Nursing Wear

Sorry for the long time between posts. I have so many things I'd like to blog about, and I want to be thorough. I love it when you participate here or on facebook.

Last week during our Wednesday morning support group the mother of an eight week old baby showed the mother of a two week old baby her nursing shirt. Having never seen nursing wear before, the second mother was astounded and amazed.

Nursing wear includes shirts, dresses, tanks, bras and so on that have flaps, holes and hooks to make nursing a baby easy and discreet. It's kind of like the woman's version of a fly opening, except its for feeding.

I bought nursing bras from Target right after Micah was born, and eventually got a nice Medela bra that I liked a lot. The problem with the bras was that while nursing, my breasts didn't stay the same size over the years I was breastfeeding each child.

I was first introduced to nursing tops when Micah was a few months old. The mother of a much older baby (her 2nd) was in the "nursing room" at church. As usual we were talking instead of listening to the sermon, and she showed me her crisp white nursing top and how her stomach stayed covered while she fed her baby girl. I was thrilled by the idea. Micah was a big baby (8 lbs 6 oz, 22 in), well at least big for me, and I had acquired quite a few stretch marks during the last three weeks of my pregnancy. The marks were still fresh, and I was not intrested in showing my "ground beef" skin, along with the poochy belly that hadn't yet become rock hard again (still waiting for that)!

My friend had found the nursing tops at Motherhood Maternity so I bought three tops for about $90 and, well, didn't wear them much. I needed two hands just to manage the shirt, and latching a starving, rooting baby on through layers of clothing didn't work for me. Soon I discovered I was more comfortable in a sports bra or other bra, lifting my shirt, and latching the baby on. I got pretty discreet, too, and many times people came to coo at my baby only to discover he was eating!

After Lorelei was born I discovered nursing tank tops. Now these I love. I am still wearing them with Finn now 15 months old. They function as a nursing bra with a latch on the strap, but can be used the same way a sports bra works if I don't have time to unlatch the bra, and they cover my tummy and can be worn under a shirt. Also, they come in many sizes. I had trouble finding nursing shirts in an XS when I was breastfeeding Micah.

The world of nursing wear has seriously expanded since Micah was born in 2003. Gap/Old Navy have jumped on board and have many sizes and basic styles that are usually comfortable and easy to use.

                               I even saw matching mother/baby nursing sets at Old Navy.

For more sophisticated and also more expensive nursing wear there is www.aneemathew.com.

There are even a few Etsy shops who make/carry nursing wear.

What are your favorite nursing clothes?