Weddingbee boards

Hi ladies- Just wondering how many maternity outfits or at least, work pants, those of you who work full time have had to buy? Am I talking a whole new wardrobe here, or do you think I could get by with 5 pairs and just rotate? 

Unfortunately I think I will be in maternity clothes much earlier than most people because while my belly's not big yet, I cannot button/zip my work pants and I really don't love the bella band. It's ok in some outfits but in others, it's a flop. I think I need to do some shopping soon and would love advice. Thanks! 

I pretty much rotated through 3 pairs of pants, one dress, and two skirts. (That's for work- when not at work, I had two pairs of maternity jeans and wore those all the time) I probably could have just bought 3 pairs of black pants and worn those every and no one would have cared/noticed. Tops were harder since I didnt' want to repeat as often- I had good luck buying a couple maternity-friendly black cardigans and then just rotating the (cheap, often non-maternity) tops I'd wear under them.

It depends...what type of dress code do you have? Mine is business casual M-Th (so, like dress pants with a button down shirt) with casual days on Friday. If yours is more formal, you might have to buy a lot more maternity clothes which really sucks because maternity dress clothes are expensive.

I rotate between 3 pairs of maternity dress pants (luckily only had to buy one, my SIL loaned me the other two) and one pair of regular pants (that used to be way too big for me). For on top I didn't bother to buy any maternity shirts- I thought they were all too expensive and they were ugly. I just bought the same type of shirts I was already wearing in bigger sizes (when they were on sale-much less expensive than maternity). I actually didn't buy anything maternity for on top (except one super comfy maternity hoodie), and with 5 weeks left, I don't think I will.

I think wearing larger sized regular clothes is kind of more unflattering than maternity- like making you look fat instead of pregnant- but I figure I'd only look slightly less frumpy in maternity clothes and I'd be spending a lot of money, so I'd rather just look fat for 3 months and save my money for cute clothes after the baby comes.

@spaniel

I think there is more flexibility with things like polos, sweaters, and button down shirts. If you had to wear a suit every day, you'd probably have to buy a maternity suit- I just don't think suit jackets, even in a larger size, would accomodate late pregnancy. Something like a polo shirt you can just buy extra large and stretch it over the belly and be fine- plus polo shirts are cheap. My old roommate had to really dress up for work and my wardrobe of larger polos and button downs would not have cut it at her office.

So, it's not that if you have to dress up, you have to buy more maternity clothes, it's that you'd have to buy them, period, where at a more casual office you could maybe get away with non maternity clothes which are cheaper. I haven't spent more than $5 an item on my sized clothes.

Hmm, thanks everyone. It sounds like it might vary from person to person depending on how much you want to spend and how you want to do it. I am way too cheap to buy a ton of the expensive stuff, but I am also starting a new job in 2 weeks so I think I need to look more presentable than I would if I were staying at my current job. So I will probably suck it up and buy some things. 

@bells: I was very very bloated early on and felt the same as you. I bought my bella band at like 8 weeks. It was fine the first few times I wore it but I don't love it. I've been wearing a lot of dresses, too. I bought 2 pairs of maternity pants around week 10 but only wore them once or twice and it was mostly for comfort. I definitely didn't need them. But now I am 12 weeks and literally none of my dress pants zip. I still don't NEED them in the sense that I don't have a belly really, but I have very very limited options when it comes to what to wear to work these days. I think I need to go buy some more pants.  

I have 4 pairs of pants, 5 skirts and at least a dozen tops that are maternity. Where I work it's 'business casual', so pre-pregnancy I usually wear suit pants with a sweater, or button-down top, heels and a blazer or cardigan sweater. But ever since growing out of my usual work wear, I've been wearing maternity suit pants/skirt, a simple shirt (fitted maternity tee or tank) with a cardigan, fly-away cardigan, etc (-and these cardigans are pre-pregnancy clothes, they're just drape-y and awesome for maternity wear). I've just been rotating the sweater/tee or tank/pant or skirt combo. 

I'll probably pick up another pair of pants for the winter, but I think I'm pretty good with just this stuff. 

Thanks everyone! This is very helpful. I think I am going to check out some yard sales and consignment shops this weekend, and go from there. 

@nonoame: My local Gap outlet didn't have maternity clothes. It's tempting to buy bigger sized work pants but that's somehow more depressing to me than just buying maternity early. There were some good sales on things at a Gap Maternity near me, but mostly shirts, and I'm not there yet- although I wouldn't mind a few flowier regular shirts that hide the "I just ate too many cheeseburgers" look I have going on! 

My husband found a website that sells unused gift cards that people want to unload, so he bought me a Destination Maternity card that had $100 on it for maybe $80 or $85, so there was a bit of a discount there.  Plus, I only bought what they had on clearance.  Maternity clothes can be SO expensive.

I ended up buying more clothes than I needed, and some of the clothes I eventually grew out of.  I'm 34 weeks now and four pairs of pants and four tops that I bought no longer fit.

What I eventually did was stick with maybe three pairs of pants that I rotated, plus T-shirts and tanks from Target or Kohl's or JCPenney (all of which have a decent maternity section) and layer them with different lightweight sweaters.  So, while you're clearly rotating, at least you have a good mix.

Good luck!

This thread cracks me up. I own 2 pairs of work pants, a pair of jeans, a whole bunch of skirts I never wear, and about 14 shirts.

I don't have a lot of clothes in generally and totally expect to buy 2 pairs of maternity pants, 5 work shirts and 2 weekend shirts and just wear the same stuff every week.

Maybe I'd also buy some new shoes, and 2 or 3 comfy bras (ok, so I maybe have more bras than shirts and maybe 40 pairs of underwear).

Thrift stores for maternity stuff is usually a good call--most of those clothes were only worn for a few months!

@MsMamaBear: Yeah that would actually be awesome... Maxi dresses are so comfortable! I've lived in them during this bloated period all summer. 

@lilybay: Thanks for the buy as I need it tip. I don't think I will buy shirts for a long time, unless I find a great deal like I did today at the yard sale. Mostly I just need some pants for work. Weekends I can make do for a lot longer I'm sure. 

@PasteMoo: Haha. Everyone is different, I guess. It sounds like if you saw my closet, you'd be in shock! And probably likewise if I saw yours! 

@AvantLaLettre:LOL probably. :)

i rotated one pair of black slacks, one pair of jeans (my job is pretty casual), leggings, and a few dresses (none of them were maternity, but a-line sundresses from target, ross, etc with a cardigan worked well with my bump). the slacks and jeans are pretty maternity specific, but i wanted to wear leggings and dresses as much as possible so that i could wear them after pregnancy too.