This will be a very photo-heavy post as I share a few of my favourite second trimester outfits. 38 different pregnancy outfit ideas! There are links below all the photos if you want more details.
My single maternity wrap dress was a real wardrobe workhorse, being worn almost weekly, although I continued to wear my regular non-maternity dresses in the second trimester as well. Fit and flare or empire waist dresses were perfect for this.
I only needed one maternity maxi dress for both pregnancies, the majority of my existing maxi dresses were stretchy enough to work through all three trimesters. There were a few I outgrew in the second trimester though.
I added a second pair of maternity denim shorts to my wardrobe for my most recent pregnancy as I was heavily pregnant over summer and it was too hot for jeans. Previously I was doing a full work week and with the cooler temperatures and dressing for casual Friday, my maternity jeans were worn a lot more.
The third trimester is definitely the time to repeat outfits that make you look and feel good, and to do so unashamedly! Find things that work for you and wear them as many times as you like. I've included 55 outfit ideas for the third trimester below, from both of my pregnancies. You can click on the links under the images to view more info about them.
Office Outfits:
In the third trimester, I still wore my ASOS maternity pencil skirts often, but the standout pieces were my wrap dresses. They were such an easy outfit that always fit the growing bump and never failed to look good. I wore wrap dresses a lot! I was able to find some regular non-maternity dresses in my wardrobe that still accommodated the baby bump too.
While I'm in the hospital with baby, I've set up a few scheduled posts.
As soon as I can I will be back to posting my usual daily outfits. Until then I hope you enjoy the little break and slight change of format.
First up, talking about my pregnancy wardrobe and the maternity pieces I wore through my pregnancy.
I had a total of 14 maternity pieces to supplement my existing wardrobe. I've included links below so you can see when I wore them, and how often I wore them. My goal was to buy as little maternity pieces as possible.
You can hear my thoughts and opinions by watching the video, but in summary:
I was lucky to have a lot of pieces in my existing wardrobe that worked well in pregnancy. Lots of flowy, loose, oversized and stretchy pieces meant I didn't need much maternity wear. I'll do a follow up post about the non-maternity items I found most helpful.
Maternity tops I found tricky to wear as the extra length swamped my petite frame.
Dresses were the easiest, most comfortable maternity wear option for me. Great go-to pieces!
The Asos maternity pencil skirts I bought were fantastic for work and I'd recommend them to anyone who has to dress for pregnancy in the office.
Jeanswest maternity denim is the only brand of maternity jeans I tried - perfect first time so I didn't try to look elsewhere.
I hope that you found this post useful, and that you can pass it along to anyone who might benefit from it :) Different from my usual posts, but I thought that laying out what I wore and how I wore it during my pregnancy might come in helpful for someone.
As I mentioned last month, I'm discovering that identifying items in my wardrobe I've actually worn 30 times is tricky! Despite being in the middle of #6monthsWithoutShopping, I do have a lot of clothes and I'm finding 30 wears of anything other than maxi skirts or accessories isn't as easy as I'd thought at the start of the year. This month I'm sharing another classic piece, my skinny jeans.
These were the first jeans I pulled out to wear when autumn and jeans weather finally arrived this past week. They are a firm favourite in my wardrobe, so much so that I purchased the maternity version of them to wear over my pregnancies too! Since blue jeans are a fairly common wardrobe item for most people, everyone is sure to have at least one pair of jeans they've hit 30 wears on. I'm going to make this post another 30 unique ways to wear to give you some inspiration for how to rewear your favourite jeans.
These Jeanswest 'super skinny' jeans were purchased almost 4 and a half years ago. I have a pretty large collection of denim, but still these have racked up 50 wears. Given how much I used to love blue jeans that's a bit of a lower number than I expected, but I have really been trying the past few years to stay away from the blue denim rut, especially during my maternity leave periods where I've been lucky to be a stay at home mum for a while.
Skinny Jeans and a Blazer
Jeans and a blazer isn't just a great option for casual Friday! It's a nice way to dress up a casual jeans outfit a little. You can stick with a classic knit blazer for comfort, or even try a tweed blazer for a little extra warmth. While I have worn this outfit combination in winter (in the last pic), I tend to wear jeans and blazers most in spring and summer.
Skinny Jeans and Knits
When it starts to cool down for autumn or heat up slightly for spring, adding a knit with skinny jeans is an easy outfit. Either a cute knitted jumper like in the first two pictures, or a light cardigan in the next 4. A scarf is a good extra layer if it's chilly. This combination is so comfortable I've worn it for an interstate flight (second picture) and a long road tip (last picture).
