This triple-pack of Bra Strap Extenders by Hollywood Fashion Secrets comes with one black, one white and one beige extender. The beige one is currently missing from this pic because I’m wearing it, and if I wasn’t, I’d probably either be furiously biting my fist, or yelling at the trees outside my window, because none — and I’m talking NONE! — of my bras fit at the moment. Without these bra-boosting doohickeys, I’d be very, very uncomfortable.
Basically, they’re the best things since pre-made cookie dough. Possibly even even better.
You just fasten one of them in the back with the little hooks to your too-tight bra, and that extra few inches of stretchy nylon makes all the difference in the world. These little guys will give you extra breathing room if you’ve put on a little weight lately and feel like you’re hauling around ginormous boulders instead of boobs.
Before these I thought I’d have to spring for a whole new batch of bras, which I really didn’t want to do. I know that I’ll still have to get some new bras eventually as Baby Girl gets bigger, but for now, these work.
The pack pictured here seems kinda hard to find in the U.S. (but they’re readily available in Australia and New Zealand). After a quick search on Amazon, however, lots of other options turned up.
Speaking of cookie dough…have you tried the Chunky Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough from Trader Joe’s? I made my first batch this week. The official story goes like this: El Hub’s been having a hard time since he got his wisdom teeth taken out last week. He’s only eating soft or chewy foods, so I made him these cookies, and he loves them (but I think they’re a little too sweet).
I’m more of a Toll House Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chip girl myself.
What are some other really good cookies or dessert foods that are easy to make? Feed me ideas, haha!
Have a great day. 🙂
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
These bra extenders really are a lifesaver. I pulled mine out again the other week and they make everything so much more comfortable!
Hmmm, the Bra is going to be a continuing saga for you! My advice (ha!) is to not invest in anything expensive – think “disposable” but gets the job done! Protection of “the girls” (!!!) will be more important postpartum.
For cookie treats to eat, you could take a basic oatmeal cookie recipe like this one (that I use):
http://www.quakeroats.com/cooking-and-recipe/vanishing-oatmeal-raisin-cookies.aspx
Reduce the amount of sugar by half, and then add in whatever you want – dried cranberry or currants or nuts or coconut, chocolate chips or butterscotch chips – we call this recipe The Everything Cookie.
Hope El Hub feels better soon – those frozen packages of peas came to my mind when I read “wisdom teeth” extraction!
I figure that I will have to take a trip to Target to do some bra shopping eventually. I’ve read that they have some good stuff there that’s affordable, too!
And thank you for the cookie recipe. I’m so happy to be cooking again, yay!
Yes girl – this has saved me until I absolutely needed to buy a nursing bra! I used the extenders from the maternity shops. Bras are expensive and this can help you from having to buy a maternity one especially when you are slightly between sizes. Ugh, I hated that stage when you don’t show but just look like you are randomly gaining weight. I love my daughters don’t get me wrong but I hated these stages (vanity ranting).
Oooh, the belly bands! How I loved those!! Have you started using them yet?
Hi Alexis!
I have one, but the funny thing is it kinda tickles my tummy. Is it supposed to do that? Whenever I wear it I feel like I have to go to the bathroom like ALL THE TIME.
Hahaha – no mine didn’t do that. Do you wear it scrunched down and over your waistband? I used mine to keep my regular sized jeans up – was able to keep my fly open. Maybe it’s because your little peanut is resting on your bladder? I just had to pee all the time regardless what I was wearing.
See how fun pregnancy is? hahahahahaa
I wear it over my waistband! It feels like I’m wearing a rubber band that is squeezing the life outta me. Maybe I needed to buy a bigger one? Eh, probably. I think she might be sitting low on my bladder now that I think about it, because seriously, I have to go ALL THE TIME, even in the middle of the night. TMI, but it’s so true. I haven’t slept through an entire night in months.
I liked to wear it bunched from my waistband up to part of my tummy. Yeah, I liked having my tummy covered by panels.
Get use to not sleeping now. 😉
Haha, good to see you found a solution to your problem 🙂
I wish I had known about these bra extenders when I was pregnant! I could still use them now. I have one sports bra that can be so tight (at certain times of the month) that I need my Dear Husband to hook it for me and then it digs into my back as I run and I end up with a red mark on my skin.
Quick dessert that I can whip up in 15 and pop into the oven for 30min. I got this Brownie recipe from a college cookbook way back when.
It makes a rather cake-like brownie, so if you like them fudgy it’s probably not for you.
Brownies
Preheat oven to 350F.
Butter an 8 inch sq. pan.
Melt 1 stick of butter or margarine and set aside to cool a bit. (If you like you can also melt 1 to 2 ounces of semi-sweet or bitter-sweet chocolate in with the butter, for a more intense chocolate flavor)
In a large bowl measure 1 cup sugar (can be a little less if you want them a little less sweet), 3/4 cup all purpose flour, 5 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder and 1tsp. salt. You can add 1-2 teaspoons of instant espresso powder if you like a mocha kick to these. Whisk these all together.
Beat in 2 large eggs and the melted butter. (and chocolate if using). Add 2-3 tsp. vanilla extract.
You can fold in 1/2 cup chopped nuts if you like.
Scrape into your buttered pan. Level the top and bake for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the pan comes out with moist crumbs.
Set aside to cool.
Hi Tatiana,
You’re blowing my mind! I never thought to use the extenders with a sports bra… gotta try that soon!
And thank you so much for the recipe. Copying, pasting and printing it right now. 🙂
Oh my gosh, Karen, how did I miss this..?! Congratulations on your pregnancy, I am so so happy for you, you’ll have one very gorgeous baby girl!
All the best for both of you and have a great pregnancy!
