Mommy Style – Mommy Blogger

07/12/2018

Teri Parkhurst is a marketing and communications professional who is currently on maternity leave with her first child, a beautiful baby boy.

I have lost the ability to put together an outfit.

For the first couple months of my son’s life, I lived almost exclusively in pajamas and sweatpants. I would “get dressed” in the morning by changing from one to the other, maybe adding a clean shirt. He was born in September, so even when we ventured out, I really only had to think about putting on some real pants because whatever else I was wearing was covered by a jacket anyway. Even at night, I was so chilly from the lack of sleep and the seemingly non-stop breastfeeding that sometimes I would just crawl into bed in my sweatpants and my big fuzzy robe. The line between clothes and pajamas blurred quickly, and for a while it didn’t matter. Between keeping a tiny human alive, and trying to eat and sleep enough to keep myself feeling semi-normal, clothes were the last thing on my mind.

But now my son is almost 10 months old, and all of my days once again require putting on an actual outfit. And that has brought about me repeatedly saying something I had said many times before I had a baby, but had never meant as literally as I do now—I need a whole new wardrobe.

I’ve accepted that fact and I’m ready to make it happen, except I don’t even know where to start. Other mamas I know make it look easy; they’re still as stylish and put together as they ever were. But I’m struggling. I need more casual clothes now that I’m out and about with my little one every day. When I go out with the girls or with my husband, I have trouble finding something I feel cute in. At some point, my nursing bras will need to be replaced with new underwear. And, the big one—the end of my maternity leave is looming and I need clothes to wear to work again.

Of course, I still own clothes that serve all of these purposes but nothing feels quite right anymore. It’s all stuff I’ve had for a while—any shopping I’ve done for myself in the past couple years was almost all maternity clothing to fit my growing bump, and any other shopping I’ve done since has almost all been for the little guy (who, incidentally, has quite the plentiful and adorable wardrobe).

It might seem silly or frivolous, this desire to find a style again. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t really matter all that much—except that it makes me feel like me again. I’m not the same person I was before I had a baby, and I’m slowly learning what it’s like to be a mom and still also be an individual. More than ever before, clothes seem to play a significant role in striking that balance.

And so it’s another thing to learn as a new mom, how to find things I feel comfortable in, and things I feel good about wearing. Time to start shopping!