Can you lovel people help me disguise a pregnant bump?

[JohnnyMcGrathSaysFuckOff]

I am nearly 11w pg and don't want to announce at work till I have had the initial dating scans. No problem, I thought, I will have a scan around 12w....

Only the hospital lost my referral and I cannot get a dating scan till 13+4. We are also planning to get Harmony/ NIPT testing once we know the pg is viable, which is a further 2ish weeks wait for results, meaning I will be 15-16 w by the time I can announce.

I was definitely showing at that stage last time! Most of the maternity wear I have seen is fitted and designed to emphasise a bump. Has anyone got any suggestions for anything that will actually disguise a 2nd tri bump? I am size 12 ish and work has a smart casual dress code.

Any suggestions very welcome!

Empire line tops are your friend

I got through most of my pregnancy without wanting people to know (long term infertility) or them realising.

I avoided empire lines as they accentuated the start of the bump. I wore clothes that tended to have a straight cut but just bigger. I made sure they had a deep v neckline or wore necklaces that brought the attention upwards.

Personally I found that empire lines made me look about 6 months gone at 12 weeks.

What worked for me was a tube skirt, longish blazer left open over it, and a scarf.

Stay away from empire lines and from proper maternity clothes for as long as you can. Both will make you look bigger! Open jackets or cardigans work well, and longer line but reasonably fitted tops. Get a belly/bump band and use it to wear your normal trousers with the fastening open.

Long line cardigans

Tops and dresses with ruching around the stomach

Wrap dresses

Okay.

I'm hearing loose blazer, long cardis, wrap dresses. Great. What about floaty tops or will they look suspiciously like I am trying to hide something?

I found wearing a long floaty scarf was the best way, although I tend to wear them anyway - if you suddenly start, that might be a bit of a giveaway. Even once I was comfortable telling people (by about 18 weeks) many genuinely hadn't twigged.

Not what you asked but I had the harmony test at 10 weeks, you could have that now?

Do as pregnant actors do on telly and carry a massive handbag around!

Often the Harmony test includes a scan first of all and if the pregnancy is not viable, you only pay for the scan and not the blood test. Could you arrange that this week, so you don't have to wait so long?

Open jackets and cardigans with long scarf.
Disguised my bump for ages as afraid of losing out on work (I'm self employed and assumed clients would go elsewhere if they knew). Carrying a bag or folder often gave me something to hide behind too.

Floaty tops will work too but only if you usually wear them
.

The Panorama test (similar to Harmony) can be done from 9 weeks and you'd get the viability scan first as part of that.

Oh that is really interesting about the Harmony. It costs around £400 where we are, and whilst we can afford it, I don't want to pay that just to find out there is no baby iyswim. Hmm I may try that earlier then! Thanks.

Have beem looking at wrap dresses online in the meantime. I do not normally wear them or floaty tops, but my work wardrobe is in need of an update and I have just taken on a new managerial role, so I am hoping I can pass it off as "desperately needed some smarter clothes, went a bit mad in summer sales ha ha".....?

Just following on from FuzzyOwl and Scarlet Sienna - there are quite a few different NIPT tests around now - not just Harmony. And some have much shorter turnaround times for the results. We got an IONA test which took 5 days as I recall for us to get the results back. So definitely could find an NIPT better then a 2 week wait. Prices obviously differ on where you are based and which clinic you use.

I didn't want to announce my second pregnancy until I had guaranteed my promotion...when I was 5 months pregnant!

I hid it by wearing maternity trousers (plain black from gap that don't cover the whole bump) because I found that with my ordinary trousers the button bit would stick out a lot (and I couldn't close it) whereas gap maternity trousers had a smooth piece of material over the bump.

I wore loose fitting tops and open jackets.

I also permanently wore a big pashmina like a scarf - fortunately it was cold in the office so no-one questionned it!

I was also incredibly lucky that I was sharing an office with 2 other women who liked to graze on snacks all day long (albeit very healthy ones) so the fact that I needed to eat little and often to reduce sickness went unnoticed.

However I was still sick so got tablets from the Dr which meant I was usually only sick morning and evening at home and not during the day at work.

I did often have to leave long meetings to "get a file" in order to sneak a quick bit of biscuit to avoid being sick.

Ah those were the days! not

I was also a size 10/12 - so have a look at the gap trousers. I'll see if I can find a link

Layering is your friend. Confuse them with different colours and textures. And sit down a lot.

Can't fin the exact ones but these are similar

www.gap.co.uk/browse/product.do?cid=99599&vid=1&pid=000549382000

I look a lot less pregnant in normal clothes than maternity clothes, and in separates - e.g. skirt and top rather than dresses.

Don't underestimate how much some people don't notice things though. I'm 28 weeks now and have still had people who've only just found out I'm pregnant, despite having looked like an egg on legs for a couple of weeks.

When I was pregnant with my first I didn't show much till 4 months so was OK. Main thing to disguise was my excessive tea habit. We do tea in rounds on our pod at work so I just had to be really generous and always offer to make them so I could sneak a decaf teabag up my sleeve before hand!

I imagine most people are going to guess when I get pregnant with my second. Plus they say its harder to disguise second time round.

Black dress, bright blazer, scarf.

Boxy tops are everywhere at the moment, so try some of those.