Preggers Archives - Wyze Traveler

It’s December and it is time to show your holiday spirit if you haven’t been already! Being in my third trimester rules out a lot of clothing I have worn in previous years. Luckily there are a lot of sales going on at this time of year and tons of cozy clothing available making this last stretch more comfortable.

While there is no shortage of advertising for maternity clothing, I have mostly avoided buying them as not only are they expensive but I can’t see myself wearing most of them again. I have tried to shop at the same stores I typically frequent and just upsize as I figure I will be able to wear these again.

Here are some suggestions on clothing to buy while being pregnant for the BEST season of the year, where to find them, current sales and just ideas to help you find your pregnancy style!

For Comfort:

It’s time for leggings! Not only because my jeans haven’t fit in awhile… Although, I was able to rig them for a little while with the hair tie trick. Over the past month I have found several pairs of cheap holiday leggings. I bought 2 pairs from Marshalls for $7 and 2 pairs from JC Penney for $7 each. After wearing all of them the ones from JC Penney have held up better, and are my favorite. I have gotten so many compliments on these leggings and the best part is they are cheap, comfortable, and so festive. The leggings from JC Penney are the two pictures on the left and the ones from Marshalls are the two pictures on the right below.

I recently tried out a flannel shirt for the first time in years, after borrowing one at my Mom’s house. They are soooo cozy and I love the buffalo plaid look. Flannel couldn’t be more comfortable and is great for a pregnant belly! You can either button it or layer underneath and leave it open. Another great thing is most are not meant to fit snug to your body so you may only have to upsize by one size. I have the Red Plaid Flannel Two-Pocket Boyfriend Shirt from Express which I bought 50% off and that sale is still going on (picture on left below).

I am also loving cardigans! I layer underneath them to keep the bump warm. These are also great because you may be able to order a similar size to what you wore before pregnancy and thus be able to wear it again. My favorite for this season is the Sherpa Open Front Cardigan from Abercrombie (picture on right above). I bought it for 50% off and it is still on sale for $44. It is the coziest thing I own and feels like you are wrapped up in a blanket! Who doesn’t love Sherpa?

You can’t forget your feet now, to keep warm or just cozy try Field & Stream Cozy Cabin Slipper Socks from Dicks Sporting Goods. They are currently buy one get one free. They are super soft and warm. I have not only bought these for myself (one for home use and one to take to the hospital), but for my husband and a few others as gifts.

For special occasions and parties:

For special occasions or holiday parties, I again didn’t want to buy something I could not wear again. I ordered dresses from multiple stores trying to avoid maternity dresses, just upsizing but they typically didn’t come close to fitting or if they did they had the fit and flare style and just made me look double my actual size! Then I ran across the Reversible Floral/ Filigree Print Knit Sheath Dress at White House Black Market. In being a frequent shopper at this store these typically have a lot of stretch in them. Also, the reversible factor is awesome! You probably have more than one event to attend this season and you can save money by only buying one dress, yet having two separate styles to wear. The dress is $110, but the whole store is 40% off still and if you are a rewards member you get an additional 5% off at checkout. I was able to size up by one size and it fit perfect, just showing off the adorable bump. I paired one side of the dress with the Crystal-Bow Velvet Belt is also found at WHBM (right picture below). It has three different sizing snaps on each one, so I will be able to wear it again after pregnancy, I have it on the loosest snap. They sell the matching Crystal Bow Shoe Clips, but they are sold out online. You may still be able to find this in the store to add some bling to your outfit.

Another dress that is super cute and reversible is the Ultimate Reversible Floral/ Solid V-neck Shift Dress also found at WHBM. On the front side it has flowers along with a nice port color shifting to black at the bottom, perfect for the holiday season (left picture below). The other side is a solid black (right picture below). I also paired the crystal bow belt with both sides of this dress.

For those holiday runs/ walks:

If you live in Atlanta or any big city you probably know about the customized gym shoes that different shoe companies make for big events. In Atlanta every year Mizuno makes a new pair of tennis shoes for the Peachtree Road Race which has 60,000 runners each year. I love unique shoes and just running shoes in general. My husband found the ULTIMATE Christmas tennis shoe for me…. wait for it… the Ugly Sweater Levitate 2 made by Brooks. The shoe not only looks amazing for the holiday season, but it jingles all the way. Literally there are small bells attached to the shoe laces. Don’t worry you can remove them, but I find it fun to leave them on. It’s always amusing to walk by someone and see the perplexed look and smiles while they try to figure out where the jingling is coming from. Every time I have worn these shoes, especially when paired with my cozy holiday leggings above I always get a smile from those at the gym or that I pass while walking, along with a “Don’t you look festive! Happy Holidays!” I bought these when they were 25% off from Dicks Sporting Goods, but other stores carry them too like Road Runner Sports.

