What you ACTUALLY wore for pregnancy and beyond

[WardrobeMilkStress]

Right, so I am ALMOST at the 3 month milestone and I have no blooming clue what maternity wear I'll need... A couple of my girlfriends have given me their list of what they actually wore so it would be brilliant to hear yours. Hoping to get some inspo and do a big online order tonight and with any luck (fat chance) everything will be amazing and I will wear it all to death.

Leave lists below including brands please!

I was out of normal trousers quickly as any pressure round my middle made me feel sick!

Favourites were:

Longline black and white vests from ASOS (good for layering with normal shirts). Got a breton from there too.

Gap overbump jeans and some cheap black under bump cropped jeans for work in the sale. Couple of v neck maternity t shirts also from gap which I wore loads and washed well.

Isabelle oliver black stretchy Jersey pencil/tube skirt from ebay. Seriously comfy and got a LOT of use.

H&m - couple of tops for work when bump bigger, yoga pants type things and some non maternity Jersey harem trousers - they had a ruched elastic waistband that was really soft and v comfy for underbump. Am still wearing now, think they do them every year.

Couple of dresses in topshop sale (Shirtdress, Jersey t shirt dress)

Assorted other stuff that didn't get nearly so much use! ASOS again was good when I had a wedding midway through (free returns so ordered a load and kept the one I liked best). I did find most shops stock very little maternity stuff in store which was a pain for jeans in particular - I gave up trying to find perfect ones and just went for comfy!

Bump bands are brilliant! A pair of over bump jeans, pair of over bump black trousers, a stretchy black dress and some over bump natural tights

Dresses in the main. Seraphine and Blooming Marvellous, also a really nice one from Isabella Oliver.

I wouldn't buy over the bump trousers yet. I found them mega uncomfortable and only rolled the extra bit down under my bump.

M&S maternity tights were the best. Again I rolled them under but theirs were the easiest to do that with and the most comfy.

H&M tops were good. Also Envie de Fraise tops, many of which are good for BF if you choose to do that.

Hold your horses! There's not much point buying loads of stuff at the 3 month stage as you gave no idea how big or small you will be. Just get stuff when you need it. I bought some maternity dresses that never got worn as my bump never grew I to them!

First time around I had a summer pregnancy too and I actually wore non-maternity summer dresses. There were so many floaty styles that I didn't need to spend the extra that the word 'maternity' seems to add to the cost of clothes. I did have a pair of maternity jeans though, but I was so sick I couldn't wear the over bump type,I had an under bump pair from Jojo. Second time around was a winter pregnancy so I had lots of trousers from Gap and some dresses from Gap and Jojo. I think it depends on your shape and size though what suits you and you feel comfortable in. After pregnancy I was back to normal size after a few weeks so don't assume you'll need to wear this stuff for too long. Unless you're really bumpy you probably won't need specific maternity stuff for a while still.

Oh and H&M have cheap maternity leggings which are pretty good

[Disclaimer: I was pregnant a long time ago!]

I liked Jojo Maman Bebe.

I bought a couple of dresses and skirts for work, including a fantastic black dress that was also suitable for breastfeeding when the baby was born - in fact it was so amazing I wore it for a long time afterwards until it basically was "finished". What you will like depends on your style I guess - Google "maternity and nursing dresses".

I did have maternity jeans but I never found them all that comfy.

Most of my stuff was borrowed or charity shop purchases but here are the few things I actually bought new:

Jojomaman chinos (summer)
Jojomaman cowl neck dress
Seraphine wrapover coat (winter)
Boots maternity tights

Why don't you just ask to borrow from your friends?? My friends passed the same bag of maternity clothes around and around!

Topshop maternity jeans - skinny ones in black and indigo

Topshop navy work trousers

Isabella Oliver - 2 dresses and 2 tops for work (often with black topshop jeans as they looked like black trousers), long vests (wash well and can wear under normal tops until 7/8 months)

Gap maternity and non-maternity cotton summer dresses (always with a discount - non-maternity often by fitted or empire line) and Maternity shorts, vests good too although prefer ruching on Isabella Oliver ones

Hush Amie joggers - harem pants too baggy for me, even when massively pregnant!

Interesting there is only one fan of Topshop's Leigh maternity jeans...They are no.1 on Mumsnet's Best maternity wear for 2017!

www.mumsnet.com/style-and-beauty/best-buys-maternity-wear

I'm surprised by that too! I bought and tried on what felt like every brand of mat jeans going and the Topshop over bump were so much nicer.

Just had a look at the best buys link- surprised the Asda jeans are on there- so frumpy and horrid fabric!

Work dresses from Seraphine (if you live near their shop, go in as they have a fake bump you can use when you try stuff on, so you can see what things will look like when you get bigger

H&M jeans (a better fit than the £££ Seraphine ones)

H&M and JoJo stretchy tops

Plain work dress from Mothercare

Tights from all sorts of places but none would stay up.

Maternity bras from John Lewis and M&S

Will read this through as pregnant with a second baby and already bored of maternity clothes but from last time and so far this time the best bits are:

Overbump jeans. Underbump are rubbish.

Maternity dresses from H and M and new look (skater style suit me best) and Seraphine for work but some is very pricey and disappointing so order a few and be ready to send a pile back! Plus normal dresses that have a bit of give and aren't too short (they get noticeably shorter with a bump).

