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.
Dressing in pregnancy is a fun challenge as the baby bump grows and changes every day! In order to simplify things this time around, I implemented a third trimester capsule wardrobe.
Why I Made a Pregnancy Capsule Wardrobe:
I've never tried a capsule wardrobe before (unless you count living out a suitcase for travel).
The baby bump was outgrowing my current wardrobe faster than I anticipated this time around.
I didn't have the luxury of time that I had in my first pregnancy to try on lots of outfit options each night and find things that still fit. (Or I didn't have the energy to do so after spending time with my toddler!)
The summer heat and humidity (that continued well into autumn in Brisbane) left me less inspired to try new things.
I had lots of great maternity pieces I wanted to wear as much as possible to make sure I got my money's worth.
Third Trimester Capsule Wardrobe in Video Form:
Below is a video covering the pieces in my capsule wardrobe, how I wore them, and my general thoughts about the experience.
I didn't include accessories (scarves or bags or shoes) in this count. I also didn't include 'completer' pieces like my printed kimonos or blazers. I freely grabbed these from my wardrobe as and when I wanted them.
The pieces included were suitable for my part time office job, as well as being perfect for a stay at home mum the rest of the week.
Not everything was a maternity piece, I used pieces from my regular non-maternity wardrobe too.
There were a few times at the start of the third trimester where I wore pieces that weren't included in the capsule, but after realising they were getting uncomfortable I stuck to my capsule wardrobe for the majority of the time.
The 22 items I had were great over summer (and multiple heatwaves!), but would need to be changed for cooler weather. Simple things like swapping the maternity denim shorts for jeans instead, and some long sleeved tops and fewer tanks.
Outfit Combinations from a Pregnancy Capsule Wardrobe:
Some photos of my favourite third trimester outfits from my capsule wardrobe to give you an idea of how I wore all the pieces in the third trimester. Not an exhaustive list, as 3 months worth of daily outfit photos would be a pretty big post! You can see all the outfits I wore in the third trimester here.
For my first capsule wardrobe experience, it was pretty fun, and I hope that it gives you some ideas or inspiration to try your own capsule wardrobe if you've often thought about it too.
My last corporate style post during my pregnancy! Here's what I wore for the last two days at work before maternity leave. While baby has arrived, I was so behind with blogging I've got a few more pregnancy outfits scheduled to share still. Means I can relax and enjoy newborn cuddles as the scheduled posts go live.
For those who asked on my previous office wear post, in Australia we are entitled to a year's maternity leave, with the ability to extend that to 2 years. The government will pay minimum wage for 18 weeks and most employers also offer a paid parental leave period in addition to this, so some of the first year can be paid. Hubby even gets paid parental leave for 2 weeks to help with the crazy newborn days which will come in very helpful. I'm very aware that I'm lucky to live in Australia and have the benefits we do.
Fourth and final wear for this dress! Not bad for a $1 opshop (thrift store) bargain! I bought it just to give me another office option during pregnancy. Only being worn 4 times I probably didn't need it as much as I thought I did, but when you hit that panicked stage in the second trimester worrying that you have nothing to wear you can go a little crazy shopping...at least it was only a dollar. It will be donated back to the store now, it served me well!
The only thing I didn't like about this outfit were the shoes - at 37 weeks with the crazy humidity it was really painful squeezing my feet into these all day!
I saved my favourite office wear for my last day, this beautiful maternity wrap dress worked so well through two pregnancies for me. One of those pieces I'm so glad I invested in. Even though I got it second hand, it was a bit pricey and the most expensive maternity piece I bought. Worth it though as it's always made me look and feel good.
I did break the office guidelines just a little and wore open toed sandals on my last day - but there was no way I was squashing my feet into shoes for another 8 hours! These were much more comfortable, even if I did have to have them as loose as they could go. The swelling has been much worse with this pregnancy, probably because of the high humidity.
Looking for more pregnancy style inspiration? Get my eBook: how to have a stylish pregnancy - on a budget! With a worksheet to help you build a pregnancy capsule wardrobe for all 3 trimesters!
As mentioned in my previous post, I'd been talking about and thinking about my handbags, and how things will change with them when baby's born. When toddler T was a baby, it took me a while before I started carrying my bags again and not just throwing my things into the baby bag.
The Mulberry bayswater is one of the bags that I'm sure will be neglected for a while. It's perfect for the office, not so much a day with a toddler. In my final weeks at work before maternity leave it was good to get it out again.
