This is way overdue, but I had promised several months ago that I'd post a collection of my first-trimester outfits. I've never posted so many outfits all together, but it's kind of a fun retrospective of my style! I may not look very pregnant in most of these, but I actually was trying very hard to minimize the bump, because I wanted to wait till second trimester to announce the pregnancy.
I only gained about 4-5 lb, but it was all in my tummy, and it was fairly noticeable if I let it all hang out (like in #44!). I learned that being an apple and having learned to dress my shape over the past year with the help of YLF was useful, because I could just use the same apple-minimizing tricks to hide the bump.
I wore a lot of structured sheath dresses and pencil and other high-waisted A line skirts to hide the bulge. And I used fitted and nipped waist jackets and lots of belting to define the natural waist and make me look slimmer (nobody expects a pregnant woman to wear belts). And I also used tunics, billowy blouses and ponchos to skim over the bump, which was new for me as I typically did not do much waist surrender before this. Both strategies worked pretty well.
The wrap and draped jersey dresses were not quite as good at hiding the bump though...as I found out later, #46 apparently caused some gossiping amongst my mom friends at a kid's birthday party ("Is she or isn't she?") but nobody dared to ask. I was lucky that several of my pants still fit through the first trimester, so I didn't have to resort to the rubber band trick or Bella bands. But I typically wear skirts and dresses much more anyways, and found that for me, they were more forgiving of a growing tummy.
I made it to week 13 before being "outed" by one of the nurses at work. I almost made it to the end of first trimester without revealing my secret! I think the trick to hiding a pregnancy (besides the figure flattery tips I listed above) is to avoid using empire waists and maternity clothes for as long as you can...keep wearing your usual clothes and slip in a few new looser/larger pieces here and there, so it doesn't seem like you're switching to a whole new (maternity) wardrobe all of a sudden. Plus you don't want to buy maternity clothes too early, because they won't fit you later...I bought a pair of white maternity jeans in first trimester but then when I pulled them out in 2nd trimester, they were now too tight!
Anyways, hope this is helpful to all the pregnant YLF'ers out there. I know I really wished I had more info on how to dress during pregnancy, so I'm hoping this will be useful! And even if you're not pregnant, you can have fun analyzing my style for me! (And maybe you guys can post a lookbook of your own style!) Thanks for looking and commenting (and wading through this huge pile of pics)! Stay tuned for the 2nd trimester lookbook!
1-5. 6/22-6/28 Week 4. #1 is the day I found out I was pregnant!
6-11. 6/29-7/5 Week 5.
12-16. 7/6-12 Week 6.
17-24. 7/13-19 Week 7. #18 OC YLF meetup--pic with MaryK!
25-30. 7/20-26 Week 8.
31-36. 7/27-8/2 Week 9.
37-44. 8/3-9 Week 10. #43 and #44 were taken on the same day! The bump-erasing power of structure and waist definition!
47-50. 8/10-8/16 Week 11. #49 is twin day with Rae!
51-54. 8/17-8/23 Week 12.
55-60. 8/24-8/30 Week 13. The stretchy skirt in #55 is what gave away my secret, so I finally announced the pregnancy to everyone (including you all at YLF!)