For the scrappy:

One issue I have run into is that I can’t button any of my winter coats! I also don’t want to go and buy additional coats and jackets unless I have to. They are expensive and I know I won’t wear them again if they don’t fit like my current ones do. Luckily I live in Atlanta and the weather has been very nice so I have gotten away with layering and wearing baggier sweatshirts that I owned previously. On the colder days you may be able to raid your partners closet to see if one of their coats fit. I have done this a few times and they actually fit perfectly and do not look bad at all, since they were a simple black bubble jacket. Try this before hitting the store for new jackets.

Happiest of holidays! Hope this gives you some additional ideas than just traditional maternity clothes.

It seems like every day one of my friends is announcing they are pregnant on facebook in some unique way. There are ideas all over Pinterest, Etsy and Google advertising cute ways to announce you are pregnant. However, we all want ours to be unique and to fit our personalities, right? Take in all the ideas and think about who you are and what fits you best.

You will first need to decide when you want to make the announcement. We waited until about 16 weeks, so we were safely passed the 1st trimester, had two ultrasounds and baby was healthy. Make the announcement when you feel comfortable in your pregnancy to do so, as you will hear many more times throughout your pregnancy- every pregnancy is different.

Our announcement included “And so our greatest adventure begins….”. It fit us perfectly as of all the travels, experiences and memories we have had this is sure to be our greatest adventure together. Then I tied in LOVE, creating two t-shirts, LO for my husband and VE for me. I opted several times throughout pregnancy to do some do it yourself (DIY) work as these shirts and props get expensive! Once you have the basic supplies it makes it easy to create more.

Think of a good hashtag, so you can use it in with all your pregnancy photos to remember your journey later on.

Items needed for DIY

Computer/ Printer to print design
Pencil for tracing
Freezer Paper (can be found at Walmart)
X-acto knife (can be found on Amazon)
Iron/ Ironing board
Fabric Paint
Foam brushes
T-shirts (used my husbands older white under shirts instead of buying new ones)
Piece of cardboard

Don’t worry too much if you aren’t that artistic, I definitely had some minor flaws in my final product but they were not noticeable in a picture.

Steps to create LOVE t-shirt

1.) Type LOVE in Microsoft Word and print in landscape format. I chose a very large chunky block lettering to make tracing easier.

2.) Put piece of freezer paper over the printed pages and trace the word. While doing this turn your iron on.

3.) Place a flat piece of cardboard (I cut mine out from an old box) behind the freezer paper.

4.) Use an X-acto knife to carefully cut the traced word out. Be careful as that knife is sharp!

5.) Put the letters aside and use the outline of the letters to iron onto the shirt. You will use this as a stencil to then paint inside. For the word LOVE, you will need to also iron on the inner circle of the O.

Tip: Before ironing make sure you know where you would like to iron the letters onto each shirt. Since my husband is taller than me, I needed to drop his letters on his shirt and raise mine up a little. They were not placed in the same location on both shirts as I wanted them to be in a straight line when standing next to one another.

6.) Place the piece of cardboard (or ironing board) between the front and back of the shirt and begin ironing on the freezer paper stencil. Be careful while doing this, as freezer paper is thin. Once the stencil of LO is ironed on securely, add the inner part of the O and carefully iron this on too.

7.) Repeat step 6 for the second shirt (VE) and beware of my tip above for placement. Make sure to iron all edges near the letters as we will be painting over these.

8.) Once both shirts have their stencils ironed on, it is time to paint! Pour some paint onto a disposable paper plate and use a foam brush to slowly paint inside the stencil. While painting keep the piece of cardboard between the front and back of shirt to prevent any paint seeping through the front of the shirt to the back. Repeat this step for each shirt.

9.) Check shirt throughout the next 15-20 minutes and if the color is too light than add another coat of paint to each shirt.

10.) Once the paint is dry, slowly peel back the freezer paper to reveal your fabulous new DIY shirts!

For our announcement we held up a onesie that said “And so our greatest adventure begins….. Baby K arriving January 2019”

Good luck on your announcement, it will be great!

Tag: Preggers

Pregnancy Style during the Holiday Season