One of my general life policies is that I don’t wear pants that encroach upon my belly button. (My others are that I don’t dance and I don’t trust people who don’t eat. But I digress.) I don’t like how high-waisted pants feel and I certainly don’t like how they look – I’m seriously short-waisted and that just exaggerates the problem.
So the first time I was pregnant, I was pretty excited to see that I could get maternity pants that were “under the belly.” Not knowing any better, that’s pretty much all I bought.
I’m guessing these pants drove me nuts the first time around, but maternity clothes must be like childbirth – you forget how awful they are in order to do it all over again.
But these pants are seriously going to be the death of me. They will NOT stay up! I am forever hitching up my pants. It’s awful. The best part is when I feel a breeze on my stomach and know that my pants have fallen so low that my mid-rif is showing. And believe me, that is not a good look.
Sure, the theory of low-rise maternity pants is good. They don’t have an awful panel, and they really look pretty normal, other than the elastic waistband. But looking cute on the hanger and looking cute on a veeeery pregnant woman are two different things. Yet-to-be-pregnant women be warned.
If you think about it, it’s got to be like a basic law of physics or something – if you put a rubber band around the bottom 1/3 of an egg, it would probably slide right off.
However, I am not about to go buy new pants at this late date, so I will spend the next 10 weeks trying to keep myself from getting arrested for indecent exposure.
Oh geez. You are so right, cousin!! Andrea and I were just discussing this Friday night. This makes me wanna go get my tubes tied!
They have some new Belly Band that addresses this problem. Try http://www.bellaband.com
Me? Sadly I’m mom jeans all the way because I can’t stand the thought of my butt crack showing. 😉
I second the bellaband. Those low waisted maternity jeans make you feel “hip” when there’s no possible way to be in that category (sorry – at least for me anyway). Just remember to still zip them (unlike I did) while wearing the bellaband or the world will see your glory!
It is a slippery slope. do you go with the really cute on a hanger low rise pants or the ones that are hiked all the way up to your bra? I went with the granny style myself. Never flashed anyone my ginormous belly while I was pregnant.
Now the nursing top flashing incidents were a whole other problem for me. But that’s another story for another blog post.
My children were born before the bella band. I had a pair of Japanese Weekend pants. I wore those things until they were thread bare. They are totally worth every penny! I would suggest splurging on a new pair from their website or stores. But used on eBay are great too. Just get them. I am like you about the wierdness of maternity pants. You will not have any of that with these pants.
I just went to their website, click on the sale button. They have jeans for $19.99 and nice pants for $24.99. Of course they have non sale for up to $80.
I have a black and a white bellaband (the original brand). I liked them to cover up my belly when my shirt rode up, but I don’t think they helped at all to keep my pants up, as they advertise they can.
I think I have a few pair of over the belly pants in size L if you want to borrow them.
I used the belly band early in pregnancy, just so I could unbutton/zip my regular pants. But as I grew, I quickly upgraded to FULL PANEL maternity pants. I can’t stand the feel of material on my belly when pregnant….so I hike those bad boys up under my breasts!!! LOL. Now, after having a C-section, I can’t stand having material sit that low, close to my scar. So I’m still sporting mom jeans. Oh well. No muffin top, and they help hold things in 🙂
I loved the low pants earlier in pregnancy, when my pants didn’t fit but I didn’t have a massive belly either. Now, with 6 weeks to go, all those pants are just falling down! I hate it. I actually don’t wear my jeans any more at all. I found a couple pairs of pants at Target that are cute…they have a big elastic band… it goes up higher than my jeans did, but aren’t the full panel. They stay up really well. All my shirts are too short now too. I got a couple good tanks at JC Penny’s that are pretty long. I wear those under everything.
It’s so complicated, isn’t it?
I hate those pants….ugh! I ended up not wearing those kind of pants my 4th time around because they drove me insane!!
I was 19 when I had my first daughter, so I thought it was fun wearing maternity pants, LOL. With my 2nd, I was 23 & pregnant most of the hot months so I wore a lot of shorts 🙂 Try a thrift store, you can get jeans really cheap, under $5. Or you could try freecycle! Most people only wear maternity clothes a handful of months, so the clothes are in like new condition.
How about suspenders 😉
Hi Emily! The egg analogy cracked me up! 😀 I like Ashley’s idea…suspenders would be HOT! Especially if they were those really wide rainbow colored ones 😉 Or you could just wear some overalls every single day with one of those straw cowboy hats like on Hee-Haw! On second thought, it would probably be better to just keep hiking them up 😀 Later!
Yep, I remember this when I was pregnant with Becca! I thought they would be so comfortable – and they were for about the first 3 months, and then I had to stop wearing them and go back to my ‘old’ pants. And the most annoying thing was that you couldn’t hardly find any other styles in the stores, so you almost had no choice… I bought most of mine secondhand so I could find the older styles that stayed up better. 🙂
I didn’t have a bella band for my first pregnancy and I remember I was constantly feeling that not-so-pleasant belly breeze! But now with this pregnancy and thanks to your recommendation on this very blog, I have a bella band and I don’t feel the breeze as much. BUT it’s not fool proof and I’m still tugging at the darn things all day. Ugh. I hear you.
See..with no. 1 I didn’t really care too much and wore coveralls…they stayed up and I looked like a weeble.
With no. 2 I managed to go a long time with just bigger pants.
with no. 3 at 6 months I was trying every time of mat pants and yeah..they ALL slid down on me