Not picking on you, but I’ve seen this in the Dope twice in as many days.
Newbie: someone who’s new and therefore inexperienced.
Noob: the kind of asshole who does things like ask for help and then insult the voluntary helpers.
Being a newbie is mostly healed by time - for noobs, see my sig.
I always just bought the same size in maternity that I was pre-pregnancy. That’s what all the sizing charts told me to do, and it worked for me. I found that even though I gained kind of all over (I wanted to be one of those women who looks just like before but with a basketball in their shirt, but alas) the clothes were usually stretchy and very forgiving. I like actual maternity vs. just buying huge sizes or men’s sizes because the shoulders and stuff were usually too big then, but whatever works!
When I bought the whole rack of sale clothes though, I figured I was safe since I had worn Old Navy maternity last time I was pregnant, and also even if something didn’t fit, I had only paid $1.97 for it and I could always pass it along to a friend or something. Heck, at those prices I was tempted to buy it all and re-sell on e-bay.
I am working harder at not gaining as much weight this time. Last time I gained about 40 pounds and I think it made it a lot harder at the end, and it took me a while to lose it all even though I breastfed. Here’s hoping.