dressing the bump

i never knew when i would be pregnant, but i knew one thing: i was going to make sure i embraced stylish pants. i've seen women at the mall who think that being pregnant means wearing a mu-mu or a tent that doubles as a blouse. no siree, that was not going to be me. i was also pretty confident that i would spend the copious amounts of money it took to get myself a pair of designer jeans, and probably 7's. they're the only jeans that i wear sans bump, and they were surprisingly cute in maternity. i justified my thoughts by saying it's money well spent because i'll wear them every day!

but when the time came to enhance my wardrobe with some stretchy goodness, i was appalled at the price of "designer" jeans:

really 7 for all Mankind? $198 for a 3/4 pair of jeans? Because really the top part is all elastic. and these aren't Chanel jeans! i don't spend that on regular jeans, so why would i fork it over for a pair of pants i'm going to wear for 4 months? no matter what you tell yourself before you get pregnant, or even in the first few months, you will NOT wear these every day because a) you don't need them til at least 6 months, and b) you won't want to wear ANY pants if you don't have to. the moment i get home, it's off with the non-sweatpants. and the people at Destination Maternity are evil geniuses because these NEVER go on sale.

finally, they aren't made that well. i picked up several pairs to look at and all the jeans were already separating from their elastic bands. i even talked to a good friend who bought a pair of Joe's maternity jeans and she said that her Old Navy maternity jeans held up WAY better than her Joe's. go figure.

so in lieu of dropping almost 2 hundy on a pair of jeans, i decided to go with the Heidi Klum Loved brand at Motherhood. even if they weren't that great, i would only be spending $40 on a pair of pants. they could fall apart after Little Wood comes and i would still have gotten my money's worth. turns out, these pants are amazing! they are just the right amount of stretchy, comfy, and are still stylish.

i also got a pair of grey pants because a girl's got to have more than 1 pair to get through approximately 100 days of hugeness. these were also $40:

i will offer another piece of advice when shopping for maternity pants. obviously there are conflicting opinions on this, but i am a full believer in the full panel pants. in case you didn't know, there are two types of maternity pants, demi (or "under the belly") and full panel.

before i needed to wear them, i thought that i would NEVER wear full-panel. i thought they were disgusting and totally mom-ish. then i realized the error of my ways when i had to buy some professional work pants that only came in full panel. OMG they were so comfortable! i felt like they held everything nice and tight (which feels even better the further along you get when you feel like everything is flapping in the wind) and they were a welcome relief from the belly band which made all my pants look bumpy. plus, they help shield my ever showing belly button these days. i must say, i don't hate wearing pants as much when i can look forward to wearing these. all in all, shopping while pregnant hasn't been as bad as i thought. but i'll still be glad when i can return my focus to clothing that doesn't require spandex!