Pregnancy : All Things Fabric Related

Here are some of my experiences during my pregnancy phase - whether you'll be needing more clothes or not, it is entirely up to you and your body. As for me, I stayed at home most of the time and not so fancy with my clothing styles, so I don't need that many. I wore the same thing repeatedly all the time :D

By the third month of my pregnancy, I can't no longer wear my jeans (so I stopped wearing them). By the 5th month of my pregnancy, I can't wear most of my loose shirts - so I washed, folded and kept them in my cloth packs (because I know I might not be wearing it for another 6 months). So there is no surviving without having to buy new clothes - even how hard you try, your body will change during this new phase. I hate having to buy new clothes, especially after I've done so many cloth-filtering and donated most of my old clothes throughout the year since I got married. But I had to adapt with my new body.

Roughly by the end of my 2nd trimester, I think I gained almost 5kg. Still skinny on some parts, but gaining weights on important parts that play roles in pregnancy : middle area. 

--

About clothes :

1. Maternity friendly shirts : I don't think I bought any maternity shirt, but I bought several loose shirts on Lazada/Shopee tho. Previously, my clothes were mostly loose with linen-like-thin fabrics so I got to use most of them half of the pregnancy phase. Eventually I slowly stopped wearing some of my favorite shirts because my tummy got bigger. 

I bought 3 cotton t-shirts in different colours (they are big loose style, non-iron, and airy material + cheap) and another 1 loose red casual shirt for more formal event (if needed). Keep repeating the same clothes over and over again when we go out. Even still using them during my 8 month of pregnancy. 

It is advisable to buy something that you would wear even when you are no longer in a pregnancy phase so you wouldn't be wasting fabric & money.

And I can imagine wearing this with slim jeans after the pregnancy, so, this works. 

--

2. The maternity pants : Most of the time, my favorite pants so far is the Uniqlo drape jogger pants (black) that I bought long ago. I think I've been wearing it in my first and whole second trimester because it is loose and comfortable. It is not even a maternity pants - just a normal casual pants :

But eventually I had to buy maternity pants with stretch rubber on the abdomen area because why la everything become so uncomfortable during pregnancy phase :F The cons about wearing a maternity pants is when you are having rashes around the abdomen area due to the stretches, it will become uncomfortable and itchy :(

--

3. The maternity undergarments : I wore the same set of my normal panties throughout first and 2nd trimester, did bought some for the third trimester but not wearing them as much. I guess all my old panties works just fine. Whether I didn't gain that much on those area, or they are now super stretchy and huge by the end of the pregnancy.
Bra is a different story, you need new bras or at least a bra extension clasp (definitely - by the 2nd trimester). Earliest investment. Goodbye flat-chest, hello adulthood. 

--

4. Comfortable house wear : I bought 2 men's singlet at a second-hand shop in Raub, as huge as what Af would probably wear because they are comfy, loose and huge (like a skirt). You have no problem with the abdomen area and you know this is just a phase, why not buy something used to be more eco-friendly? It only costed RM 4 for each singlet and I wore it everyday.
Sometimes I even wear Af's shirt around the house because they are big, and they smell like him ♥️

--

5. Raya wear : I decided to not buy any Raya clothes this time. I wanted to wear something that I would like to wear that felt like me. Plain, clean, natural colour. Normally, we don't have the freedom to choose our own Raya clothes because we had to wear the same thing - or almost the same thing. But this time, I told them that I'll be wearing something that I already picked months back (and due to the pregnancy, my clothes choice is quite limited so I want the freedom to choose).

So I chose to wear a long linen top in lightest green and wear it with the dark green skirt that I sew back in the sewing class. For the first time in my life, I get to wear something that felt like me during Raya :D

I felt like myself, I look exactly like how I wanted to be seen - plain and natural :

View this post on Instagram

Selamat Hari Raya everyone ! ❤️✨ • #teamtakbelibajuraya

A post shared by azreenchan (@azreenchan) on Jun 4, 2019 at 8:23pm PDT

--

Extra :

Thoughts on Pregnancy Pillow -

I would love the idea of having the pregnancy pillow (the G/U-shaped one) but reluctant to buy it due to the ugly design and knowing that this phase will only last for only 9 months (or even less). I hate the idea of keeping such an ugly thing on my bed afterwards - even how comfy it might look. 

