Clothing the post-baby lumps
3rd January 2009
Next weekend is Eric’s work’s holiday party, a sort of post-Christmas dinner-dance-mingle thing at a fancy convention hall. To visit his work and meet his co-workers is a rather ridiculous feat involving a few day’s notice, registration and possible DNA sampling (kidding on the last one, but it’s not far off…) because of security, so it’s exciting to go and meet the people he talks about all the time.
Jan. 10 sort of snuck up on me, and when I saw the shindig was just a week away, a mild sense of panic took over. In stereotypical female fashion, I have nothing to wear. Literally.
Nine weeks since giving birth, my body is in that dreaded post-partum in between stage: Maternity clothes are either too big or push things up in ways they are not supposed to when one is not pregnant (belly, I’m talking to you) (and really, who wants to wear maternity clothes when they’re no longer with child?), and regular clothes are still yelling, “Hell, no, sista!” and giving me the finger from the bottom of the drawer.
I’m lumpy. And still sorta jiggly. With big boobs. Have fun clothing that.
So after a nice brunch at Golden Griddle with family this morning, Eric and I took advantage of Lucy staying over at my parents’ tonight, and hit up the Pickering Town Centre to find me A Fancy Outfit.
(Note: After adding a second child to the mix? Doing anything with just one is so. damn. easy.)
Here are my post-baby-body tips for clothes shopping:
- It takes 9+ months to put on all that weight, and it’ll take 9+ months (at least, and longer if you continue to breastfeed) to take it off. Go easy on yourself. You earned those lumps!
- Stay away from the low-waisted pants. Probably forever, as in my case, but especially right now. They are not and may never again be your friend. Once you accept this, shopping will be infinitely easier. Granted, it may take some determination to find pants that don’t show your butt crack like The Kids Are Wearing These Days, but they are out there. And I don’t mean pants that come up to your arm pits a la elastic waistband granny polyester trousers, but a mid-rise pant that sits just below the belly button
- Bring someone with you. It’s so easy to get discouraged and frustrated, and having a supportive person along is really helpful
I ended up with a jersey-like black dress pant ($30, Ricki’s), and a fuchsia, gauzy shirt ($15, H&M) that ties at my waist (not under my boobs) in the front (not at the back, both of which are too much like an empire-waisted maternity shirt, a style I will never, ever wear again for this exact reason).
I’m really happy, and can’t wait to get really dressed up for the first time in well over a year.
Possibly related posts:
It is hard to dress after having a baby. I admit I am wearing maternity pants, over a year after giving birth, as I write this!
(I have bought new clothes but I keep shrinking and it is hard to keep up. No one ever told me that part of why a baby is so expensive is cause the mother will need new clothes all through the pregnancy and for a long time after
)
You have my sympathies – 6 weeks after Luca was born, I had to buy a bathing suit to take Darien to swimming lessons!! I was “helped” by a skinny 16 year old sales associate who couldn’t understand why I was crying in the dressing room.
Oy. I’m still about 10 lbs to where I was pre-pregnancy and it’s 13 months later! It was so much easier to lose the weight with Kylah than with Liam. What’s with that?! Ugh.
Have an awesome evening with your hubby!
I’m so glad to hear you found something that you can be proud to wear and feel great in.
You know what’s really unfair? At least for me, is once I stop breastfeeding I put weight back on!!!!!! A year ago I was 10 pounds lighter (at 8 months PP)than I am now! I guess it doesn’t help either that I just spent the past three weeks gorging on Christmas fare!
Uggghhhhh….I have to heavily sigh at the fact that my son is 21 months old and I’m STILL struggling to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I only gained 34 pounds during pregnancy which I don’t think is too bad, but I guess being a Mom I’ve taken on terrible habits of not watching over myself properly. Of course my typical resolution is to lose weight…who’s isn’t? But I did start pre-Christmas so I guess I’m just continuing what I already started. Anyways Carly, trust me you’ve done very well, very fast and I know you’ll be smokin’ for Eric’s shin-dig…regardless of what you think!
My problem is empire waist no longer hits under the boobs. It hits somewhere mid-boob. Not cute. Why does everything have to migrate south? I don’t mind the growing and shrinking, but the falling? Really, body?
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