Frumpy, feeding and FED UP! Help!

[Schmaffy]

Please can someone throw me a line here...?

My ds is now 8mo. To put it lightly, the past 3/4 of a year have hardly been a walk in the park and my appearance has more than taken a back seat. In fact, it got left behind on the road when I started to buy maternity clothes. It's got to the stage now where I look in a mirror and wonder where I've gone - I just don't recognise the slobby, exhausted looking person staring back at me. I was thinking if I could feel a bit more 'put together' then it might help my state of mind and push me towards being a bit more positive.

I currently live in some old M&S treggings, some hideously unflattering feeding tops, my maternity denim skirt and boots. I also have a couple of nursing dresses but as they're that maternity/feeding hybrid they are less than lovely. I've been looking on websites but I just don't know where to start. I even had a crying fit last night where I looked at the M and S magazine and found it all too terrifyingly 'trendy' (and that's saying something.) Pre baby I was into a very feminine look - shift dresses, ballet pumps, kitten heels, twinsets, etc. I've never been good at 'casual' but instead excelled at girly dressing for a wedding type thing! Hobbs, LK Bennett and Coast were my friends! Coloured jeans, 80s prints, shoulder pads, shiny tunic type tops etc just aren't me and to top it off, at 5 foot nothing with parsnip legs and muffin top most clothes tend to both swamp me and accentuate all my bad bits!

Just to add to the mix I am still feeding ds and so need clothes with easy access. I'm loathe to buy any more nursing clothes as a) I find them hideously unflattering and b) money is tight and anything I'm going to purchase I'd like to wear after I've finished bf.

So, please fairy godmothers of mn can you help? I've saved up about £200 and would love a dress, cardigan, top, skirt and maybe blazer that are casual esque, girly, petite friendly and feedable. To me, seems like mission impossible but I'm sure some of you must have some good ideas. Please?

Yours hopefully
A lost in the mix Schmaffy
xxx

well, do you really need nursing tops or feeding friendly clothes now? iirc, buy the time dd was 8 months, i had dropped to 3-4 feeds a day. so i just timed them for when i was at home and could whip clothes off rather than worry about how to discreetly feed when out and about. so could be time to move away from the nursing tops (and bras) altogether.

I guess you're right coco - only feed ds 4 times a day so could do at home but would be huge bonus if feeding friendly as not keen on stripping so many times a day!

Schmaffy I could have written basically the same post as you on Monday morning!!! DD is 10 mo, nothing fitted me as my body shape has completely changed and I got fed up of wearing jeans with a vest under a long sleeve top so I can feed discreetly! It became like a uniform I put on every single day! So I decided enough was enough and as my budget was minimal I went to H&M! There's loads in there to choose from and I am really happy with the bits I bought. Yes there were so hideously fashionable 80's inspired items but once I had a good look about I found loads! Not sure on the dress front as I'm not a dress person, but lots of nice tops and blouses and tonnes of cardigans. I never bought any feeding tops, just wore a bra and vest I could pull down at the top to get a boob out and wore normal tops over this, if you see what I mean!

Oohh milkybrew - sounds fab. Have to say H&M terrifies me - so many clothes, so little space, multitude of possible bargains! Online the stuff always looks great but I've never found anything I really like when I've visited a store. Would you mind awfully posting me some links of some of the nice things you bought so I can get copying inspired! What you also mind telling me what the quality is like? Thank you a thousand times over!

Sorry schmaffy, can't link as I am on my phone! I think the key with H&M is to examine each section carefully! Don't just gaze around the whole shop! This is what I used to do but now I look a bit more closely! Much less scary this way. Also I just pick up anything I remotely like the look of and take a pile in to try on, as at least 50% is no good! The sizing is completely mad so my new mantra is to ignore the label, just concentrate on the fit. Bits I bought ranged from 8-14! Quality wise I find it ok, but I guess it depends on where you are used to shopping! I've never been a big spender on clothes, always just high street stuff. HTH!

i wear skinny jeans (citizens, paige, uniqlo and levi demi curve) or cigarette pants in grey and navy and layering tops from cos, whistles or vintage (i love missoni and kenzo) and either vintage coats and jackets and sometimes wear my issa dresses but pull them down. i have no shame.

i also don't use prams so everything has been 'babywearing' (yeugh) friendly.

saw me through past 4 years of breastfeeding, tandeming etc. if ever i've been caught out (eg lace mini dress and

the only specialist feeding clothing i ever bought was a batch of anita underwired bras.

so don't let feeding constrain you.

i'd say a big topshop was a good start, or a half day in selfridges or similar where you can try stuff on for size and then buy on ebay! cos is also another shop for relaxed, fashionable but not tacky separates.

and i sympathis. i've had two children in 4 years (still feeding on demand) and started a 10, went to a 14, then down to a 6-8 now. i'm struggling to find clothes to fit as everything is baggy.

but i buy high quality as i know i can flog it on ebay if unsuitable.

oh, and wanted to say congratulations and hope things a on a more even keel.

Thank you otchayaniye - you sound like a very stylish mummy!

Probably sounding v stupid but - what are cigarette pants? Are they like skinny leg capris?