Dealing with (and accepting) boob growth

Our bodies are very dynamical creatures.  Even if we stay the same weight our entire lives and never have kids those pesky things called hormones set in and go about reshaping our bodies.  Often women experience boob growth even well into their 20's and then once you think you're stable menopause can also reshape your body.  That's not even factoring in weight fluctuations, water retention from PMS, pregnancies and breastfeeding.  Long story short our boobs change size as we age. 

Now, for some ladies this might be a welcome change. If you're smaller chested and always wished  you were a bit larger than you might eagerly anticipate pregnancy for the extra volume.  Maybe not... it's certainly a matter of how you relate to your body and how you handle these changes. I admit to ignorance on this area and leave it up to my wise small-chested friends to cover it in more detail.

Leaping the DD+ Abyss

Ladies that are used to fitting in the "standard size range" of bras i.e. 32-38 A-DD might have an overwhelming fear of surpassing the DD line.  No longer can they shop at most retailers out there and they might stare at a huge of abyss of the unknown i.e. bra sizes in the DD+ range!

There can even be an overwhelming stubbornness that sets in.  A women staring at the DD+ abyss might absolutely refuse to look for bras in a large cup size out of fear that she truly is a F cup or, God-forbid, a G cup! She might avoid getting fitted because it would only reconfirm her worst fears or she might instead continue to increase her band size instead of looking for larger cup sizes because she fears that bras in DD+ cups would cost too much and be too difficult to find.

Getting past that barrier can be tough and takes a leap of faith.  It means you have to understand your body well enough to believe that you actually need larger cup sizes.  It means you have to accept (or disregard) the common social stigma that DD cups are huge (contrary to all evidence that says they aren't like here, here, and here but I digress...).

The good news is that there ARE a ton of brands out there that carry large cup sizes.  No, not all of them cost a fortune either (feel free to browse my resources page to find many of them).  Once you take that first step and get closer to your real size it can make a dramatic difference.  You can feel supported after years of saggy breasts.  Your underwires no longer stab you and you get a smooth appearance underneath clothes where before you had bumps due to breast tissue spilling over the cups.  Leaping over the DD+ abyss is a good and amazing thing.

If you're already at the top of the cups

However, what happens to the ladies who already have large breasts?  Those that are on the verge of getting sized out by most size ranges or are already sized out by them?  A further increase in breast size can be daunting.  It's similar to the fear of the ladies crossing the DD+ abyss but in this case the fear is more well-founded.  If you're a K cup (and wearing one already) you most likely know a good deal of about bra sizes and what brands cater to your shape.  So then there's the overwhelming question of where do I go from here?

Pre-pregnancy I was already at the top end of most brands and for some of the brands I was already outsized of many of their collections and/or they didn't carry my size.  In Ewa Michalak I wore a 28JJ where their CH's and CHP's stop at 28K- my favorite style, in Curvy Kate I was a 28JJ and their collection stops at 28K, in Freya I was about a 28HH/J and they carry very few styles in that size and in Fantasie I would have needed a 28H but they do not carry 28 bands.  So it was clear that as is I didn't have a ton of options.

While I am thrilled about my pregnancy, accepting the boob growth has been tough.  Soft cup bras in large cup sizes are near to non-existent and the handful out there don't necessarily handle large breasts that well.  Ewa Michalak and Fantasie/Freya have been my go to brands because I did have the luck of going up a band size but even then my options are fewer and farther between as before.

Another added complications is misjudging depth.  Going up a few cup sizes so quickly has made me less aware of how much space I actually take up and means that I've ended up hitting my breasts when passing by a door (strayed to close) or am worse at judging if clothes are actually going to fit me.  It's also made me feel out of sync with my body.   In a way it's very similar to my weight loss journey because fast changes in my body mean that the image that I have in my head is not caught up to the way my body actually looks like.

So what's the solution?  Part of it, of course, is doing some serious research on bra options so at least my back will be supported, my breasts won't hurt and I gain some confidence in my skin.  Ewa Michalak is planning on coming out with the S shape soon and that's definitely on my list to buy as well as another bikini top if there are any still available.

The next step is deciding what you're going to do about it.  If it's due to pregnancy then really all you can do is wait.  I know personally I don't lose any cup sizes until I'm done weaning and since I plan on doing extended nursing with this baby too that won't be for a long time.  However, if it's due to weight gain then there is the option to try and lose the weight again.  That being said, weight loss and boob changes aren't always linear i.e. sometimes when you lose weight it just comes off of your band size and not your breast size.  It certainly makes matters more complicated!

One suggestion that I know helps me a lot is to find others around your own shape.  Understand that these women look beautiful and figure out what clothes work well on their bodies.  It's so much easier to be critical of your own body than somebody else's.  Often we'll sling hate at our thighs or our breasts but would never dream of doing that to our best friend!  So find a blogger or a friend that looks like you and realize that she IS beautiful so you can be too.

Acceptance isn't easy.  I'm not going to lie.  But it can happen through a conscious effort of what you put into your head, what you choose to read and what you choose to expose yourself to.  If you have friends criticizing your shape it might be time to find new friends.  Or at the very least have a heart to heart with them on how it makes you feel.  I've discussed before stupid ASSumptions that society places on curvy women, but what is most important is that you don't place those ASSumptions on yourself too!