Can't believe this is only the third wear of this dress! Considering I got it at the op-shop (thrift shop) for $1 it's still a pretty good cost-per-wear though. I had the usual second trimester panic that nothing fit and I had nothing to wear so I went op-shopping and found this for only a dollar. A size larger than my normal, I knew it would work in pregnancy. It's a great piece for the office, although I don't see myself wearing it much after pregnancy so I'll try squeeze in a few more wears before baby arrives.
Another day at the office, another printed wrap dress! Unlike the one above, I feel I'm wearing this dress a lot this pregnancy! It's almost a weekly thing....
It's nice though having a go-to outfit for work though. It makes picking out something to wear the next day much easier, no matter how tired I am at the end of the day.
My third trimester work outfits are starting to get very repetitive! Although I do have maternity pencil skirts and tops, I've been falling back on the easy office wear option of a wrap dress frequently. I wore my damier ebene speedy bag with both outfits as I don't feel the checkered print competes too much with the prints on the dresses.
This dress has definitely been my most worn office wear this pregnancy! I'm so glad I bought it during my last pregnancy. I think wearing something once a week is perfectly acceptable in pregnancy, especially in the last trimester.
I've fallen into a third trimester pregnancy capsule wardrobe as the baby bump outgrows most things I own, so I'll need to do a post about that. This dress is one of the key pieces.
As I mentioned last time I wore this dress, being a non-maternity piece I'm trying to get as much wear from it as possible before the baby bump outgrows it. I was pleased I could squeeze in another wear.
When I was planning in the evening what to wear the next day, I was thinking of a different singlet to wear under this dress and thought that my turquoise one would look nice and match the print. I noticed in the morning that it didn't really match like I thought it would, it's more green than blue. Wore it anyway as I was running late and couldn't be bothered grabbing another top! It did bug me a little through the day though.
Keeping dressing for the office during pregnancy as simple as possible in the third trimester, I've been relying a lot on my wrap dresses - both maternity and non maternity ones.
I was eager to wear this dress again to the office. Although I bought it a size larger than usual so it would fit the third trimester baby bump, it's still not a maternity dress so I'm not sure how many times I'll be able to wear it before the bump outgrows it, and I'm trying to make the most of it while I can! I thought the magenta bag might be a bit of a bold pairing with the turquoise print on the dress, but really liked the way it looked.
As it's the second time I've worn this dress, and I'm reviewing everything I buy to make sure I'm adding the right things to my wardrobe, my purchase review:
I'm glad I bought this dress! It was an impulse buy in the sales and I wasn't sure if it would even fit around the bump, but I've been really pleased with it. I know I'll be able to wear it post-baby so I think it was a good pregnancy purchase. It's super comfortable for the office too. A purchase I'm glad I made, that will be worn now and after baby arrives.
Unlike the two bright colours together above, this is the magenta bag worn with a neutral dress. As much as I liked the colour combination in the first outfit, I think the magenta popping against a neutral outfit is my favourite way to wear it.
Just like last time, I'm starting to feel that I'm wearing this dress a lot over my pregnancy, but it's such an easy outfit option for work!
Gong Xi Fa Cai to everyone celebrating the Lunar New Year! Neither of the outfits below feature the traditional red or gold, instead I'm sharing what I wore to work a few weeks ago. Toddler T is still getting generously showered in little red envelopes though, we celebrate Chinese New Year.
The advice that I would give is to fast from social media. When you give it up, you give up your ties to it and it's hold on you is gone. Just distance yourself from it at least for a while.
There were lots of great entries, and similar advice, but I liked Sarah's mention that sometimes we need to to break the 'hold' we feel social media has on us.
I was excited to wear my new dress! I saw this on incredible sale at the Iconic for boxing day and ordered a size larger than my usual so that it would hopefully fit the baby bump. Was really pleased to find it accommodated a third trimester belly nicely. It's still on sale too...
I had an important meeting in the morning and then lunch with friends in the afternoon, this dress was the perfect office wear for that. And the print nicely disguised the fact that I spilled a little sauce down the front at lunch, haha!
While the dress in my first outfit isn't a maternity piece, this maternity wrap dress is one of my favourite pregnancy purchases from last time around. It always looks good, worked well for another day in the office and the navy MAB tote goes with everything of course.
Now that the Christmas and New Year's holidays are over, I'm back to sharing my office style. Even though I wore both of these outfits before Christmas! Have been so behind with blogging, although I was dressing for the Fox in Flats DAREcember style challenge each day.