My solution, I have a lot of square-shaped thin zabuton (Japanese sitting cushion) that my mom made for me. I slept on my left side most of the time, so one cushion below my abdomen on the left, one cushion behind me (on my right), and a bolster for me to hug. Sometimes I even put another zabuton beneath my legs to make my legs higher (during the night-cramp phase). The perks of having a lot of zabuton in my house :p

--

Little House : Clothes minimal, NOT

We moved back to my red bricks apartment last weekend.

They are still staying with us until March, after we come back from our Japan trip. So for now, Af & I are going to stay in the medium-sized room in my apartment. We finally have a large windows and sun lights ! And our own personal moss-free wardrobe. 

Moving out has always been a fussy matter.
One of the things that I hate is organizing my clothes because I have piles and piles of unused stuffs. So 4 weeks before moving back in, I went back and took out all my clothes from my old wardrobe and started to divide it into 3 piles : Definitely will use, Probably will use, and Will never use. The ones that I will never use were donated at the charity box near my home : a huge pile of clothes, the size of super-packed big IKEA bag! While the ones that I will use and probably will use were taken back to my rented apartment to be washed in the washing machine. That was phase 1.

Phase 2 was re-organizing all the clean clothes and filtered again. I did 3 phases of filtering to decide on which clothes that I will really use and which clothes I will donate because I shouldn't be keeping all these old clothes that I don't use anymore. Learning to let go things is something I need to remind over and over.

*

Clothes :

Among all my clothes, most of the stuffs I hardly wear were donated to the charity.
I now have :

• 2 jeans *black & blue, 
• 2 outing t-shirt, 
• 2 track suits,
• 5 running shirts
• several pajamas & stay at home shirts
• 2 telekungs
• 6 working semi-casual shirts,
• 6 kurungs, 
• 2 singlets
• 2 bras
• 2 sport-bras
• 4 socks
• 2 towels
• at least 5 tudung bawals (black x 2, red, dark blue, purple)

On dozens of running shirts :
I had to filter all the running shirts 3 times before deciding on which running shirts I do want to keep - even though I actually wanted to keep them allllll T^T I can explain each running shirt's history to Af, like my first run, or the night run when I had a bad headache and we all looked like flamingos, or the ugly red cotton shirt from our UPM run when Af first started to run in an event officially, or the nicely designed purple running shirt that I really like but seemed a bit too tight nowadays - and remember that I did looked good in it, or my first 21km finisher's shirt ! Can you believe I have around 20 running shirts? Even the ones with super ugly design and colours that can blind the eyes!

So I only kept several, I donated more than half of it. I now have 2 of my Milo running shirts for training because I love those shirts, and my favorite orange Harimau Malaya running shirt because it looked nice even though it looked a bit worn-out, one of the light blue running shirt that I might need, my finisher's shirt and the black shirt from our gym :D I think I still have a lot of them..

It is an organized mess.

Extra note : I'm a bit clingy to my old kurungs, because I personally selected them and I like having them even though I can't remember the last time I wear any kurungs these days.

*

On keeping clothes :
Being a woman is a bit fussier in terms of keeping clothes, because we have so much layers and clothes for different occasions and use. On one occasion, we can wear : tudung and anak tudung, and bra, probably a singlet then the shirt itself, and then underwear, and the jeans, the socks and the shoe : at least 6-9 items at one time. While man can just wear the tshirt, the boxer and the jeans! 3 things, and 4 including the sandal.

Af is simpler, like this one black shirt; he can use it for work, for outings, for events, and even for working out. So his wardrobe is less packed than mine - he's super proud of it =.= I'm actually inspired by him, because his goal is to have everything minimal and keep only things that he uses all the time. So it's easy for him to pack stuffs for travel or choose anything to wear everyday.

Learning to be minimal and keep all items that I will use - only is hard.
Having only 2 tshirt that I use when I go out is hard. It's either that black tshirt or that dark blue tshirt, repetitively. For the work shirt, I keep it all in rotation. So the one I wore for that day will be washed and dried afterwards and kept in my wardrobe in the last line, so I will meet it again the next week. That way, I won't get confuse and wear the same shirt in the same week. Any clothes that I don't wear for more than 3 months will be donated, because obviously I don't really wear it.

I think buying new clothes is way easier than donating the old unused ones. Kan?
But I know at least 2 hoarders in my family, and I see how they get too attached on unused things. I didn't quite like the idea of wanting to collect and keep and collect and just make piles and piles of things that 'might-be-useful-someday'. You do know what I mean, right? Hoarders, keepers of things, the person who keeps things from 10 years ago, the collectors, the one with 6 watches, 7 shoes, and 15 hats?

The only thing I collect now is books.
And probably money :D

So do you think you are a hoarder?