Seraphine Maternity and Nursing Jumper

If there's one thing I hate spending money on it's maternity clothes. If I had my time over I would go out when I was three months pregnant with Ned (2.5yrs), spend some money at Isabel Oliver, Seraphine and Topshop and then that would be it. I'd have good clothes that would see me through however many pregnancies I had. But instead I hated spending money and so didn't, until I really had to and then it's even worse because you don't get as much wear out of them. This time round I got so huge so quickly I had to buy more clothes at around 6 months because I was growing out of everything. Now some these clothes are nearly good as new having only been draped over my massive bulk 2 or 3 times. And I managed to mostly stick to my policy of only buying things you can breastfeed in... otherwise it's wear-life really is limited, unless you know you are going to bottle feed.

One purchase I have never regretted however, is the Seraphine Maternity and Nursing Jumper I bought when I was about three months pregnant with Jim (3 months). It lasted beautifully throughout the whole of my pregnancy and breastfeeding, goes with everything, washes well and is a flattering shape. £49 seems like an awful lot to spend on a jumper that you wear for such a limited time, an in fact it's quite a lot for any jumper but because most of us don't have the money to buy a whole new wardrobe I ended up wearing either this, or another jumper the whole way through my pregnancy so you really do get your monies worth. And I didn't feel fat, or gross, or terrible looking because it fitted well and still does despite having been worn through the extreme ends of pregnancy.

I don't often do clothing things on here - I spend most of my money on make-up and skincare, not clothes (I wish...) but this is something that is really worth investing in.

Seraphine Jeans

I thought buying maternity clothes would be really quite easy. A lot of people are having babies all the time and that's not going to change. But finding nice, normal looking maternity jeans was such a nightmare I was seriously considering taking a pair of scissors to my favourite Replay jeans and making my own bump stretcher.

I bought two pairs (1 black and 1 blue) of Topshop's Leigh jeans which are very nice. They are not denim so they are soft and comfortable but they only come skinny so as your thighs get bigger they don't look exactly flattering with trainers and with the weather in the UK at the moment flip flops are not really an option. Wearing trainers with skinny jeans that are just stretching to accommodate my now vast thighs was making me feel incredibly depressed and desperately unattractive. So I have a bump, I still want to look normal everywhere else.

Then I tracked down Seraphine and although their jeans aren't as cheap as the Topshop and H&M options the cut looked good and they are proper denim. I went crazy. I bought two pairs convincing myself that I would choose one and send the other back. A massive bonus was that most of them come with a thin bump band rather than one that goes all the way over which, with my short waist, isn't the most comfortable.

The first pair I chose were their straight leg premium maternity jeans. A lovely colour and great cut - all other maternity jeans I had found online seemed to be skinny or bootcut. The fact that they are worn by Dannii Minogue is something I couldn't care less about except that you can see her wearing them rather than a headless, lifeless, odd-shaped mannequin and they look nice!

The second pair where the I-don't-need-them-but-I-want-them pair of grey skinny luxe jeans. When I'm not knocked up I love wearing my grey skinnies at this time of year and have been missing them a little. I rather assumed these wouldn't fit and would be the ones to go back. Again being worn by January Jones and Jessica Alba seemed to be a big selling point for these and again seeing them on actual people was a massive help. They look like actual jeans, not just the bottom half of a sat romper suit.

Both pairs were £65, not exactly bank breakers but not cheap either baring in mind I'm having a bloody baby and they're not cheap either! But both of them fitted beautifully and I couldn't be parted with them. I've kept them both, even though they are so ridiculously long I had to spend £20 having them taken up, I am in love with them. As I said to my husband (as he wept over my red bank statement) they more than paid for themselves the first time I wore them because I feel normal! I feel like a regular pregnant woman from the waist down - they are comfortable but properly cut and structured. I really, really recommend getting them. And as I'm hoping this will not be the only time I'm pregnant, and I'm assuming I will be in them for a while after the baby, I think £65 is a really good price. There's no way that I would get my maternity jeans from anywhere else in the future.