5 Must Haves for the 1st Trimester

The first trimester can really take a toll on you both mentally and physically. Growing a child is a wonderful miracle but exhaustion, nausea, bloating, and cramping can make it difficult to enjoy this special time in life. In all three of my pregnancies, I have found myself counting down the days of the first trimester just waiting and hoping to feel better. These products helped enormously during this time and I recommend them o all moms in their first trimester and beyond.

Belly Belt
Even though you won't be quite showing yet in your first trimester, your bottoms are most likely going to become tight and will be uncomfortable to button or won't button at all. So your regular clothes won't fit right but you won't fit into maternity clothes yet either. I have seen the hair tie trick where you loop it through the button hole and around the button but I found that as soon as I would lean over the hair tie would snap or slip off. It was also close to impossible to get the right fit. It would be either too tight or too loose leaving it worthless.

The  Belly Belt, however, is completely customizable. There are 2 different closure options, a regular button, and a slider button, and each has three sizes so you can find the right one for that exact moment. This allowed me to wear my regular shorts, pants, and jeans throughout my whole pregnancy which saved a fortune on maternity clothes.

My one and only complaint is the fabric patch it comes with. It has a loop on the top so the belt can go through and it is meant to hang inside your bottoms to hide the gap from where your zipper is down. This is great in theory, no one wants their underwear and their lower tummy showing, but I found the patch to be too wide and too long so it would end up just bunching up and getting in the way. There is a way to go around this though which brings me to the next product.

Belly Band
Simply put, the Belly Band is a loop of fabric that goes around the top of your bottoms when they are unbuttoned to hide the fact that they are unbuttoned. The newer version has a rubber/plastic like material on the bottom, just like you would find on a strapless bra, to keep it in place. While this does completely hide the button/zipper area of your bottoms, it doesn't do much to actually keep your bottoms up and in place.

Because of this, I wear my Belly Belt and my Belly Band together. The belt keeps my bottoms up and in place while the band hides that my bottoms aren't buttoned.
The Belly Band looks like a tank top you are wearing under your shirt so it's very natural looking. I bought mine at Target for around $20.



Sleep Bra
While most people think of pregnancy as the time your body is getting baby ready for the outside world, it is also the time when your body is preparing you to be able to care for your newborn. One of the main parts of this is preparing your breasts for breastfeeding. Whether you choose to breastfeed or not, your body will start preparing for it in the first trimester. While I think it is amazing that your body is preparing for a newborn much before the baby is close to being ready for life outside of you, it will leave your breasts sore and sometimes, especially for first time mothers, swollen and tight.

While your breasts are going through this change, any bras with an underwire, unsupportive, or tight-fitting bras like a high impact sports bras can become very uncomfortable and make the swelling even worse. During this time you need a supportive bra with a bit of give, or room to grow without being too big and the sleep bra is the perfect answer. It is made for nursing moms to wear at night but it is by far my favorite maternity bra. I go from around a B up to at least a DD throughout pregnancy and I can wear these bras the whole way. Love, love, love.

Maternity Leggings
Once again, even though you won't be officially showing yet, you will probably be too bloated to wear your normal clothes. I have found that maternity pants and shorts don't stay up until about 20 weeks but maternity leggings, on the other hand, fit great from the beginning. They will fit the whole pregnancy and postpartum. When you are dealing with morning sickness all day long the worst thing is being uncomfortable. These are so comfortable and great to wear dressed up with a cute top or with a big t-shirt to lounge around the house on one of "those" days.


Oofos Sandals
My feet are always so sore in the first trimester! I think part of this is just pregnancy soreness but also when you feel sick 24/7 everything bothers you so much more. I couldn't survive without my oofos sandals. They are marketed as recovery shoes for runners but they definitely help alleviate all the soreness. I do have to warn, they are no the cutest most attractive shoes but they are so, so worth it. I won't normally wear them out unless it is a really bad day and I don't care anymore but even just to wear them around the house makes a huge difference.

So those are my 5 must-haves for being comfortable in the first trimester. What did you love? What worked and what didn't? Let me know in the comments below!