Dressed on a Dime postpartum

Dress: $40, underskirt: $13, scarf: $2

Total: $55

Last week was the dress I lucked upon, and this week is the dress I stalked. It looked like exactly what I was looking for in terms of postpartum wear.... the front buttoned up for nursing, the waist was smocked for a nice fitted but not form hugging shape, and the fluffy ruffles disguise all the lumpy frumpiness of the early nursing days. $65 was the original ticket price, plus shipping, so when it showed up in the clearance section in my size for $40 with free shipping, I snapped it up. And it fulfilled its promise and more; it's quite comfortable, slips on easily, and fits like it was made for my measurements. Obviously I need to actually iron it at some point so I don't look quite so much like an indignant chicken, but that's one of those things I planned to do in the three weeks longer I expected to be pregnant....

The only downside to the dress is that its lowest button leaves a huge gap open at the bottom, which is not at all conducive to toddler chasing. This I solved by throwing on a lace-trimmed skirt underneath it, a stretchy waisted black and white number from the mall. The waist scarf was snagged from an online clearance sale.

Dressed on a Dime for nursing

Sometimes hours of searching online catalogs and poring over etsy and ebay doesn't uncover the perfect item so well as just simple good old fashioned thrifting.

Dress: $8, belt: $4?*, shoes: $7

Total: $19ish

*(The belt was on clearance in a set with this shirt. )

When I had Jack, I didn't buy any nursing shirts, just a few tunics with drawstring or smocked necklines. I didn't end up wearing them very much, and I thought it would sure be nice to have something better this go round. Button up shirts with traditional collars don't generally look very good on me, so I began the quest for shirtdresses, preferably ones with cute collars.

I found some really nice ones at various places around the internet, but my grail of a nursing dress was hanging around at goodwill waiting for a loving home. Nice sturdy fabric, the perfect collar, cute sleeves, a not-too-low-but-not-too-high neckline, pockets big enough for my cell phone, and a cut that somehow manages to flatter a newly postpartum belly. Oh, and did I mention the color? My husband loves it, my baby loves it, I love it, and the budget loves it as well.

Comparison

I know you're not supposed to compare your kids, but there, I did it. :) Jack at 18 days and Dominic at 21 days.

Now I think it's ok for me to say that these jeans made me compare more than just my boys, and the conclusion was unsurprising... my thighs are bigger the second go round, and, well, suffice it to say that my incision did not really care for the low rise waistband at all.

So no, I won't be wearing the jeans for longer than a few minutes for quite some time, but the rest of the outfit works well for postpartum and nursing. Jeans, tops (one clearance, one thrifted), and zip up hoody, $23ish

Same clothes, different look

For me, part of having a budget efficient wardrobe is having versatile clothes. Not stuff that can be worn multiple ways so much as stuff that can be worn on multiple versions of me. You know, regular me, massive pregnant me, and baby's personal milk cow me. I'm in that last stage right now, and I'm a little better prepared this time than I was last time. I made sure ahead of time to incorporate a lot more button-up items into my closet.

The ruffled blouse was thrifted for $5. The stripey tank and knit skirt (which both made appearances in my maternity wardrobe) were Old Navy clearance items at $4 each. My earrings were all gifted, but the necklace is a commissioned custom work for $20.

Between the three of us, we covered most of the options for cheap shopping. Jack's shirt was bought off an online garage sale for $3 (I've discovered that Thomas is so popular that pretty much every garage sale with kids' stuff will have him around somewhere). Dominic's footy is a hand-me-down from Jack, but it originally came from Nordstrom Rack. After working at a children's boutique, I developed a bit of a fondness for adorable and super-soft Kissy Kissy baby outfits, but I never fell in love with the prices. For $13, about the same price as just a tiny hat in the same print at Nordstrom not-Rack, I found this frog footy with matching jacket.

So all of us are dressed for under $50... under $30 if you don't count the necklace (which I wouldn't, since I'm not counting my VS underthings or the boys' cloth diapers either). We cut some corners around the house, but I promise that we are not so frugal that we don't wear shoes or put pants on Jack when we go out in public. Heheh.

What This Was All About

No more maternity pictures, because he is out! I had expected to get to a hundred days of this project, but it was not to be, as our little tiny kidlet decided he wanted to arrive almost three weeks early via emergency c-section. Suffice it to say I have not been taking outfit pictures these days. But many pictures have been taken! They just contain a whole lot more cuteness than my wardrobe.

Day Ninety-One

I may be the size of a house, and this dress might emphasize that, but at least I feel like a well-painted house?

I splurged on this dress for the postpartum and nursing stage, but it fits now if I belt it high. So, the cost of dress and lace-trimmed shorts was *gulp* somewhere around $50.

