
Oh, these are my purchases so far:
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/91127592435184014/
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/91127592435115370/
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/91127592435115347/