Can you believe the story of the mom with octuplets… having six under the age of 8 at home already? WOW.  I’m the mom of two boys, currently ages 6 and 3, so it’s been awhile since I had the “pleasure” of dealing with the maternitychallenge of finding clothes that fit that ever-growing watermelon belly.  With my first son, I was pretty darn lucky.  My other pregnant friends were actually quite jealous of me, because with just a few slight modifications – my everyday clothing fit me right up until about month 8.  I wore my jeans under the belly bump until that was no longer comfortable, and then slipped a rubber band through the button hole and wrapped around the button for a couple months after that!  Had I known about the Bella Band though, I would have preferred to use that as it looks a bit more comfortable.

Most of my oversized t-shirts fit just fine (although more snug than usual) throughout the pregnancy, although I did wear a maternity bathing suit for the summer which was just kind of silly!  It looked like a one piece suit, but really it was two separate pieces.  The belly of the bottom half was mesh, skin colored material and everytime you moved around in the water, the top would float out a bit and reveal your mesh colored belly.  What is the point of that?!

With my second son, I wasn’t quite as lucky.  I think I needed maternity clothes from the day I took the test to confirm I was expecting again!  I know second (or third, or fourth…) time moms can relate to this one!  At first I tried to save a little money by purchasing regular women’s clothes in a size that was just 3x bigger than my regular size.  It worked for awhile, but by about the 5th or 6th month, I can remember those clothes just didn’t accommodate a basketball for a belly and the widening hips!

Post-pregnancy, first time moms often expect to slip back into their old clothes and drive home from the hospital.  Yeah, that didn’t quite happen.  I wore my maternity clothes for awhile after the delivery of both of my kids, but wish I had known something like the Belly Bandit existed.  I can see how this would help support your back while you’re still carrying around some extra belly weight and help give you some comfort.  Whenever my newly expecting friends ask me for recommendations for maternity clothes, I now recommend Maternal America, because it’s a place I wish I had known about when I needed it!

I ended up borrowing a couple of tops from a friend who had just had a baby, wearing sweatpants that were elastic waists and bigger than my normal size, and buying a pair of maternity jeans.  You know, the kind with the spandex-like top that hugs your belly?  You wear a shirt that hangs down over your belly to hide the spandex portion, and then the rest of your jeans just look like normal jeans.  I remember wishing I had just bought maternity jeans from day one with my first pregnancy after trying them on and realizing how much more comfortable it was to wear clothing designed for a growing belly!  Those jeans were well worth the $35 or so I paid for them.