Love,
Stefi
You’re preggers??? Congrats!!! P.S. I went up 2 cup sizes while pregnant. My bewbs would have laughed at these extenders, LOL! ?
That looks like a great solution for someone who’s gained a little weight but doesn’t want to let go of beautiful/expensive bras. I’ve had to go up a size in the past few years and that would have helped.
But in your case, don’t you rather need a larger cup?
Hi Lulle!
Right now I’m kind of in a in-between stage, so I don’t. But I will have to eventually! Target, here I come…
Do they make good affordable bras at Target? I’ve never really looked.
These are genius! Bras are so expensive, these are great for being able to keep existing bras in use. However, I have found that Nordstrom Rack has name brands for decent prices – $20-$30 range instead of $60 and up. I made a million trips to the dressing room to try on different brands, but it was worth it for the price savings.
Recently I was cleaning out the pantry and found I had graham crackers, marshmallows and chocolate chips on hand. Smores! I take one half of the graham cracker and sprinkle some chips on top. I microwave on 80% power for around 10-15 seconds or until the chips get soft. Then I put the marshmallow on top and microwave for about 5 seconds more. It doesn’t take long for the marshmallow to melt. Then I top with the with the other graham cracker piece.
I found I actually like the semi-sweet chocolate chips better than Hershey bars because they are less sweet.
I remember those…
You will need even bigger bras before you are done :-),
its amazing what your body can do
Congratulations on being pregnant! What wonderful news for you x
Go to allrecipes.com and search for éclair cake. It is not cake like at all-more like pudding chocolate and graham crackers. Easy to make and soft and delish!
I’m glad these helped you! I have some kicking around from when I couldn’t get a big enough size at the local maternity stores postpartum but it course the cups were too small anyway as well, so it didn’t help much! I have one regular bra I wear when I need to look decent from earlier in last pregnancy, but when I want to be more comfortable and don’t care that it’s making the boobs and belly get uncomfortably close I wear stretchy wireless nursing bras. 😉 I tend to gain more than I should when pregnant and the chest region is no exception. Kind of ironic that even though I couldn’t buy a big enough bra instore, I had a low milk supply and never really got any bigger while I was nursing! Imagine if I’d gotten engorged, yeesh! I should try to dig out my extenders though since the front of my “looking nice” bra is digging seriously between the girls the past week. Hopefully it’ll help!
Hi Karen! I love me some extenders as well. They have prolonged the use of some of my nicer bras I didn’t want to give up when my size went up a little ?. Just FYI Nordstroms also carries extenders if you ever want to purchase more. They’re not the same brand you have but they have various multi packs with assorted colors and widths as well.
Ah that’s so handy!!
On a random note, Karen, I follow Charlotte Olympia on Instagram and they posted some cute little girl’s flats and I thought of you! They are little black suede kitty flats and apparently they come with a coloring book and crayons!
I’m not sure if you are familiar with Charlotte Olympia but she makes kitty loafers in lots of different designs (among other things). I have been eyeing a pair of her shoes for quite awhile but haven’t bit the bullet. You should check it out!
Karen,
The whole bra thing will drive you crazy from now on and even after you have your little one.
I recently gave birth and I mean bra shopping is a painful process for me already, because I have tiny figure and larger bust, so during pregnancy and even now I just wanted/want to cry some times because nothing was comfortable and to make it worse the size changes were non stop!
I had to make an investment in something that would be comfortable and will get me by for a while at special bra boutique since none of the “regular” stores carry my size. Also stop by specialty store – so you can get properly sized and fitted. You do not need a bra pain on top of the pregnancy discomfort that will come soon.
Those do look great. Most of my bras fit me fine but I have a sports bra that’s perfect in the cup but almost impossible to get on without help. That might make it a little easier. I’ll have to check out the hook situation.
Karen, I totally didn’t get, that your having a baby? OMG, I’m so happy for you!!!
Hey Karen! I am just writing you this because I know you love Nordstorms as much as I do! They will turn bras that you buy during your pregnancy into nursing bras for free! Pretty niffty huh? They told me after Baby Boy comes to just take the bras I bought (only two, they were still pretty expensive),and they would do it free of charge. I definitely have two bras that almost fit from pre-pregnancy and I might have to get the extenders for them, thanks for the idea!
For desert, especially when you are hot, Popsicles are the jam. They also help with weird stomach things. Hope everything else is going well!
Oh goodness, it’s amazing how much the body changes during pregnancy. I went up a cup size but also, my rib cage expanded dramatically.
By the way, don’t go crazy investing in nursing bras. For one, some people have a lot of trouble nursing and for another, I nursed Michael for two years and never used a nursing bra. They were just too uncomfortable so when I was home, I just went without. Plus, and sorry if this is TMI but you want that region to air out and dry to reduce the chance of getting breast infections or mastitis. I got crazy sick from that twice. Like wanted to die I was so sick.
Those extenders are really neat! I was pretty fortunate that all my friends had at least one baby before me so we had a garment-share program that included a few bras. Of course, I was at home for the worst of the weight gain and couldn’t go out so I really just needed comfort support (nothing that had to look too good). 🙂
I recently made these Vanilla Chai Sugar Cookie Bars – they’re not super sweet and I thought they were pretty easy to make (and I know you like tea). 🙂
http://www.themerchantbaker.com/desserts/vanilla-chai-sugar-cookie-bars/
My twins are 23 but I remember buying a couple maternity bras that I wore to the bones. Didn’t have much money back then so I’m sure I got mine from JCP or Sears. I have bra extenders and occasionally I’ll bust one out for a too tight bra.
I use bra extenders all the time because I have scoliosis and have a hard time finding bras that fit. Penney’s has the three packs of them.
Never congratulated you on your pregnancy so CONGRATS!!