Everyone talks about how hard pregnancy dressing is, but I, and most of the moms I know, would say that postpartum dressing is much harder. For one thing, there just aren’t many nursing-friendly options (check out my favorite nursing-friendly dresses here) and the ones available are not cute and are mostly for those first few weeks when you’re hibernating at home (i.e., they look like sweats or, at best, athleisure). Even if you’re not breastfeeding, your body usually feels like a foreign object, and if you’re like I was the first time around, you feel uncomfortable in your own skin. Your belly is still shrinking and leaving a trail of stretched skin, your boobs are enormous and leaky, and your a different shape than you started and then you’ve been the last nine months. Oh, and you’re wearing a diaper. Hence, postpartum dressing is not much fun.
It’s all worth it in the end, and honestly, it all goes back…eventually, and you don’t totally even care if it doesn’t because you get the most precious thing in the world. But those first few months postpartum, and especially first weeks, getting dressed postpartum isn’t the most fun. It can actually be tricky especially if, like me, you were wearing a diaper for weeks after giving birth. I wanted something that fit, I could easily breastfeed or pump in, and that didn’t make me feel like a whale and gave me some breathing room down below to accommodate the diaper I was still wearing.
After James, I made the mistake of trying to fit back into my old clothes right away. Not a good idea when your hormones are on high. I sobbed when I could barely get my jeans over my thighs, and it just made me want to crawl into bed and never leave the house. This time around, I knew better, and took a different approach to postpartum dressing. I invested in a few roomy dresses that made me feel pretty but were flattering, allowed for easy access for nursing and were dark enough to cover any leaks or stains. I basically lived in them the first couple weeks after having Charlotte, allowing me to leave the house quickly and without feeling like a total shlump.
I went for dresses that either buttoned in the front or had straps that easily came down for easy nursing access and longer lengths that covered up my belly and diaper. I’m so glad I did this because it just took a lot of the pressure off and allowed me to enjoy those first few weeks of new baby without worrying about how I was ever going to fit into my clothes again. It also meant that I didn’t feel gross leaving the house so we could enjoy the last days of summer with James.
Comment