Jojo is grest for a long sleeve top that will still look flattering for breastfeeding after. Most clothes for 'nursing' look awful after pregnancy as they excentuate a bump that you naturally want to hide post pregnancy!

Gap for plain long vest tops / both for layering and ready for summer days

Mostly tights and larger tops, I didn't need much for my first pregnancy. Couldn't tell I was pregnant until I was nearly 8 months. But this time round I'm only just 5 months, and I am big. Anyone know where does maternity petite? I need jeans but the websit never has my size.

Most off my maternity stuff was from Topshop. I didn't get on with Seraphine at all - everyone raves about it but I found it all really frumpy.

For work: Topshop black Joni skinny jeans, maternity camisole/vest type thing and an open blazer. Until I was really, really pregnant. Then I wore the best ever maternity jeans from Topshop; I can't remember the name but they're the boyfriend type ones with an actual zip and button and elasticated sides, with white shirt/blouse and white trainers.

I had a couple of black mamalicious dresses for the rare work occasions that needed me to be smarter than jeans and a blazer.

I also had a great dress from Asos for a black tie event I went to at 35 weeks. They have some lovely things.

Gap are great for basics, they do some nice stretchy tops, in the "Gap body" range, I think it's called. If you go for the v-neck ones, they're also good for breastfeeding.

I was very happy with H&M maternity tops. I thought New Look does better nursing tops, though. Matalan does some affordable maternity jeans, but I would just wear leggings on the weekend. Pre-pregnancy I'd put a lot of investment into my clothes but you'll only wear them for 6 months or so, so there's not much point in spending loads of money. I'd argue that nursing clothes are worth investing in if you plan on breastfeeding for 2 years or so, but at 5 months PP I'm just cycling through the same 6 nursing t-shirts. I got lovely nursing clothes from Jojomamanbebe as a gift, but you just tend to focus on practicality with a little one...

I ordered some things from seraphine this time round and they were really cheap looking and not a good fit. Last time round I had three pairs of maternity trousers and a maternity teeshirt and otherwise just wore my normal stuff. Turns out all my tee-shirts were pretty baggy anyway!

This time my belly has been super itchy so I have several new look tee-shirts that are fab. New look is by far my favourite for maternity tops now. Have the obligatory George over hump leggings too, they are fine, just leggings with an over jump hit and stay up well but I have nothing to compare them with!

Items that stand out as being good were:

Tunic type tops from Fat Face, they had a lot of room in the tummy area and if they didn't last all the way until the 9 month mark they certainty came in handy afterwards.

TKMax for random finds in the non maternity section, I got a lovely maxi dress that was technically not maternity but fitted until the end.

Jo jo Mama have been doing a take on this dress for ages, it is spectacularly comfortable in height of summer...I wore it to and fro the hospital when giving birth.

Black v-neck jersey dress, I always seem to get complimented when I wore it/wear it...youngest DC will be 3 in the summer and it still gets worn around the house (I took the side in some time ago).

..the 'side seams' rather than just the side!

Mostly H&M. Over bump jeans, leggings, one pair of trousers and plenty of tops. I had a couple of nice things and a few disasters from New Look as well. I loved a maxi skirt from there, but hated their vests, which were transparent!

Couple of jumper dresses from JoJo as I was heavily pregnant in winter, and a summery smart dress from Red Herring.

Best buy was a pair of wide fit ankle boots from New Look, kept my fat feet happy until pretty close to the end!

First pregnancy (baby born July) normal dresses that had stretch (jersey wrap etc) and three maternity dresses. Afterwards, leggings, bf vests and thin carriesethen after a few weeks normal jeans and bf tops.

Tricker with second, winter born.

Overbump jeans and a pair of black Next jersey trousers that were foldover. I wore them through 2 pregnancies and a month after both. Two maternity vest tops from topshop. Then a couple of tunic dresses i already had. In my second pregnancy I bought nothing and saved that money to spend on clothes afterwards.

Surprised at all the people who said they didn't buy much/any maternity. I ended up with loads, although I did show quite early and was the type to get a very large obvious bump rather than putting weight on all over...

I bought work dresses from Seraphine and also had a great one from Isabella Oliver. Look out for the sales as they're brilliant, I think the Isabella Oliver dress was £30 down from £70 or something like that.

I got casual dresses from a few places but the best were from Jojo.

M&S were best for leggings. I got some great tops from New Look.

I always see H&M mentioned on these threads but I wasn't that impressed. I thought most of their stuff wasn't great quality and needed a lot of ironing which I couldn't be bothered with when pregnant!

Do you work for Topshop, OP?

These were amazing for me, during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Great quality and just so comfy. Long enough to wear with leggings (covers bum) and cardigan.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/282219845450

I had baby DS in May last year, so was showing through the end of winter and most of spring. For work, I wore a uniform of Asos maternity leggings and three quarter length sleeve dresses from purpless.com - very inexpensive and very comfortable. Outside of work I mostly wore the same leggings, cheap vest tops from Primark (I just sized up a few times) and one of DH's shirts with the sleeves rolled up as a jacket. I bought cheap XL Primark pyjama bottoms and vest tops to sleep / lounge around in.