Day Ninety

Laundry day! It's so hard to get the stains out of all those little baby outfits Jack spit up all over all day long when he was tiny. But apparently Oxi-Clean is the miracle worker. Empire waist top, maternity layering tank that doesn't actually cover my belly, and maternity shorts, $17ish.

Day Eighty-Nine

I don't think this shirt counts as maternity, since it's technically a nursing top, har har. Giving it a trial run. With the good ol' shorts, $25ish. Ho hum, maternity and nursing stuff IS more expensive.

Day Eighty-Eight

New train table in the room means that outfit shots are harder to take, because there is a blurry little head and a table corner in the forefront of most of my pictures now. Brown empire waist top, layering tank, and denim maternity skirt, $17ish.

Day Eighty-Seven

It's all about the angles. And I'm not just talking about front vs. side.

Just the tiniest difference of posture makes me look either all baby or ballooning all over. Can you blame me for preferring to not post the pictures that make me look like I'm already a milk machine? I'm just doing it here because, "this is for posterity, so please.... be honest."

The shirt was a gift, so tank and skirt totaled about $10.

Day Eighty-Six

Another dress, another hands-under-belly shot. Ugh. But for some reason I just love to wear a dress on Sunday, no matter how it makes me look. Dress and layering shirt, $20ish. Sorry for the expression; not sure why my smile is so smarmy...

Day Eighty-Five

Time for another angle comparison post....

The bigger the belly gets, the more difficult it is to wear a dress without looking house-sized, thus the temptation to walk around with hands under the belly all the time.

The gender of the baby is still fairly clear to all the intuitive guessers, though. Dress and maternity tank, $9ish.

Day Eighty-Four

Dressed for errands and wearing makeup, but it's all wet and wonky because the child and I washed the car. Whew! Hard work if you don't have access to a hose. But it was refreshing on a very hot day. Maternity shirt, layering top, and those repeater shorts, $18ish.

Day Eighty-Three

Have I mentioned this shirt before? It's a bit of a contradiction; instead of being a regular shirt that I wear while pregnant, it's a maternity shirt that I usually wear while not pregnant. Yes, really! It's Liz Lange, which means it's enormously big on my small bones, which is apparent above in the saggy bagginess of the top part. However, when I don't have a giant belly getting in the way, the empire waist tie wraps perfectly around my natural waist and is actually surprisingly flattering. Although it's not that perfect right now, it is long enough to cover the belly, which means it gets added to the rotation. Shirt, tank, and smocked waist skirt, $12ish.

Day Eighty-Two

Longer but less cute empire waist top + layering tank + longer maternity shorts (for a change) = $18ish. Have I mentioned I like the third tri? At least in comparison...

Day Eighty-One

Stripes and stripes! This empire waist top is getting a bit short for comfort, which is sad but inevitable, since it's my favorite of the collection I bought on clearance at the mall. Layered over a tank, with of course those darn maternity shorts... $18ish.

Day Eighty

I was excited to find this non-maternity top when I was barely pregnant the first time, because I love the print but generally don't wear empire waist tops when I'm not pregnant. I wore it for my maternity photos with that pregnancy, but for some reason I haven't worn it as much this go round. I still love it, though. And it covers my whole belly! Top, layering shirt, and knit skirt, $23ish.

Day Seventy-Nine

Have I mentioned that most of my shirts fit fine in the morning but start creeping up throughout the day? By evening, my tender underbelly is a bit insecure. And there are still 5+ weeks to go... Oh my. Top, layering tank, blue maternity shorts, $15ish.

Day Seventy-Eight

Can you tell I'm not doing so well on the makeup front? Blouse, layering shirt, scarf, and the ever-present maternity shorts, $22ish. Hippo-like hips, priceless.

Day Seventy-Seven

I've hit that very common phase where no matter how much I am looking forward to holding a new squishy tiny baby, I am realizing how much things are going to change around here for my first squishy tiny baby. I won't be able to drop everything and run around the playground with him anymore.

The feelings are layered. It starts when you get married.... you realize that you are going to be giving up a lot of your treasured "me" time, and it's entirely worthwhile but a transition nonetheless. You still set aside time for yourself, and you don't feel bad about it until you hit the next transition, first child. Then you regret the time you spent on "me" instead of "us," because you know you're going to lose a lot of the "us" time. But gradually you get used to the new normal split of time, and soon it's that one on one time with baby that you realize is going to disappear, and suddenly you're wishing you'd taken time for more of it, even though really that means you would have missed out on the little "us" time and "me" time that was left.....

Not sure if that made any sense. My conclusion has been that I need to be sure to treasure the time I spend, whether it be for me, for us, with one child, or with my whole wonderful little family. Enjoy every moment for what it is instead of anxiously regretting the fact that I can't do all at once.

Enough rambling. Empire waist shirt, layering tank, knit skirt, $12ish.