D writes: Where do you recommend buying maternity clothes? Or do you recommend just buying regular clothes in a slightly larger size? I am 5 months now and have grown out of my regular clothes.

I've had luck buying non-maternity clothes in stretchy fabrics. Skirts with elastic waists and wrap dresses seem to work well. I didn't want to spend too much money on these since I don't know how long they have fit for but have found some good things at Ann Taylor Loft (in Fanueil Hall) - a lot of the summer stuff is on sale - and some cute inexpensive wrap dresses at H&M. The new Newbury Street store is a lot cleaner than the one in downtown crossing.

On the maternity clothing front, I ordered a few things online from www.babystyle.com which has a store in the Atrium. They seem to be pretty expensive ($88 for a pair of dressy pants, not particularly good quality) but do have some summer things on sale now. They charge about $8 to ship and you have to pay for your own returns. Also, for some reason, anything that is marked down you only can get a credit on, not a refund.

I also bought a few things from gap maternity which has free shipping and you can return to all gap stores (even the regular gaps, not just the maternity ones). The Gap clothes seem to be the best quality of the maternity clothes I have found (same quality and, in some cases, same styles as the regular Gap clothes). The prices are reasonable as well - more or less the same as the regular Gap but maybe a little more expensive.

Friends told me that Target had good inexpensive maternity clothes so I looked in the stores in Watertown and Framingham but didn't find anything. Basically just getting rid of summer stuff and they mostly had tank tops and t-shirts. I didn't see any of the nice dressier Liz Lange things that I saw on the website. If anyone has ordered from the Target website, I'd be curious to hear how they found the clothes (as advertised).

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