Weekly Randoms w/o 3.14

inthewoods23

inthewoods23

Anyone else have a spring/summer wedding to attend before baby arrives? My cousin is getting married in early June and I really don't know what to plan on wearing. Being 8 months along at that point I can't exactly make anything I currently own work for a bump that big. Plus, is it going to be extra hot and I'll want a sleeveless dress? or perfectly cool in which a short sleeve dress would work? I also don't want to spend more than $30-40 max since at a maximum I'll use it for this wedding, likely my baby showers, and maybe our robotics team's awards event (high school so not that fancy although the girls have sometimes chosen to wear their homecoming/prom dresses). So maybe 4 times total I'll be wearing this dress. I do have a wedding in October to attend but I'm assuming at 3 months PP I can make something that's not specifically maternity work.

Store or website recommendations for where to get a relatively cheap but well constructed outfit appreciated! There's some sleeveless dresses I've been eyeing on Zulily that's $17 but I don't know what kind of quality you get from there.

LJMoon6

@inthewoods23 I got this classic black maternity dress from Target. You can definitely dress it up or down easily. I like the more tighter fitting clothes while pregnant, because any other time I’m trying to hide my fat belly lol, might as well show it off now. I also got a dress from motherhood that I wore for my shower, but that was a little bit more expensive. Definitely good quality though.

inthewoods23

@LJMoon6 oohh very cute! The dress I was looking at has a flowy skirt - also it's floor length which may or may not be a great idea if it's hot . But I wouldn't have to worry about making sure DH shaved my legs haha. I don't recall if there's A/C (ceremony and reception are at a castle).

My other worry too now that I think about it with a long dress is if I'm going to feel like I'm naked underneath because the flowy dresses never do any contouring around your bump. I might still be able to fit in my maxi dresses and see how I feel in them currently. If I already don't like it now I probably won't like it in a few months.

tuxielove93

I was able to wear a regular maxi dress when I was really pregnant. At least 7 months. You might get away with it if it's stretchy, and then it will be great for post partum too. It takes time to lose the baby weight, especially if you are breastfeeding. You won't still have a bump. But your shape changes too, and sometimes its hard to know when you need to buy new clothes versus still lose some weight. 

Like LJ, I have a maternity dress like that and I can wear it not pregnant. It just looks like a ruched dress. 

Pregnant women are always hot. It doesn't matter if it's a warm or cool day, you'll be hot by then, so I would air on the side of something that is breathable and keeps you cool. 

inthewoods23

@tuxielove93 I might be able to work one of my maxi dresses. Tried on one earlier and damn did my bump look cute lol. I don't want it to get overly stretch so we'll see.

I made the mistake of wearing pajama shorts to bed Sunday night and woke up with gross sweaty legs ew. This would happen even not pregnant though. Why did I expect any different? 🤦‍♀️ Last night was much better with leggings

erinstonewaltz

H&M always has lovely and simple dresses for mommas to be, and their prices are always reasonable and the materials nice. This one in particular I loved it, and you can use it in the summer for a simple cute afternoon, or dress it up for a party. The color is beautiful and you will probably feel cool on it... 
 

bearsandbeets7

@inthewoods23 sometimes baby/kids resale stores will have a maternity section that other moms have sold them. I found my favorite maternity dress to wear there when I was pregnant with DS. Amazon can have decent things as well.

I forgot to wear deodorant today and I feel like I smelled all day at work. I used my purse perfume but then I just feel like I smelled like perfume and armpit. My sense of smell is beyond anything else right now, so it was probably just my nose but it’s all I thought about all day. The other day I was at DS tball practice and someone sitting at the other end of the bleachers was eating sour cream and onion chips and that was all I could smell. 

tuxielove93

My landlord has decided to get a property management company to handle maintenance. One of the very few good things about this place was that whenever something was broken he just gave me a phone number and things were always immediately fixed because it was an actual plumbing or electric or whatever company. Please excuse me while I angry cry myself to sleep. 

sunshineandlemons

@bearsandbeets7 the smell thing is so crazy! I swear I can smell my kitchen drain (I probably need to clean the garbage disposal cover). When I was pregnant with my first, i could smell my boss (he’d gone to a BBQ place for lunch and I could smell it) and he was several cubes away!

Just realized on my weekly check-in I am actually 22 weeks today, not 21w6d. Today was crazy but good and my brain is just fried! 

elsalee26

@inthewoods23 I wore this dress to a wedding last weekend and it was very comfy and def would’ve fit over a bigger bump/bigger boobs. I’m also hoping to wear it at my cousins wedding 2 months after my due date 🤞

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0826M4LF6?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title

LJMoon6

I slipped on the ice this morning. Second time in a month. I'm fine. Baby is fine. I landed on my knees. I am feeling a little sore from the jostle though. Gah. I just want it to be summer!

sunshineandlemons

Ugh, that stinks @LJMoon6! Glad you and baby are ok!

tuxielove93

@LJMoon6 ugh that sucks! I hate falling when pregnant. Hope you feel better! 

inthewoods23

@LJMoon6 ouch! Glad you and baby are okay. Poor knees!