Jeans and Maxi Cardigan (Duster)
I wanted to call this out separately from the shorter cardigans above. This cosy maxi cardi was a sale purchase last autumn and although it's too warm to have worn it yet this year I'm looking forward to wearing it again with my blue jeans when the weather cools more. A duster just works perfectly with skinny jeans as you can see in the outfits below.
Skinny Jeans for Casual Friday
It's often too hot and humid for jeans in summer here in Brisbane but I definitely make up for that with how often I wear my jeans in winter! 4 of the 5 outfits below were actually winter casual Friday outfits for the office. Only the second outfit with the boots wasn't worn in the office.A classic pair of skinny jeans and a cosy jacket like a leather jacket or trench coat and you're set for Casual Friday.
Skinny Jeans and Kimonos
Denim and a kimono will always been a frequently worn combination in my wardrobe! Even when I swap my jeans for shorts in summer I still like to wear a pretty printed kimono with some kind of denim.
Skinny Jeans and Tanks
Such a simple outfit formula for a warm spring or autumn day, just pick a tank to wear with your jeans. Each of these tanks have a twist from a regular tank and jeans combo to stop it being too boring. The tank in the first outfit is actually a lace overlay one so you can kind of see the purple tank underneath poking through. The plain black tank in the middle outfit has a peplum hem, and there's a fun print on the Sass and Bide tank in the last outfit. A tank and skinny jeans outfit doesn't have to be boring.
Skinny Jeans and Tees
This was definitely my most-worn outfit formula, and was my go-to outfit for a few years. A jeans and tee outfit is just to quick to put together each day. Like the tanks above, a jeans and tee outfit doesn't have to be boring when you wear a printed or brightly coloured tee. Don't forget you can a pretty necklace too for more interest!
They might just be plain blue skinny jeans, but they are certainly a wonderful addition to my wardrobe!
Where to Buy the Best Skinny Jeans:
(First pair pictured are the ones I'm wearing in this post)
Baby T has arrived! He is a beautiful baby boy, and I've already shared a few photos on instagram, @awayfromblue. A few people have been waiting for something to show up on the blog too, so put together this quick post between nap times.
Thank you all so much for your kind words and comments while I've been preoccupied with our beautiful little baby.
I've relied on my scheduled "maternity wardrobe essentials" posts and haven't been sharing what I've been wearing lately as my outfits have been very boring and repetitive. In hospital, I wore pyjamas mostly. I did "dress up" in trackie dacks (sweats) and a breastfeeding singlet during visiting hours.
Now that we are home, I haven't varied that uniform too much. I'm still in my PJs a lot of the time, as life revolves around baby T and we are trying to settle into a routine. Not at all ashamed to admit that at this early stage, getting dressed is pretty much reserved for when we have visitors or we need to go somewhere!
This is a daily outfit blog though, so I'll continue to share what I wear - when I have ventured out of the house, and have had time or remembered to take a picture. I've always shared what I actually wear here, and as it was fun to share my pregnancy looks, thought you might like a little insight into the 'first days with a newborn' outfits. They are certainly not the best or most inspiring, but they are definitely practical and comfortable. And when you're running on limited sleep, comfort and ease always wins!
Now your expectations are suitably lowered... ;) This is what I wore for baby T's first outing, a couple of days after we got out of hospital.
Added a cardigan and swapped the comfy PJ pants for my maternity skinny jeans to make this outfit look a little more presentable for baby T's first outing to our local clinic. My maternity jeans will get worn for a while yet - as you can see I still have a bit of baby belly. Not fussed with trying to find clothes to hide it at the moment, sleep is higher on the list of priorities, hehe!
Thought I'd break with the standard outfit posts template to share my March wardrobe update. I made some purchases this month, and I got rid of a lot of things from my wardrobe. I even listed some on ebay! Also had my first session with a personal stylist, so I wanted to share what that was like with you all.
