Maternity Tuesday: Twist-Front Dress

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A woman wearing a For the price, I can’t see getting a cuter or more useful dress than this one. The jersey material (95% cotton, 5% spandex) looks comfortable and flowy, and the gathered design is flattering on a maternity dress. Also, I have a total weakness for a long-sleeved dress. The way this dress is designed, I would personally save it for the later pregnancy weeks, since it does have seams that accentuate the “bump.” It’s currently on sale for $18.74 at JCPenney and is available in 1X–3X in the pictured olive green as well as gray. Maternity Twist-Front Dress Gap has an option in regular sizes (XS–XL) that is machine washable, comes in three colors, and is on sale for $42. Psst: It can be really tough to find plus-size maternity clothes for work — if you know of any other options please let us know! This post contains affiliate links and CorporetteMoms may earn commissions for purchases made through links in this post. For more details see here. Thank you so much for your support!

Sales of note for 2/14/25 (Happy Valentine’s Day!):

(See all of the latest workwear sales at Corporette!)

  • Nordstrom – Winter Sale, up to 60% off! 7850 new markdowns for women
  • Ann Taylor – Up to 40% off your full-price purchase — and extra 60% off sale
  • Banana Republic Factory – 50% off everything + 15% off (readers love their suiting as well as their silky shirts like this one)
  • Boden – 15% off new season styles
  • Eloquii – 300+ styles $25 and up
  • J.Crew – 40% of your purchase – prices as marked
  • J.Crew Factory – 50% off entire site and storewide + extra 50% off clearance
  • Rothy’s – Final Few: Up to 40% off last-chance styles
  • Spanx – Lots of workwear on sale, some up to 70% off
  • Talbots – Flash sale ending soon – markdowns starting from $15, extra 70% off all other markdowns (final sale)

And — here are some of our latest threadjacks of interestworking mom questions asked by the commenters!

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Does anyone have any experience with switching firms in Biglaw during the first trimester? My husband and I would like to relocate from our current area in the PNW to the South to be closer to family. Has anyone been able to negotiate maternity leave before the 1 year mark at the offer stage? Have you had any issues building your reputation in the new firm if you went on maternity leave so early within joining the firm? I’m wondering if we just wait to move until our LO is 1…

I know people have asked questions about potentially becoming a SAHM before, but I’m really agonizing over the decision and could use some advice/input if anyone has any.

Things in favor of staying home:
-I love being home with my kids and believe I would genuinely love being a SAHM. Going back to work after long weekends or vacations is absolutely awful in a way I never would have anticipated before I had kids.
-I live in a “childcare desert” – childcare here is very expensive relative to salaries/housing costs, and after almost two years of looking, we have not found a childcare arrangement I’m enthusiastic about. We currently have a nanny who is ok but not great, and she’s the best one we’ve had. We’re not comfortable with her driving our kids, so they’re missing out on a lot of fun stuff they could be doing if I were home.
-DH’s salary can support us comfortably and our standard of living won’t have to change much
-This is incredibly privileged, I know, but I have rich parents who would help me get back on my feet in the event of divorce, disability of my husband or other worst case scenarios.

Things against:
-I started saving for retirement really late and am just starting to accumulate significant assets in my own retirement account and it will be hard to give up on saving a lot in my own name each month. Also, my employer match kicks in (after a 3 year waiting period!!) in a couple months and it kills me to walk away right as that is kicking in.
-I generally like my job (although I’m not as invested in it or good at it as I was before kids) and I like having an identity beyond mom and wife
-I can’t imagine being out of the workforce forever and am scared that I will have a difficult time eventually re-entering it. I’ve also heard (here and other places) that being a working mom can be even harder with elementary school age kids, so I’m not sure when it would even make sense for me to go back.

I just feel like normally I have a gut feeling one way or the other and I just have to listen to it, but this time I don’t. My gut says I want to be a SAHM but my gut also says that this is such a permanent decision and I may regret it pretty much instantly and then not be able to undo it. I know this community is mostly working moms but I know some of you have stayed home temporarily before or at least considered it, and I would appreciate any advice.

Can anyone recommend a wireless nursing bra that’s structured enough to wear to work? I feel like this should not be as hard as it is.

I haven’t been too happy in my job lately – my boss and coworkers are kind, but it’s not at all what i want to do, and worse, I’m not that good at it. I’m interviewing with another company, and I IM’d my husband this morning saying “I wish I could stop checking my email to see if they wrote!” He responded, “patience.” So then I told him “I’m going to forward an email from (my boss) being super cool, as always, about me having to take time off tomorrow, so you’ll help me remember it’s not so bad here and I should be grateful.” His response, after looking at it: “Lol, your standards are low.” That was annoying enough, and I said “not nice.” He said, “sorry, but anyone would write that. you can get that pretty much anywhere. you’re not a customer service rep. im not trying to be mean!”

It just ticked me off. I hate his negativity and I just thought it was a really rude and disrespectful response, and one designed to make me feel idiotic for being appreciative. Am I overreacting?

Any experience with BFing and allergies? My EBF 3.5-month old has had green diarrhea and bloody stools since immediately after her 2-month vaccines. At first, doc thought it was a reaction to the rotavirus vaccine, but after a week they took me off dairy. Then soy a week later. I’ve been off dairy for 6 weeks, soy for 5. And now wheat, peanuts, eggs, beef and tomatoes for 3 weeks. No change, her diapers are still bloody. Stool testing was negative for any pathogens, and we’ve seen a gastroenterologist who says it just takes time to clear my system. My baby had weight gain issues early on but is gaining fine now, and otherwise a happy healthy baby. But it’s so disheartening to see these bloody diapers 2-3 times a day! I also return to work in a few week and need to start building a freezer stash, but don’t know how/when to do that if my milk still has allergens. The only thing I haven’t cut is tree nuts because it’s become such a staple of my new diet. Any one have experience in this? Does it really take 6+ weeks? I know formula is an option, but we both really love BFing, and I want this to work.

