Baby Shower Maternity Dress Rental

This past weekend, my husband’s aunt and two of my friends threw me a great baby shower.  I’ll do another post soon with all the details and some pictures, but I just wanted to do a quick post on what I wore to the occasion.  At this point in my pregnancy (35 weeks), I am pretty much sick of all my maternity clothes, yet I am past the point where I really want to buy anymore.  I found a great website that rents out special occasion maternity dresses- RentMaternityWear.com.

I rented the Wrap Jersery “Eva” dress by Christian Siriano (my favorite Project Runway designer ever!):

Photo from http://www.rentmaternitywear.com

The dress arrived via FedEx on a Thursday and I had until the following Thursday to return it.  It also came with two sizes of the dress so I could try both on to see which one fit better at no extra cost.  The dress itself retails for about $75 and the cost of the one-week rental was about $43 ($35 rental + $8 in shipping costs).   The package comes with a pre-paid for shipping label and bag.  You just pop the dresses in the bag and drop them off at a USPS location or mailbox before the rental period ends.

Renting a dress probably doesn’t make sense if you need a piece you are going to wear many times throughout your pregnancy.  However, in this case, I thought it was worth it to wear something new and I’m unlikely to have an event to wear it again in the next 5 weeks or so.

As friend B called it, it’s Netflix for maternity dresses!

-m

2 sisters 2 cities announcement!

When Sister K and I started this blog last Christmas, we decided the basic premise of the blog would be to talk about our two different lives in two different cities:

“We are two sisters, K and M, living in two different cities with two different lifestyles. This blog is to share our adventures in New York and Boston. K is single and just starting off in New York City. She works in fashion and loves to cook healthy and inexpensive food on a budget. Her hobbies include cooking, baking, working out, shopping, and partying with her friends in the coolest city in the world. M is married and works in finance in Boston. She loves to experiment with new dishes and focuses on recipes that are easy to prepare after a long day of work. M’s hobbies include cooking, reading, eating out, traveling, skiing, crafting, and letterpress.”

Well, my life is about to change a lot (and for the better) …Husband M and I are expecting our first baby this November!  We found out the gender yesterday- we are expecting a baby boy.  I have found myself reading a lot less cooking and decorating magazines and websites, and have been focusing more on pregnancy and baby-related websites and books.  Here is a list of some of the resources I have been checking out:

Books:
What to Expect When you Are Expecting– I was 11 when my youngest sister was born, and I still remember my mom reading this book.  The lady in the rocking chair on the cover has been replaced with a girl rocking out jeans (although I think the jeans on her look outdated already…put her in some maternity skinny jeans!)  This book has been a pretty helpful week-to-week resource to refer to.  I bought the What to Expect Before You Are Expecting and What to Eat When You Are Expecting in a set of the three as books, but I haven’t used these two much.

The Girlfriends’ Guide to Pregnancy: Or Everything Your Doctor Won’t Tell You–  This is a pretty informal, quick-read on pregnancy.  If you are looking for a non-medical summary of pregnancy and what is going to happen, this is a good book for you.

I’m Pregnant– My husband’s aunt gave me this book as a gift…it is split up more by months than weeks, but it gives a lot of great color photos and diagrams.  There is a whole spread as to what will be covered by the anatomy ultrasound which was very helpful to read before I went in for it.

Websites:
What to Expect When You Are Expecting– I really like to lurk on the November 2010 chat forum to read what others are going through at the same time

Babycenter– Also has monthly chat forums and good info by week

The Bump– From the makers of TheKnot.com

Magic Beans– This is a Boston-based baby gear store…I have gotten a pretty good idea of some of the things I would like to get for this baby based on their top 10 lists and recommendations.

Any other mom readers out there that have any resource suggestions?

-m