Maternity Wardrobe: Eight Months. Plus Post-Natal Wardrobe Plans

A couple of months ago I shared the contents of my maternity wardrobe as it stood at six months for those who may be interested in seeing how much/little I've personally found is required to get by. Now that I am really down the 'business end' of this pregnancy (eight months / 36 weeks in) I thought another update might be of interest to those same readers. 

So you see my clothing rail pictured above? See the little chunk of clothes gathered at the far left? That is now what I can fit in. The similarly small chunk of clothes slightly to the right of that is the (all secondhand) knitwear that I can wear with my maternity garments. From the end of my first trimester, as my body started to change, I started to implement a useful piece of advice I'd read about removing the items from your wardrobe that gradually began to feel too tight so that dressing in the mornings doesn't get really difficult (not to mention a bit disheartening). I did that for a long time, but as you can now see, if I still did that my rail would be virtually empty and all my clothing would be stuffed in bags wedged into corners round the rest of our flat! 

Therefore whilst unpacking from our recent move, I decided to rehang any garments I theoretically think I might fit into again during the first few months after the birth, particularly items that I think I may be able to wear whilst breast feeding. That's what the larger chunk of garments on the right of the rail in the photo comprises of. Doing that has also had the beneficial effect of reminding me that colour and variety in dressing will soon be an option once again. I still have one MASSIVE storage bag full of lovely garments that I doubt will either fit for some time (if ever!) or be breast-feeding friendly, but that's fine: the selection to the right of that rail above is a veritable wardrobe feast in comparison with my clothing options right now. Plus, I've discovered during this pregnancy that working with a smaller than my previous selection creates far fewer headaches, especially if the colours of your items mix and match well.  

So back to what my eight month maternity consists of:

Tops:

• Spotty dress-to-maternity T-shirt with gathered sides. This is a little bit too short so I have to keep yanking it down at the back. The neckline is a bit higher than the grey version and feels a bit frumpier.
• Fancy sleeved maternity T-shirt, also with gathered sides. This is my favourite garment to wear right now, the fabric is so soft and it's so comfy to wear generally (it's a bit longer than its spotty predecessor). 
• Striped Peter Pan batwing top, although it's been way too warm to wear this for ages. The mustard version kind of got relegated after the curry-down-the-front incident.  
• Modcloth-inspired maternity smock top. This has been trouper of a garment. 

Bottoms: 

• Blue treggings. For some time now I've had to wear these with the waistband rolled down at the front under my bump, but that is a small price to pay for how useful and how much wear these babies have been through over the last four or so months. 
• Some secondhand Topshop maternity jeans that I've been leant. These really got me out of a wardrobe fix but now are starting to get uncomfortable as my greatly expanded bump pushes them down at the front so they dig in somewhat.

Dresses:

• Nautical batwing jersey dress. This has been soooo useful. It can be worn on its own or as a tunic with bottoms. One day, when I'm done with breast feeding, I'll take it in a bit at the sides (assuming I'll need to!) so that I can get lots of non-maternity use from it. 
• Black batwing jersey dress. This has been the garment that made me feel the nicest and least frumpy! The jersey has slightly less stretch than the nautical version so it is getting really tight now...
• The modern muumuu. To be honest I haven't worn this since getting back from our holiday. A few commenters suggested that belting it would make it look less frumpy, and whilst I agree that the belted dress look often looks great on some pregnant women, I personally can't stand the feeling of a belt around my rib cage.  
• Secondhand Topshop maternity tea dress (not shown because it's somewhere in the laundry process). As I previously stated, I wasn't planning on buying any maternity wear beyond bras, but when I saw a lovely light-weight maternity tea dress in a charity shop just before our holiday I decided to buy it. It's got a low-cut cross-over bust part that I think will also make it useful for breast feeding. 

Other garments:

• My 'loungewear' still consists of two ropey pairs of secondhand jogging bottoms and some large baggy dude-T-shirts.
• My sleepwear still consists of my biggest pyjama bottoms and more baggy dude-T-shirts.
• I'm working with a limited selection of my largest undies, but I think I can get away with continuing to do so if I keep on top of the laundry (making some more in a bigger size would be pretty disheartening at this point). 
• My usual selection of secondhand cardigans are seeing me through very well thanks to the seasonal weather. If I was heavily pregnant in deep Winter I might require some cardigans or warm layers that wrap over/cover the bump instead. 
• One unpredicted maternity purchase that I did end up making was a secondhand maternity 'tankini' bought on eBay to wear on our recent holiday to Spain. I only wore it twice, but it's now been packed in my hospital bag as I'm hoping that water will be involved in my birth at some point and I may feel the need for a bit of coverage at least towards the beginning of labour.