Have you tried le tote or rent the runway? Both have really good options when you are inbetween sizes.

I was recently invited to a baptism for a friend who had high risk multiples (IVF, NICU, she was late 30s). We live a couple hours away from each other but visit 3-4 times a year. I get the impression it is mostly family who have to fly in coming to the baptism. Should I go? It’s Catholic (I’m not) and I don’t want to impose if these are for family and she invited me as a courtesy. I am happy to be there if I’m not in the way. Also, what is an appropriate gift?

Post above got me thinking….what do you call someone in business? Do you call someone Ms. or Mr. Lastname if you don’t know them? Is different for email? Is it different if you are support staff vs professional staff?

My personal opinion is that I would not expect another adult to call me Ms. Lastname, regardless of seniority in a company. And since we’re all adults, I don’t think there is anything wrong with calling another adult Firstname. But please let me know if I’m offbase here. In the south, if that matters.

I’ve been back at work from maternity leave for about 3 months and I feel like a mess. I know my wardrobe needs some serious work but I can’t figure out where to start when I feel like I have zero time. I’m not wearing dresses at the moment because it makes pumping difficult. I also don’t want to spend a ton of money because I’m still trying to lose a bit of weight.

I invested in a few pairs of good pants, but beyond that I’ve been struggling. I wish I loved MM LaFleur but everything I’ve gotten from there has seemed really over-priced for the quality (and their top selection is limited anyway.) Any other ideas? Tips?

I used to get more fashion ideas from this blog but lately the clothes haven’t been for me – I still love the posts and comments, but just haven’t found much to buy for a long time. Are there other resources similar to this one I should be checking out?

I have two month old twins who have been sleeping through the night (10-11 hours) most nights over the past couple weeks. I cannot believe my luck, but wonder if this is for real or just a tease? My older daughter starting having longer stretches around 2.5-3 months, but then hit a regression and didn’t sleep fully through the night until 7 months, so this experience with my twins is pretty foreign to me. I’m curious, for those of you who had early STTN-ers, did it stick? Did they remain good sleepers, or still hit the 4 month regression?

What do your kids call other adults? I’m struggling with what to have my son call my friends, his babysitter, etc. At daycare, they call the teachers “Miss Gabby” but calling “Miss Katie” to my friend feels weird. I grew up mostly saying “Mrs. Smith” but that feels even WEIRDER, plus, I’m not Mrs. anything myself. Just curious what you’re all doing. (We’re not in the south where, I understand from my cousins, it’s very common to call someone “Miss Whatever.”)

Reposting since no one was around yesterday…
How do you feed picky toddlers when you’re traveling? We can usually find our 15 month old something to eat in a restaurant (either from a kid’s menu or parts of our meals) but DH and I don’t want to sit down in a restaurant more than twice a day and of course toddlers eat way more often than that. We default to a lot of bananas, yogurt and cereal because they’re readily available, easy to eat on the go and rarely rejected, but I would love other ideas.

We have been trying to night train my almost 4 yo son for the past six weeks and it is just not going anywhere. It was his idea to stop wearing pull-ups, but he is still wetting the bed about 4 or 5 nights a week. My husband and I take turns taking him to the potty around 10:30 pm, but chances are he will still wet the bed in the morning before waking up. I’m just not sure if we should go back to pull-ups or try again later when he is a bit older or just keep going and deal with washing his waterproof mattress protector almost every night. Anyone have any luck starting night training again later on?

I am blown away by how common twins are now. And terrified. I barely made it with one the last time (severe reflux; hard to breathe after 7 months — I seem to have a very short torso even though I’m not particularly short). I know it’s a lot of older moms driving this, but does anyone have a sense of which are just naturally-occurring twins (and which are either clomid-related and/or IVF-related twins)? Just concerned what my actual odds are as an older mom (39; prior pg at 38) not doing any fertility-related things. [And also concerned that a multiple-pregnancy is just higher-risk in general; I wouldn’t want to be on bed rest or have a lifting restriction since I am already a parent to an active kiddo that I still need to do a lot of lifting and carrying with.]

Two questions about daycare/car seat logistics. We have a 3 1/2 year old and my 8 month twins are going to outgrow their bucket seats in the next month or two, so I need to figure out how to transport everyone. My husband does dropoff in a Honda Odyssey, I do pickup in a Honda Fit.

1. We’re going to buy a new car, because I’ve barely managed three-across in the Honda Fit so we need to upgrade. I’ll get another Odyssey if I have to (it’s a great minivan, I just don’t want two) but I’ve also heard good things about the Subaru Forester or Outback being able to go three-across. I think a Clek Fllo will be my best bet, but any other car/car seat suggestions for three-across?
2. We’re going to have at least a few months of having to carry them once they’re out of the bucket seats before they’re confidently walking. Do you think it makes sense to buy a cheap double umbrella stroller for transporting in and out of daycare? The director usually helps me out to the car but I don’t want to count on that every day. It’ll be slightly easier if we have the Odyssey since I can remotely open the doors, but either way I’m going to have to set someone down somewhere to get everyone buckled in. Any other ideas or stroller suggestions?