Well... I finally decided to use the hair tie around the pants button today tactic. It's not so bad. Would be worse if I couldn't even zip my pants 😬

And back to my comment with the wedding attire... I just found out that my SIL and her fiance have finally picked a wedding date. They've been engaged for nearly a year and a half and there's been no mention of a date (or even of venues they're considering). Apparently they want to get married in late July of THIS year. Super small, just immediate family and maybe some friends? Now, I'm due July 14th so there's no way I'll be attending this wedding right? Especially if I go overdue! I'll be too busy trying to recover and learn to take care of a newborn. It totally makes sense that we wouldn't attend right?

tuxielove93

@inthewoods23 If you really wanted to attend you could, but I don't think anyone is going to hold not attending against you. And there is no way I would commit to going personally. It makes perfect sense to decline outright 

ETA: I'm impressed you are still in real pants at all. 

inthewoods23

@tuxielove93 lmao FWIW, early 2020 my RE recommended going gluten and dairy free thinking that may help us conceive during an embryo transfer cycle. Covid cancelled it but I stayed on the diet (mostly) until I hit 2nd tri. I actually lost 20lbs in a few months after starting the diet so pretty much all of my pants became 1-2 pant sizes too large for what was my pre-pregnancy waistline. Plus some of the jean fabric is pretty stretchy. So yeah... I can still fit-ish in some of my regular pants at nearly 23 weeks because they were bought when I was around 140-150lbs vs 125lbs when I got pregnant.

I'm only wearing jeans at work and sometimes for personal engagements. Otherwise I am 100% in sweats or leggings because that's way more comfortable as we all know. I don't think work would like me in crazy patterned leggings haha

runnergirl2018

@inthewoods23 - check out Pink Blush - they alwys have sales and some of their stuff is good for bumps/no bumps

I also got some cute dresses from Stitch Fix that i wore through pregnancy and after - they were more like $40-50 i think but i definitely got more use out of them. 

My sister is getting married 2 months after baby's due date so i'm going to hve a lot of fun finding a dress for that. thankfully they're doing a super casual thing

sunshineandlemons

@inthewoods23 I agree with what @tuxielove93 said you can attend if you want to but no one would bat an eye if you weren’t there and they would understand. My brother got married 3 weeks after my first was born. We did take the baby and go. She slept most of the time, but I think it’d be hard to go out on week 2 or earlier, as you’re adjusting and especially if your delivery needs a longer recovery. If you decide to go, you’ll need to ask them about a place to pump, if you’re doing that. And if you’re feeding from bottles (bm or formula) and warm them, will you have a way to warm them?  

tuxielove93

@sunshineandlemons oh shoot I didn’t think about feeding. If you’re directly breastfeeding too, idk if you want two weeks post partum at a wedding to be your first public feeding experience. Baby is still learning to latch and you’re still learning to be comfortable and those sessions can be long. Im a big big advocate that whatever mom is comfortable with everyone else should just shush about, but idk if you want to put yourself in that place at only two weeks or less. Even if everyone is nice and supportive it can atill be nerve wracking the first couple times you do it. Your hormones are still really out of whack af that point. 

bumblebee0210

@inthewoods23. Definitely say "no" to this, or at least "we probably will not be able to attend-- don't count on us". If they are having a really small wedding, and it's important for her for her brother and SIL to be there, they could pick *literally any other month*. If it's more important to them to do it that particular month, then god bless! You can send a gift. But yeah if it's after your due date, no way. It's worth remembering that if you have a vaginal delivery, even if it goes pretty smoothly, the recovery is no joke. If you have a c-section, forget it. In any case, you will be heavily bleeding (likely still wearing disposable underwear), leaking milk, very sleep-deprived, and likely covered in spit up. I actually think the postpartum period was not as bad for me as others I knew, but I think that is in part because I did not try to do anything. At all. In some cultures, women "lie in" for a full month after giving birth. Do not feel obligated to go to this wedding. 

(Also this opinion is somewhat colored on previous stories about this particular SIL who never seemed like a super considerate person. This is the same one, right??). 

On dresses-- you could do rent the runway? They have a lot of maternity stuff. I have to go to a bachelorette party in Vegas at the ned of April and this was my solution. Then you could get a nice dress, pay like $40 or so, and not have to keep a dress in your closet you will wear once. 

inthewoods23

@sunshineandlemons we literally know no other details. Sounds like it's specifically on the 23rd. No idea if they're having an ordained minister to wed them at a park... Or just at the courthouse... Not a clue. So no idea what my options are or if there's even a reception. It would just be parents and siblings. I think the only way I'd be even remotely ok with going is if baby comes a couple weeks early and things have settled down by then. Otherwise no, I'm not getting dressed up for a relationship that I think is a terrible idea.

@tuxielove93 yeah maybe it would be a different story if I wasn't a FTM, but even my friend when she had her 2nd said she really didn't do anything for the first month (granted it was also the start of covid but still) and I think the same will be the case with her 3rd that she should be having in the next week or 2.

@bumblebee0210 ding ding ding!! Same SIL! Lmao. DH did bring it up to his sister like hey, that's really close to the baby so just something to think about. Seriously, ANY other month would have been fine. Weirdly I think my dad had heard when we had everyone over at our house for Memorial day last year that they were looking at the fall. Even at work we've pretty much planned that I won't have anything critical planned for the month of July. I may look at rent the runway. How long can you hold on to the dress before you have to give it back? Is it like a monthly fee?

runnergirl2018

@inthewoods23
i think I misread initially. I would probably not go. I skipped hubby’s work Xmas party when my baby was 4 weeks old because I just couldn’t and had no desire to be out of the house for that long or away from baby. Maybe when you find out more details you can decide?

inthewoods23

@runnergirl2018 yeah that's kind of where we're at. My initial thinking is no, unless he happens to be born a little early in June so a good 3+ weeks have passed by the time the date comes around. But who knows, I'm not going to want to go if I'm a sleep deprived and emotional mess. Are leggings acceptable wedding attire 😂

feather_heather

@inthewoods23 DD had colic and I was seriously sleep deprived the first 6 weeks PP. I would not have wanted to go or really have been able to function at any sort of event 2-3 weeks PP. I'd tell them you won't be able to make it.