Wednesday, May 12, 2010

My bras sing the alphabet


This is my disheartening story about nursing. If you have nursed and can empathize, read on. If you plan to nurse one day, I beg you – stop here. I truly believe in nursing and it being a beautiful thing and yada yada ya, but I don’t know that you’ll want to see any of the factual information shared below.
When I found out I was pregnant, I decided almost immediately I would nurse.
When I found out I was pregnant with twins, I decided not-so-almost-immediately I would nurse.
The image of me trying to nurse two babies had me wishing I could drink a beer. I saw myself teaching the boys curse words before they were a full month old simply in the matter of minutes I tried to rearrange them against my chest.
Before I was pregnant, I was a C cup. When I was pregnant, I was a D cup. When I was nursing, I was a – holy cow it still pains me – DD cup. People had warned me that my boobs would “shoot out to here” but I didn’t believe just how true that would be, and suddenly, a week into nursing, I found myself in need of a new bra.
Here’s my DD cup bra shopping story.
I step into a specialty bra shop that I’ve heard good things about and start perusing. A woman approaches from the back and asks what I’m looking for and can she help me and she eyes my chest when I tell her I used to be a C with a look that says, “Um. Not now you aren’t, Sweetie.”
She tosses a few bras my way to try on, and this is when I realize holy crap – I’m a DD! And suddenly, in the middle of clipping the hooks on a bra on the woman opened the curtain and walked straight into my dressing room! My bra wasn’t even on yet!  
I was in shock.
Here I was, topless, eyes wide, wondering “Why are you in here with me?” but before I knew it she was pulling out a tape measure “tsk tsking” and saying “38” and “Oh my,” and grabbing my boobs and telling me, “Bend over dear and really get them in there!”
I left the store completely traumatized. But I also had the best-fitting bra I’d ever owned, so I shrugged my shoulders as I pulled out of the parking lot, vowed to tell my best friend when I got back to work and left it at that.   
Anyway…fast forward to me being done nursing. John had said things like, “Remember when you used to have gazunguz?” And I would say, “Thank God I don’t have those anymore.” But a month passed. And another month passed. And suddenly, I didn’t have anything close to gazungas. I barely had “uz.”
It was time to bra shop again. This time, I just picked up a B. No talking to anyone. No dressing room. In. Out. Bra.
But a week later I found myself in the store saying this, “I bought a B here last week, and it’s just not fitting right.”
The woman hanging up bras looked at me and then looked at my chest. “Well that’s because you’re an A Sweetie. Maybe even an AA.”
I couldn’t breathe. An AA?? Ugh. Did you even need to wear a bra when you were an AA? In shock, I took a few of the A bras she handed me back to the dressing room and tried them on.

“How are they working out?” I heard her ask from outside the door.
“Good,” I said completely distraught.
“Well, I found an AA for you that you should try on, but it doesn’t have an underwire.”
I didn’t even need to see that AA. She tossed it over the door and I glared at that AA. I grabbed it and shoved it in its own little corner away from me. I didn’t even care if it fit better, I was not trying that puppy on. Plus, did she think someone who was an AA wanted an everyday bra that didn’t include an underwire, and padding, and more padding, and a discount for breast implants?
Sigh. Double sigh.
The end.
Well, until tomorrow …

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