Realistic wardrobe reflections on each trimester

Being pregnant is an absolute minefield of worry. Every day you’re faced with new sensations, information and things to consider. It’s particularly daunting if you’re a new parent and you’ve never been through pregnancy before. I’ve written before (here and here) about how the reality of being pregnant compared to my expectations. One of those was around ‘bump etiquette’, and how my body did or didn’t change. When you picture being pregnant, clothes play a strangely big part in that. Perhaps because clothes are so key to how we create and present our identities, so they become even more important at a time when that identity is in flux.

I definitely went into pregnancy with certain ideas about how my style would evolve. Would I be a ‘cool’ prego or a ‘cosy’ one? Would I want to hide it for as long as possible, or display it for all the world to see? As is so often the case, the reality was somewhere in between.

Today, I’m going to look back at my actual pregnancy wardrobe, across each trimester. I hope this will help you understand your own wardrobe and aims, and be a bit of an antidote to all the glamourous pregnancies you might be seeing on Instagram!

First Trimester

Chances are that you haven’t told many people you’re pregnant in the first trimester, so you don’t really want to give it away with your clothes. The plus side is that you’ll probably not have much of a bump either, so that’s relatively easy to do. The main difference for me was in the way I felt. From almost the first day of pregnancy, I started getting terrible bloating. Picture above: me out for a meal with my mum, with my jean top button secretly undone under the table because I felt so bloated! So although I wasn’t technically any bigger, I certainly felt a lot bigger! So comfort already became key. I did my best to wear bloat-friendly clothes, and dug out some old pairs of once-too-big jeans. They were technically still too big, but the extra room felt just right after meals!

Another issue I encountered throughout pregnancy but which started in my first trimester was that I became very susceptible to travel sickness, for the first time in my life. Even the gentle train ride to work would be enough to set me off. So my tactic for this was just to wear lots of layers. This is always essential in Melbourne, but as I was getting hot flashes on public transport I needed them more than ever!

My main takeaway from trimester one was the odd balance between keeping comfortable and not looking too obviously pregnant! Not the easiest thing to get right, but at this stage I still had plenty of options open to me, and could wear almost all of my ‘normal’ clothes.

Second Trimester

Things became a bit more obvious in the second trimester, and I had to start making some actual concessions to pregnancy. For the most part this just meant wearing more dresses. I got myself some over-bump tights, and wore my comfiest dresses (I have long maintained that dresses are comfort wear – as you can read here!). This was the simplest way to adapt my existing wardrobe to be a work appropriate pregnancy one. Thankfully I work in a fairly non-corporate environment, so I could just slightly dress up my normal dresses. I think it was around this time that I basically gave up on jeans and trousers. I tried to find some that would fit over my bump, without actually buying maternity trousers. This was probably a mistake (as it didn’t really work!), but maternity jeans aren’t usually high rise, they’re low rise with a kind of attached tube for going over your bump. These just didn’t look comfortable to me, as I never wear low-rise and already had very wide hips pre-pregnancy, so didn’t think it would work for me. So I decided to just lean into the comfort of dresses instead.

It was in my second trimester though that maternity leggings made their first appearance. What a god send! Soon enough they became the only things that were truly comfortable. I would recommend going for as high a quality and sturdy a fabric as you can afford. Having a bit of extra support from your leggings can make all the difference!

Third Trimester

The last hurrah – the slow, slow race to the finish line. The third was where everything began to hit home physically. The combination of the extra weight and hormones left my back and joints exhausted, and I was struggling to walk by the end. Clothing-wise, thing got very comfy. Think big jumpers, lots of leggings, and knit dresses. I had still barely bought any maternity specific clothes, but I did buy some new dresses to fit over my bump. I found that rib knit dresses, maternity or not, worked really well, skimming over the bump in a pleasantly stretchy but supportive way.

My footwear choices change in the final trimester too – to things my partner could help me put on and take off. So my pull-on ankle boots saw a lot of action, and after years of resisting, I finally caved and started wearing slippers when working from home. I basically gave up putting too much effort into my outfits at this point – they just had to be as comfortable as possible, and easy to get in and out of. You’re so obviously pregnant by this point that I feel you can get away with anything! And you’re putting up with so much physically that you definitely need to cut yourself some slack wherever you can find it.

Bonus – Fourth Trimester

The ‘fourth trimester’ is a term that has been popularised in recent times to acknowledge the unique experience of the first three months of baby’s life. For both the baby and you. Your body is in recovery from a major event, and adjusting to a whole new set of demands. There’s plenty to love about the fourth trimester, but you’re also probably tired and at least a bit overwhelmed. Some people seem to bounce right back to their pre-pregnancy bodies, but in all likelihood your body won’t change as quickly as you hope it would. I remember being asked when the baby was about two months old if I was enjoying getting back into my old clothes, and feeling a bit guilty and ashamed that still hardly any of them fit. It’s taken me a long time to fit back into things, and the changes from breastfeeding alone have left lots of things still unwearable.

Comfort was even more key during this phase if anything. I wore lots of bike shorts (the great post-natal ones from Active Truth!), t-shirts, big shirts – anything that was easy to throw on. It was our late spring and summer, so I didn’t have to think too much about layering and keeping warm, which was a plus. One thing I have noticed on reflection is that in those early months I didn’t have many specifically nursing friendly clothes. That is, those sold as such. In reality, every button up shirt is nursing friendly. I wasn’t leaving the house much for the first little while, so could easily manage with my supply of baggy shirts. Nursing friendly tops came into their own a bit more once you’re taking baby out in public and want to nurse in the open. Being able to feed without pulling your whole top up is definitely a bonus sometimes. Nursing bras however were a must from the beginning – I’ve written about my experiences with these in a separate post, which you can read here.

My main advice for fourth trimester dressing is to not let anyone make you feel you should be dressing in a certain way. Wear clothes that make you feel comfortable and happy – whatever that looks like for you. Putting a ‘proper’ outfit together can be a real confidence boost at a time when you might need it, but if you just want to wear leggings and slouchy Ts, that is completely valid. Getting to bond with your baby and focus on your recovery are the most important things – clothes should serve this, and mean no more or less than you want them to.

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Looking back, I’m actually pretty happy with my pregnancy wardrobe choices. There’s nothing I particularly regret other than thinking I should have found heavier duty support options for my bump. I was led by what felt right at the time, and I think that’s as much as any of us can aim for!

I hope this realistic and honest look at what I wore in each trimester will offer some reassurance if you’re navigating this unique and challenging phase of life. I’d love to hear your reflections, so please do leave them in a comment below.