My Favorite Maternity Jeans

This is my third pregnancy, and for my first two pregnancies, I struggled to find a pair of maternity jeans that fit me correctly. As a disclaimer, I will note that I refuse to pay anywhere near the $100 price tag that some maternity jeans go for. I have to wear longs, and long maternity jeans (at an affordable price) are few and far between. Believe me, wearing too short jeans does nothing for the proportion issues pregnant women are already dealing with when trying to put together an outfit.

This time I stumbled upon Old Navy’s premium full-panel rockstar maternity jeans. I dismissed them at first because I thought the faux waistband would look bumpy and weird across my growing belly, but sold-out sizes in the traditional full panel jeans led me to pick up a pair anyway. At $44.95 full price and Old Navy’s tendency to offer fantastic sales and savings codes, the price is great. And I LOVE them.

I’ve always worn full-panel maternity jeans, I just find them more comfortable than having a band cut across my middle or feeling like my pants are falling down all day. The panel gives some additional support and smooths everything out. My only gripe is that the dark color can show through a form-fitting white top, but I can live with that. The very thing that I thought would annoy me—the faux waistband (which even buttons!)—is what I love most. As your belly grows, your shirts—even maternity—get shorter and shorter, and on my previous maternity jeans I always had to worry if that ugly line where the panel meets the denim would be exposed if I bent over. Now there’s a nice neat waistband there.

The bumpiness that I worried about is there in the very beginning if you jump into maternity jeans early (hello, third pregnancy!), but as soon as that bump begins to grow, the waistband tucked nicely beneath the bump still allowing for a smooth profile when wearing a form-fitting top. I’m just shy of the third trimester mark, so I’ll give you an update if anything changes. I will note that the front pockets are not functional, which took me by surprise, but I’m used to it now.

The skinny jeans have just the right amount of stretch to keep you comfy, and I find the snugger fit to be more supportive than the bootcut styles I wore in previous pregnancies. I would suggest that you don’t wear these jeans two days in a row very often. I’ve found if you let them take a breather between wearings you can avoid that dreaded baggy knee that can happen with stretchy jeans. I purchased them in my normal pre-pregnancy size and have had no trouble feeling like they are falling down. Unfortunately, these jeans notoriously go out of stock (especially in the long sizes that I needed), so I had to stalk the site to get a couple more pairs to last out my pregnancy. They do come back in stock fairly often.

p.s. This post is in no way sponsored by Old Navy. I just love these maternity jeans! What are your favorite pair of maternity jeans?