It's been just over a year of nursing Spice and as she slowly, gradually, begins the process of self-weaning, I'm eyeing the upcoming return to wearing normal shirts and tops. For the past year, I've been limited to rather easy-access clothing, the kind that, with just one crucial layer removed, goes from modest to stripper-esque in a flash. (I can think of a few high school boyfriends that would have been envious.) After trying several different styles and wearing them every day and night over months, here's what I preferred.
Nursing bras. Just about every getting-ready-for-baby book talks about getting nursing bras before the birth so you're entirely ready. A few resources cut the BS and tell it like it is, that you should wait until a few weeks out until your supply evens out. I did the latter, but the two I own are mostly gathering dust. They're all underwired and I hate underwires. (I have few
Body By Victoria bra that pull to one side easily enough and are waaay more comfortable.) The biggest drawback to me is that unless you're wearing a nursing or wrap top, for most regular clothing, you're going to have to lift from the bottom. And unless you're one of those super-lucky moms with a perfect postpartum belly, you probably don't want to expose your midriff, to public viewing or a chilly breeze.
Perhaps the sole exception in my experience was the v-neck, pull-to-one side ones. Those have been extremely handy to go with my sleepwear of sweats & a tee, even if they offer virtually no support.
Tank-style tops. Most of these have a kind of drop-cup approach, where there's a little clasp where the shoulder strap meets the front fabric, just below your collarbone. You unhook the clasp and reveal a layer below with some kind of hole for your nipple/breast to poke through. That's about all there is in common among brands, though, which is unfortunate if you're trying to order online with a newborn baby crying in your lap. (Serenity now!) Clasps vary from two puzzle-like pieces that slide together and snap flat (
Glamourmom), to more prominent hook-like closures (Medela). While the former are neater and less "hey, I'm wearing a nursing top", I tend to prefer the latter, as they are easier for me to do (and undo!) with one hand. Another thing to look out for is the type of hole in the layer underneath. I only discovered the wonderful Medela bamboo tops about six months in, but I've given up on my Glamourmom tops for daytime use because of the terrible underlayer construction. There's some flimsy piece of material that offers no support, has stretched over time, and is rough from bizarrely having some kind of thin plastic wrapped around it under the interlock stitch border. Ugh. Compared with the
Medela ones having the support of a nearly-seamless-feeling shelf bra built in, and a firm fabric hole bordered in soft cotton elastic, I'm often motivated to stay on top my laundry chores rather than resort to wearing one of the Glamourmom tops.
What most of the Glamourmom tops do have going for them, though, is the length. They offer a few styles of long tops, where instead of the bottom hitting at waist level, they go to about hip level. (Or longer if you're on the short side.) These are awesome if, like me, you happen to be sporting new post-natal stretch mark tattoos along your waist or hips and happen to like low-rise jeans to boot. For all the bending, lying, stretching you do when managing a baby, I lived in my Glamourmom tops until I coughed up the dough for, er-
discovered the Medela ones. (I bought mine online from
Gap Maternity, which carries the full line of Medela apparel.)
Tanks without clasps. There's also a less common type with no clasps where you lift up a short panel just under your boobs and have the holed underlayer beneath. I have one European-style top that has zero support and a strange bib-like bottom edge that I only wear to sleep because it's so odd-looking. I also have two others I picked up from Motherhood. I thought I could wear them under my favorite old t-shirts, but there were some problems, to say the least. First, they were pretty thick, and after layering a Threadless tee on top, I was already hot and sweating, and I hadn't even left the house yet! Add to this that they didn't offer much support and looked crappy after several washes, and into the sleepwear pile they went.
A note on support, by the way: (boys, go hit the PS3 while we gals chat for a moment) Being relatively small-chested until the baby & the Titty Fairy came along, I never really understood support pre-baby. From what I gather now, it comes down the stretch and elasticity of your skin, much like a rubber band. Just like lots of parts stretch while you're pregnant and have to go back again after the baby, so do your boobs. Except your lady lumps go through the expand and collapse of filling up with milk and emptying several times a day, so I imagine the wear and tear is much worse in many ways. My assumption from all this TMI is that the better supported you are while this happens, the less stretched out your breasts will be when the breastfeeding ends altogether. Or, so I hope.
Lift from beneath tops. I've generally tended to avoid these kinds. And when I say "generally tended to avoid", I mean I don't own a single one and walk well away from clothing aisles with them. This is because they are almost always fugly. As in, I have yet to see one that I would ever consider wearing. Think long-sleeved white shirts layered with a colored short-sleeved tee on top, a la the grunge look of the early 90's, now made hipster soccer mom-ish. *shudder* And if not the looks, then the functionality is lacking. I've never seen one where the underlayer has built-in support, so you'd have to wear a separate nursing bra underneath, but how are you supposed to do the deed then? Lift up the top layer of your nursing shirt, wiggle your hand between the two layers, try to find your clasp without looking, as well as unhook it with one hand and maneuver the various layers out of the way to feed your little one, usually pushing your nursing pad into a crumpled corner. And then the reverse process, all over again. Plus, I find it incredibly annoying to have a mass of fabric gathered between my neck and the baby's face; it's frustrating to have to keep hold it up and such, maybe not so much with just a t-shirt, but with a real shirt or blouse, or even worse, a sweater.
V-neck, flasher or wrap tops. These are almost my favorite. One layer, no clasps, just pull to one side, feed and pull back. The advantage is that they're fast and easy, scream "look at my sexy mama self" rather than "hey, I'm a tired nursing mom", but sometimes the excess cleavage is inappropriate, so I try to keep from having to wear them to work (as long as said laundry chores get done on time). The other downside is usually lack of support in that you're always stretching the material, so most don't even bother to offer much, and I end up wearing a bra (nursing or otherwise) beneath. Again, handy and easy in the right situations and if you're not the prudish type.
So, yeah. I tend to wear the tank tops mostly, and if I need something more covered, I layer a white button down shirt on top, or a v-neck style tunic top, that I can unbutton or pull aside to nurse. For warmth, I add zip-front fleeces, button-down cardis, or light v-neck layers that I can *sigh* lift from below. I can hook and unhook the Medela clasps in the dark or in my sleep, so while it's not as ideal as having nothing on top, it's relatively easy to reach under and unhook for those rare occasions where I don't layer with something front-opening.
