We're Expecting! Pregnancy Style

It’s been a while since I’ve posted and a lot has been happening! After about a year and half of trying to conceive, delays in being able to get seen by reproductive specialists due to the pandemic, and two failed IUIs, late last December we go the amazing news that our third—and last—IUI attempt was successful and I’m finally pregnant! We could not be more overjoyed. I’ve known that I wanted to be a mom for all of my life and am SO excited (and a little nervous) to start this next chapter.

As you can imagine, with everything going on, I’ve had less time and energy to put into blogging or frankly even styling outfits, traveling, cooking… all the things that usually bring me joy (and content). But I’ve realized I’ve missed creating and want to play a little catch up before baby BOY arrives at the end of August. Did I mention it’s a boy?! My mind was definitely blown as I’ve always been sure I’d be a girl mom, but that’s a story for another day.

In all honestly, my maternity styling was a little subpar for most of the pregnancy. Since falling into a style rut in the pandemic and working from home, I spent much of the first trimester just wearing comfortable clothes that made it easy to take all the midday naps my body so much needed in. I invested in a couple of basic maternity specific items once I grew a little bump, like a pair of maternity leggings, biker shorts, one pair of jeans, a couple of t-shirts and tops, and mostly just re-wore the same things, waiting it out till summer when I knew I’d be living in dresses.

Come summer, with a bigger bump and love for dresses, that’s when I finally got more excited to start getting dressed again! Mostly, I stuck with non-maternity dresses that had the right amount of stretch (in the right places) to work now, grow with me, and work post-pregnancy. I looked for dresses with stretchy smocking in the back and around the waist area. You can find lots of dresses right now with full smocking around the bust area too, but sometimes those looked a little too “maternity” for me and I didn’t think I’d wear them quite as much post pregnancy. I had heard other women say to size up one size if you’re buying non maternity, but I actually found that not to work as well for me. I have a shorter torso, and when I sized up the top part of the dresses typically were just too long and then ended up baggy and unflattering. I stuck to my normal size, but just made sure the fabric and cut was stretchy and looser fitting in order to accommodate the bump! A lot of online retailers also feature “bump friendly” filters for you to search with!