Not bad considering the last time I bought clothes for myself was in December! You can tell I had a few Jeanswest gift cards to spend ;)
March was the month I returned to the office after maternity leave. As I did so, I got all of my old office clothes out of the 'for after baby' box they had been hiding in and - honestly - started to get quite frustrated that I didn't really have any space for those things in my wardrobe. The slow and steady wardrobe clear-out process got a bit more focused and ruthless over the month. There are so many considerations and emotions around going back to work, and tackling my wardrobe at such a time was probably not the best idea in hindsight. I was just getting more frustrated trying to turn my wardrobe into something that would work for my new lifestyle. So I called in the professionals! One of my instagram friends (@sophisticatedmumma) recommended a personal stylist who lived near me (@istyl). I've been thinking about having someone help me with my wardrobe for a while, and facing a big lifestyle change with returning to work after maternity leave seemed like an ideal time to get an expert!
If you are thinking about getting a personal stylist to come help you with your wardrobe, do it! If you're wondering, I always disclose my sponsored posts. This is not one of them. This is all my own words and I paid for the services with my own money. I didn't even mention that I was going to blog about it. The wardrobe detox was not as stressful as I expected, and was actually really fun. It helped that baby T and Cooper were on their best behaviour and that Maudie was happy working around baby and his needs through the day. She was a superstar.
What I learnt from my wardrobe detox:
Babies never nap as long as you expect them too!
You will be trying on lots of clothes so you want to dress appropriately (maybe matching undies) or set up a little hidden spot to change if you're feeling modest. Dancing around the room half naked asking for a little help struggling to pull off a pair of stubborn skinny jeans / needing to fix a zipper caught halfway up a dress might happen more than once.
There are certain colours you can wear that can make you look incredible, and some that wash you out.
If your wardrobe is full of colours that don't make you look your best, there are a few tricks you can employ to get around this. It isn't about buying a whole new wardrobe, but learning how to make what you have work for you.
You'll never really comprehend how much stuff is in your wardrobe until you start going through it all.
It is extremely frustrating realising just how many 'perfect for nursing' tops you had hidden in your wardrobe, after you've stopped breastfeeding.
You will come up with the craziest justifications to explain oddities in your wardrobe. (Like why each and every one of your 14 grey tees is a complete essential and different from all the rest.) Thanks for humouring me Maudie!
A wardrobe detox is very emotional. Saying goodbye to old pieces, and re-discovering old favourites. You might feel compelled to tell stories of when, where, and why you bought things. It's a trip down memory lane.
Even you will be surprised with how stubborn you can be on keeping some pieces....and how happy you will be to toss others.
If there are things you just have to have despite the expert opinion saying it doesn't work for you, you can get ideas of different ways to style the items to make them work a little better.
Even an overflowing wardrobe can have 'gaps' in it. It is really helpful to know what things you should look for next time you are shopping, and what you should avoid buying more of. (Like jeans!)
Sorting things into piles of 'keep', 'tailor' and 'toss' is so much easier with an impartial third party helping.
It's never about you. You look amazing. Your clothes might not be working to show off your best self. And that can be easily fixed.
Hearing sincere and flattering compliments is always a good boost, especially after having a baby.
Some things you might be considering getting rid of can stay and become stand out pieces in your wardrobe very quickly when you know how to wear them.
Finding out why things make you look and feel good will help guide your shopping for the better.
A few hours, a bin bag full of cast-offs and a little bit of wardrobe reorganisation can make such a positive difference.
If you're in Brisbane or the Sunshine Coast I'd recommend Maudie as an awesome personal stylist. If a wardrobe detox isn't in your budget, try inviting a friend over and getting an honest opinion on some of the things you own. It's so helpful getting another view. I know some bloggers have check lists or flowcharts or things to help you do your own wardrobe detox too. Please feel free to link up any great advice you have or have come across in the comments.
As a result of my little spring-cleaning before my wardrobe session and a very productive couple of hours during it...there are a bunch of things that have left my wardrobe this month. I've included pictures of just some of them below, as they didn't all have a 'last wear' outside. You can find a few things on ebay. I'll be listing more as I find the time, and the rest will be donated to the Animal Welfare League shelter to end up in their op-shops.
While I'm in the hospital with baby, I've set up a few scheduled posts.
As soon as I can I will be back to posting my usual daily outfits. I'll be sharing bits and pieces on my instagram (@awayfromblue) about life with baby until I'm back to blogging. Until then I hope you enjoy the little break and slight change of format.
Today I wanted to share some of my favourite outfits and clothes I wore during my pregnancy, across all three trimesters. Bit of a picture heavy post!
You can click on each image to go to the original post and view the outfit details.
Want more outfit inspiration and advice on how to come up with a wardrobe plan for your pregnancy? The ultimate guide, How to Have a Stylish Pregnancy On a Budget is available now!
