Hey, all you pregos, did you know that Lane Bryant came out with a Maternity line? Figures they did after my baby was born! I got an email today about it. It's for the catalog I think, not the store.

LOL pffffftttt darnit! I got most of mine through JcPenney because we couldn't find any. Too late now, and hopefully by next baby I won't need plus-size.

Cool. I've started looking for places to buy plus-size maternity clothes. Don't need them yet, but I figure with the limited selections/options, I should at least have a game plan. lol

Question for the experienced mommies: did you find that you could get by with regular clothes that were just a size larger, or did you really need maternity clothes? I've heard that plus size gals can get by with larger, regular clothes and was wondering if there was any truth to that.

I think it depends if you're working or not! I could wear sweats throughout the whole thing, and my existing tshirts, but if you need to dress a little better than that, no, larger sizes will not fit correctly. Motherhood has a few things for plus size....I got a better selection while PG with #1, than #2.

The Lane Bryant catalog is actually not related to the store at all; they basically license their name to the folks who put out the Roaman's catalogue. Having had a very bad experience the one time I tried to order through them, I won't again.

Motherwear I think has a maternity catalog with some plus-sized clothes at about the same price point as Lane Bryant. Gap & Old Navy both go up to about 3X in their online maternity. Of course, if you're able to spend Lane Bryant prices and willing to buy from a catalog or online, enter "plus sized maternity clothes" into a search engine. There are a TON of online boutiques that carry plus-sizes.

As to the wearing larger clothes...That's what I did last time and what I am doing now. I was a size 18 last time, so I was actually able to pick up a few pairs of pants at Target for $20 a pop and I wore them constantly. I have never been able to wear maternity tops. They are just cut poorly; apparently large-breasted women never get pregnant. So for tops I have always worn street clothes, and I got through the first trimester twice in the past with about three drawstring skirts (I cannot stand to have anything binding my stomach the first few months, so drawstring skirts let me go underneath my tummy). Right now I'm surviving on the few size 22 bottoms I kept to sell online.

Haut? What I did was go to JcPenney.com around November when I first found out and bought a bunch of the clearance items from last summer because I knew that was when I would be needing them.

I think everyone is different and even every pg is different. Many women with their first don't show till pretty far into the pg. If you don't gain much its different again. I'm unwilling to spend what they are asking for at online boutiques. I can't find my size locally. I do sew so I wear my regular shirts and made myself a few pairs of overalls. Around the house I wear sweats and tshirts but I couldn't go out in them as my belly shows if I move lol. My belly muscles are shot. I start showing very early. I was getting asked when I was due by 14 weeks lol.

I need to get some new belly pics done.

Catherine EDD#11 June 24th
hw/sw(pg)/cw/gw
272/258/238/155
mabear's homepage

Sabra, I totally hear ya' on the boobs!