How to stay warm in the colder weather if you're pregnant

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Rebecca Atkinson shares tips for staying warm when you’re pregnancy belly starts showing during the last stretch of winter. Jenny, who needed a maternity coat for the whole winter shared her experience last fall.

The only problem with being pregnant in the winter months is that a growing belly can mean more than just trouble doing up your pants – it can also affect your outer layers. I’ve been finding that I’m having more and more trouble closing some of my winter coats lately, which given the minus double digits Toronto has been getting lately gave me two options:

1. Buy a new coat that will last me for the next six weeks (based on our Wiarton Willie’s predictions) and hope that if I become pregnant again it will be during the winter months again;

2. Hibernate until Spring (which considering I do work from home, could have been a real possibility).

As I was explaining this dilemma to my neighbour Moira she looked at me and said: “Oh no, you don’t need to go buy a new jacket, I have two options for you.”

1. Get the biggest, longest scarf you have (or invest in one, it will be cheaper than a jacket) and wrap it around so it hangs down in front of your belly. Now look at your jackets and see if you have one of the following: a) a double zipper that you could work to do up above your belly, or a jacket with snaps/buttons/Velcro (with or without a zipper option too) that you could then again just do up above your belly. This way you are warm(er) and even somewhat fashionable without spending big bucks.

Your second option, she advised me – especially if we had a lot more winter to go through, was to:
2. Go to a second-hand clothing store and look at picking up a jacket (bonus if they have any maternity clothes) in a size that would fit my expanding belly.

Now I personally prefer Moira’s first option, especially because I like the idea that it can be somewhat stylish and I can save my money to buy other maternity clothes that I’ll be wearing for longer periods of time. I was really impressed with the idea though and realized a few things from just that short conversation.

Lessons Learned:
1. If you find yourself facing a pregnancy-related issue and are looking for a cost-effective solution, ask your friends and neighbours who have had children if they had the same problem and see what they offer – you’d be surprised at the little tips and tricks you can pick up.

2. For the amount of time you’ll be wearing it, it doesn’t make any sense to buy new – especially if you can cash in on someone else who decided to buy new for a short period of time and then no longer needed it. Looking around online at forums also seems to provide this same advice. Sure buy a few pieces new, but again for the amount of time the clothes are usually worn, you can get some great deals at used clothing stores, although from the sounds of it, you have to look often as they seem to go fast.

Do you have any pregnancy clothing tips to share that will save other expectant moms money? If so, we’d love to hear them.

Bump shopping - the results

In this week’s baby bargainista column, Jenny shares her experience finding chic maternity wear...

A while ago I posted about dressing the belly – finding chic, inexpensive maternity clothes once my belly got too big for even my “fat pants”. I hit that point recently and set off downtown in search of seasonal, work-appropriate clothes.

Alas, my hope for something that would allow me to adapt my existing summer-focused maternity wardrobe was dashed; not a maternity cardigan in sight. In fact I didn’t have much luck overall at my first stop, Motherhood Maternity. It seemed like they were still in the process of turning over their inventory from summer to fall, as most of the displays featured heavily discounted summer-weight short-sleeved tops.

I did try on a number of items there but found most of them ill-fitting at my current stage, and perhaps better suited to later pregnancy; I walked out with just a couple of maternity undershirts, hoping that by layering I can continue to stretch out (literally!) my pre-pregnancy wardrobe of long- and quarter-sleeved shirts through the chilly fall.

My next stop, Thyme Maternity, was much more successful. They too had summer stock on sale, and I picked up a couple of t-shirts for layering at 2 for $29; but they also had a wide range of fall items, from casuals like maternity cords (very comfortable) and cotton turtlenecks, to work wear like suits and blouses. I jumped at the chance to pick up a few blouses at 25% off – a bit lightweight, but in lovely jewel tones appropriate for fall and winter and easily layered under a jacket for extra warmth (a sample is pictured here).

Thyme also featured some great in-store deals. With every pant purchase you got $10 off a sweater, so I picked up some lovely dress pants (pictured here) and a very flattering sweater. Both fit like a dream and I was tempted to wear them straight out of the store! The sales clerk told me that Thyme features different deals weekly, to encourage repeat visits; so I may return to see what new deals I can find on more winter-weight maternity wear.

My only complaint is that the Eaton Centre store I was at had only one sweater left in my size, in just one color. I asked the clerk if they would ship another sweater for me in the other color from another location, and they would – but they wouldn’t hold it for me for more than 24 hours. That surprised me as it’s not always convenient for customers to rush to the nearest store to pick up special orders, especially with only 5 locations scattered around the GTA, and only one (the Eaton Centre) downtown. I asked if I could order it from their website, but was informed that the site was not commerce-enabled – another disappointment for such a large and well-known chain!

Introducing baby bargainista!

By now you probably know that my kids are way past the newborn, toddler and preschool stages. So, when my friend and expectant mom, Jenny Bullough wanted to blog about her shopping experiences, I welcomed her with open arms. I hope you do too!

Welcome to baby bargainista! In this weekly column I’ll be dishing about where to find good quality maternity, baby, and toddler goods, hopefully on the cheap or worth the money if they’re a big spend.

I’m a mom to one 4-year-old with another one on the way, due in January. My day job is in publishing, which is the kind of business you go into for the love of books, not because you expect to make six figures, so I’m always on the lookout for a good deal! My good friend Bargainista finally tired of hearing me blather on about my adventures in shopping for kids, babies, and bumps, and kindly offered me this weekly spot on her blog to get my ya-yas out – and hopefully offer a few helpful tips along the way.

My aim is to cover all kinds of topics of interest to moms and expecting moms -- from finding inexpensive yet stylish maternity wear, to finding baby gear and clothes, to outfitting a kid for preschool/daycare/JK/whatever, to finding safe toys and products (an ongoing concern of mine and of many parents), to decorating safely and inexpensively for a new baby and/or redecorating a young child’s room.

And I want to hear from you – if there’s a topic you would like covered, a tip on a great deal you’d like to share, or a question you’d like answered, let us know in the comments!