The more stems you grow the more buds. Yes the plant will grow more during flowering but mostly just thick with buds. Usually you wont get any new stem growth but that could be due to the fact that people only start flowering once they have near maximum veg for their available light, so I guess I wouldn't know. Give it a go, see if you get any new stems growing.
Just remember during flowering, you really want to concerntrate on getting the buds as big as possible, rather than worry about the plant getting any bigger.
Hey kiloman, have you got any pics of your early flowered plant??