Clothes for the baby and for growing the baby

NEVER pay full price.  You know that, right??

I honestly don't remember the last time I paid full sticker-price on any piece of clothing.  Maybe for socks.
I LOVE shopping, and I won't lie to you and keep that a secret.  But I wanted to be wise with my maternity wear and baby clothes.  Both items get only a few months of use out of them-- so I wanted to invest wisely.

When I was only 12ish weeks pregnant and not really showing-- I bought my first maternity clothes.  I bought them off of Craigslist for $40 and received about 20 different items.

3 Jeans/pants, 3 t-shirts, 3 long sleeve shirts, 3 cardigans, 6 sweaters, 1 dress, 1 dress shirt-- Lots of Old Navy and Liz Lange. And 1 cat who was still having difficulties adjusting to the changes beginning to happen... so she decided to sit on them.

I won't wear a few sweaters or a couple of the jeans-- but any thrifter knows that maternity clothes are hot items to consign at second hand stores.  So for $40-- I've already worn their worth. Love the cardigans that are there and the long thin t-shirts.

I've received items as gifts this Christmas, and bought a few on great sales.  Or used a $3 off Liz Lange coupon at Target to get things 75% off or more. I've looked at a couple second hand stores and bought a maternity winter coat. I debated if I needed that... but sometimes I have recess duty when I substitute and then we discovered we'd be going to NYC. A coat that covered would be necessary.

One thing I wanted to do with this- because I know this is a temporary wardrobe-- was to venture out from my "usual style."  So I bought jeggings.  Elastic waistline maternity jeggings :) I was going to buy them for $14 but they rang up as $10-- so even better! I may be seen in them after pregnancy... fair warning.

AND that brings me to clothes for when that baby is not inside me.

My aunt loaned out 2 full bags of baby boy clothes!! That helps a lot-- this kid has plenty of clothes for the first 6 months of his life!!

And of course I can't resist not buying anything for my baby-- so here's a few recent finds:

and now.... for the price tags on those new clothes:

CHEAPER than thrift stores and NEW-- most who know me well know that I can't just walk by something like that.  I LOVE it when you have to scratch off several layers of discount tags to get a peak at the original price :)

 I know it's hard to buy clothes ahead of time because who knows what size range our baby boy will turn out to be, but I will be determined to get uses out of these!

Anyone know right away where these are from because of the discount tag?  Old Navy, of course.  I've memorized what store's clearance stickers look like.  Kohls is yellow, Target is red/orange, Old Navy is orange, Gap is white, and lots of department stores are marked in red pen...


Being able to say BOY for the last couple months has really helped me a lot with the fact that this is something that is actually happening.  I know a lot of people are totally "for" or "against" finding out the baby gender.  I'm not totally one way-- but I will tell you it's helped me. Knowing that he is a boy has helped my attachment and bonding with this baby I'm growing.  I didn't think I'd need extra help in making this feel real-- but knowing "boy" has helped my brain and my emotions a lot!!