If you’ve had winter and summer pregnancies- clothing question

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wore full panel white jeans with no problems, and also agree that dresses were great IF I wore maternity shorts under them. Otherwise my thighs chafed :-/ plus the last couple months I wore a support belt almost every day and I didn't like it on my skin.

OP here. All the dress suggestions were surprising me because even when not pregnant my thighs tend to chafe badly at the start of dress season and I literally have to “break my thighs in” the way you do new shoes until I build up a tolerance. So wearing dresses every day while pregnant sounds...well, sore and itchy. I know I have far more sensitive skin than average but I’m surprised you’re the only one who mentioned needing something to prevent chafing in dresses.

I guess I’ll just buy a dress or two and maybe one pair of over the belly shorts and see what my preference is before committing to too many of one thing. (I just hate that summer styles are basically cleared out of stores by the time summer really hits.) Thanks!

I used spray antiperspirant on my legs - I definitely sweated a lot more than usual. You could alternatively wear stretchy cotton bike shorts under a dress or skirt. I used belly bands even in summer because when very pregnant I have an "outie" and hated the way that looked under thin summer shirts. I wore a lot of skirts with foldover waist bands - they worked for pregnancy as well as before/after. When super pregnant I often wore the foldover part over my belly under a shirt, again for the outie issue.

[Anonymous]

Well, I'll be the voice of dissent and say that I loved the over the belly pants for my early October baby also. I got 2-3 pairs of over-the-belly cotton gaucho style pants from Target and they were phenomenally comfortable and cool in the summer. I had some dresses and they were okay, but I always felt like my belly was going to fall off without some support, plus, as you noted, the leg chafing was an issue. (I'm thin and NEVER had that problem before, or after, so I was like "Oh, this is what people complain about...").

I don't remember having any comfortable maternity shorts. If I was running around with my toddler in the summer heat, my favorite was the cotton gaucho pants and a maternity tank top. Or I was just in a swim suit in the pool.

I also really liked the really gauzy peasant blouses for my summer pregnancy. Those were really comfortable and hid a lot. I wish they didn't look terrible on me when I'm not pregnant!

[Anonymous]

With my August baby and to chase a toddler around, I lived in Target maternity shorts. I got a blue pair and a black pair, and wore them all weekend long. I went for the kind that had stretchy inserts at the waist, on the sides. They were comfortable, did not slide down, and allowed me to get down to my toddler's level comfortably. I did do a lot of t-shirt type dresses for work (with a blazer), but disliked maxi dresses as I felt like they trapped the heat and made me hotter and crankier. Everyone is different in what makes them comfortable. Target has a 90-day return window. You could always order a bunch of different maternity items now, and see what you end up going with for the summer and return the rest (obviously keep the tags on and hang on to the package slip).

[Anonymous]

I preferred full panel/over the belly pants and leggings with my early November baby as much as I do now with my soon-to-be early May baby. Yeah, it's hotter, but I found the discomfort of under-belly worse than the discomfort of a full panel on a hot day.

Also, like many pps, I wore more dresses that summer than I normally do.