As a girl I spent the first half of my life wishing for boobs or rather bigger boobs and the second half wanting smaller. It's a no win situation. Many of you may remember my previous posts on the woes of bra shopping or should I say shopping for scaffold.  Gone are the days when I was young slim and a saucy C-D cup with a draw full of underwear delight. Shiny, sexy, colourful pieces of confidence lego.... I had Bras Galore. I could happily go into any department store and let my purse feast on pretties that looked amazing and more importantly made me feel amazing. Underwear shopping was a thrill, a treat.
Nearly five years of breastfeeding and three children later not to mention battling obesity and winning and It's a whole different story. I don't need a bra I need scaffolding, better still....a miracle. I keep telling them jokes with the futile hope that they may actually perk up but to be honest, they are the joke.
If you bear in mind that most 'normal' bras stop at an H then factor in the fact you need nursing bras your choice becomes depressingly limited and you can forget about one of those much needed underwired nursing bra jobbies, its nasty granny bras all the way in white, black or if you're incredibly lucky...... flesh coloured (seriously, Wtf?) All of which give a hilarious unattractive shape (conical....how very 80's) don't forget that you also get The pleasure of paying a fortune for each of these. I resent paying a fortune for a necessity and more so when quite frankly It's fugly and makes you feel more like Madame Doubtfire then a hot mama.
You could have the most amazing outfit in the world yet if you're Bridget Jonesing underneath it, you may as well have your dressing gown on.
Trust me, going braless is not an option. I should require a license for these boulders, I already get black eyes if I contemplate running down the stairs.
So the search is forever on for comfortable, feminine, sexy, supportive bras for us poor sufferers of hugeboobitis that won't leave us weeping in bankruptcy, brownie points if they're actually nursing bras too.
Thankfully there are now several companies who have not only accepted that the average bra size has increased but are actively doing something about it and are stocking gorgeous bras in larger cup sizes, like Bras Galore . Shop in the comfort of your own home, search by size to avoid that spirit crushing moment of finding the bra only to realise it only goes up to a maximum size that is about five cup sizes smaller then what you need. Oh and free delivery too! (Always a factor that sways me when choosing where to shop)
Hopefully The Toddler will self wean within the next 12-18months so I can throw away there skanky vile nursing bras I had the pleasure of forking out way too much money for and finally start to have a draw of fun, sexy, gorgeous Bras Galore again.
Never underestimate the power a well fitting and pretty bra can exert on both your confidence and your figure. Seriously, something like 80% of woman are wearing the wrong size bra. Take a look around next time you are out, if a bra is fitted right a woman's cleavage should not be dusting her knees nor should a woman find it uncomfortable. That well known equation that far too many shops rely on along with a tape measure, if you're well endowed is quite frankly as true to life as rocking horse shit.
The back should not ride upwards, The band not The straps should take the weight and support you, the band should be tight on the loosest setting (yet loose enough to fit two fingers down) so that as the elastic becomes worn you can keep tightening it.  If you can easily pull the band away from your back, its too big! Remember generally if you go down a back size you go up a cup size and if you go up a back size you usually go down a cup size.
Several chains and many independant shops now offer a no measuring fitting service. Seriously, find one and go. You may be amazed. I ended up finding out I was actually four back sizes smaller and 6 cup sizes bigger then What the tape measure and equation had come up with. I instantly had better posture, a better shape, went down a clothes size up top and felt human again.
Having hugeboobitis doesn't have to be misery, we can be proud of them and look awesome too.

White Rabbit.

A pinch, a punch, first day of the month.

How is it June already?  June is a busy month of dates featuring Father's day, my dad's birthday, the 12 year anniversary of the first date I had with The Husband and also our 8 year wedding anniversary not to mention the slightly more morbid anniversary of  The Miscarriage.

So day one of Half Term is nearly over and what do you know, we've actually survived it.  Crikey.

The Toddler is somewhat disgruntled that his space is being invaded by Thing One and Thing Two, he understands they go to school yet I think the fact they have holidays is beyond him and in his mind entering the realm of the absurdly unfair. 

Today has been one of those days with not much to say nor do as it simply dripped by in drabs.

The Toddler has decided lately that he at nap time he simply must remove his socks,  I haven't the foggiest what that's about.  A toddlers mind is a complex place.

He's already decided I am merely parts and not a whole as whilst packing the boulders back into the scaffolding (aka bra) he chirped up 'Bye Bye Meemee's, love you' Meemee's being his word for boobies.
 
Talking of scaffolding, due to going down in back size again I decided I'd trial wearing real bras instead of nursing bras, you know...pretty things with underwire.  I figure they're big enough and droopy enough to wop out over the top 68565858 times a day, however, having tried two different sizes now I am at a total loss as to what cup size I am and what was an exciting uplifting prospect of new underwear is now a total disheartening ball ache that has made me decide to send them all back and stick with the godawful nursing bras that are slightly too big and revisit the situation should I ever manage to shift this extra stone I've been meaning to lose yet failing at abysmally.  So now I feel like a fat frumpy failure, for a change.  It's been over 8 years since I had pretty, shapely decent underwear.  I miss my old draw of gossard loveliness.

I won't even start on today's latest hair fail....

Do you ever feel that everything you attempt just goes wrong? No matter how you try to improve your confidence you can't quite get there, underwear fail, weight loss fail, clothes fail, shoe fail and hair fail. 

...where's the chocolate? ...

Scaffolding

One of the irksome downsides of losing weight is the need for new bras or in my case, scaffolding.

Have you tried buying a nursing bra in a large cup size? (We're talking k-l here) you end up with a choice of one, two if you're lucky. These are usually of the same brand which to be frank give you an abysmal shape they're ugly and here's the biggee, they're notoriously expensive. There's nothing quite as frustrating as being unable to afford a correctly fitting bra. Over 70% of woman are wearing the incorrect bra size and when you get correctly fitted it really does make the most remarkable difference to the figure, posture and thus boosting confidence.

The (skint) grumpy old woman in me absolutely abhors the prospect of paying over £30 for a single fugly nursing bra that spends most of the day with the cups open.

Bra shopping pre children was a treat, I was a slightly more 'normal' sized and had money to burn. My top draw was a treasure chest of colourful, sexy, underwired feel good beauties.  Back when the weekend consisted of PVC, alcohol and Rockworld (or cockworld as we affectionately dubbed it) i'd don the epic black wonderbra with an incredibly nifty pull doodah in the middle that gave what can only be referred to as uber cleavage of doom.

Now my top draw is a depressive monochrome grave yard of three, yes three, bras none of which actually fit anymore.

I rarely spend over £30 on any clothing or footwear these days so the thought of needing at the very least two new bras at over £30 a pop that are boring and ugly is disenchanting to say the least.  Not to mention the small fact that i'm not finished with the whole weight loss thing yet.

If i'm going to go bankrupt buying something necessary I'd at the very least like a little choice.

If I wasn't such a craft inept, no really, i'd buy pretty none nursing bras and convert them.

Oh to be a man. The only bra conundrum they face is how the hell to remove them.