Maternity Clothes

Maternity clothes tend to have an impressive amount of fabric and/or an impressive amount of stretch.  But when do you actually need to make the switch from your normal clothes to the maternity collection?  Well for me, I noticed the bones in my hips shifting before I started "showing".  And so my first pregnancy I had to deal with inane questions from my mother in-law like "Why do you need maternity pants?  You're not showing!" (said like an accusation).  Well I need maternity pants because even though you don't see a bump, there is still no way in hell my regular pants are going to button up anymore which is why I'm out shopping in yoga pants.

It is a mistake to go maternity shopping with anyone who is going to be less than kind about the sensitive subject of weight.  If your pregnant you don't need anyone around who is going to make you feel fat, the baby to be is doing enough of that and does not require assistance in that field.  That said, no you are not fat, you are pregnant, some people show sooner than others, some moms carry "in" while others carry "out" and then there is high or low.  Basically what I'm saying is there is a lot of variation in the realm of healthy and normal.  So even if you and your best friend got knocked up on the same night, you would not be guaranteed to look equally round through the course of pregnancy.

Don't feel bad if you need to jump into maternity clothes relatively early in your pregnancy.  And don't feel jipped that you don't get to wear your cute new maternity clothes for very long  if it takes you longer to get to the point where you need to wear them.

Basically you know you need maternity clothes, when the clothes you have begin to feel uncomfortable.  That said once they do start to feel tight go shopping right away, or you may find yourself making unusual clothing choices out of necessity when you finally do go clothing shopping.  Your husband's sweat pants may be fun to wear around the house, but do you want that to be your only option for walking out the door when you are going out into public?

Though how nuts you go with your maternity clothes shopping might be influenced by how many times you think you are going to be pregnant, I still recommend at least two different sets of maternity pants, two dresses and a handful of shirts to keep you decent.

And on the other side, postpartum, don't let anyone tell you when you need to stop wearing these big comfy clothes.  It took a while to gain the weight, it will take some time to lose it.  You gain more weight than the baby so that you can remain healthy while you breast feed.  I found my appetite drop significantly after the baby came out.  But that said a week after the baby was out I looked at my self and thought "well I look less pregnant".  Don't get me wrong I did lose the weight, it just wasn't over night.  If you're breast feeding the baby will literally eat your excess calories.  And that can make you more tired than a trip to the gym, which is fine because if you breast feed you are burning more calories than you probably would have at the gym anyway.