Getting outfit photos nowadays is trickier than I thought it would be! I’d thought that during maternity leave, I’d be able to pack up the car with the pram, tripod and camera and be off to explore the countryside to scout out the perfect location for photo-taking. Actually, it’s turned out not to be quite so easy as that!
I was told that it would take me hours whenever I wanted to leave the house once I had a baby. Like many other parts of being a parent, I’ve found this to be pretty much scaremongering! Yes, there was the time when we were due to leave to a baby group and Emmy produced every bodily function in a row; then there was yesterday when we were just leaving to a dentist appointment and she spat up on herself and had to have a quick change of clothing. But I’m mostly keeping us organised by planning a leaving time of at leat 15 minutes earlier than I really need to leave and having our changing bag packed with nappies, wipes, nappy bags, muslins, a spare outfit and my purse at all times. We also keep the pram in the car which means I don’t need to sort that every single time I need it, plus we have to pass the car if we’re going on a walk, so I can grab it then. A lot of the time I’m even able to leave the house with Emmy in her carrier and just a new little bag I bought from John Lewis the other day (this one, if you’re interested) which sits on my hip and holds a couple of credit cards, my sunglasses, a hat for Emmy and even a couple of nappies and spare wipes – it’s super handy!
But getting the tripod and camera sorted as part of this is, well, not so easy! They’re too big and bulky to take with us on a walk, and if we’re going by car, I already have to do a couple of trips to it to get Emmy into her car seat and to put the bag in and lock the house. As such, I’ve needed Ben’s help to get photos lately, and fortunately Easter weekend provided not only the perfect weather, but also the perfect backdrop as the oil seed rape fields began to flower!
Remember last year when we took photos in these fields? Emmy was still a few weeks off even existing as a ball of cells, we weren’t actually even married yet, but the weather was just as lovely and Ben was still rubbing his eyes and nose just as much! It’s strange that I suffered from hay fever as a child, set off by these beautiful yellow blooms, but nowadays it barely seems to affect me, whereas Ben, who’d never had an issue before, has got sneezier and itchier amongst these flowers as the years go past!
Dressing myself over the past couple of months has been tricky, as I’m sure you can imagine. My body hasn’t changed shape all that much luckily, meaning that a lot of my old clothes still fit me well enough, apart from across the bust where a lot of them stretch and strain. This was partly a problem for me before, but it’s even more so now! In addition to that, I need clothes I can nurse Emmy in. It’s not too bad when I’m at home because I can simply pull whatever I’m wearing out the way and it doesn’t really matter, but if I’m out and about or seeing people (which seems to be every day lately!), I need more nursing-friendly clothes.
My last “mummy outfit” featured a button up top from a mini haul from H&M, and this outfit shows another item I bought in a mini haul from Primark: a button up jumpsuit. The first time I went out properly shopping after Emmy was born, my mum and I went to Primark and I stocked up on items that were either button up, wrap style or had low cut necklines – something I always avoided before but are kind of necessary now! Unfortunately, I got a bit carried away and bought mostly summery items as those were what the shops had just started getting in at the time – mid-March. It means that this jumpsuit and another item I bought, a striped playsuit, have been relegated to one side in the wardrobe until the nice weather started to show itself!
But now, it finally has! And this rust coloured polka dot jumpsuit was ideal. It’s a lightweight, slightly floaty material with big buttons down the front (real buttons!), so I can undo these and move it out the way to feed Emmy, but it looks nice in the meantime. The legs are wide and flare out from my hips down to mid-calf, so I suppose it’s a midi jumpsuit. I had to size up to a 12 to make sure the buttons fit over my bust and didn’t strain too much, but my waist is currently fitting somewhere around my usual size 10, but worn with an old belt (which we had to punch a new hole in – I was in between the old hole we’d punched for my waist and the holes already there!) and a denim jacket, it works perfectly. I’m excited for more warm weather to be able to wear it again!
Outfit Details
Denim Jacket: Animal | Jumpsuit: Primark | Belt: ASOS | Flats: Primark
PS: Emmy’s outfit is this matching ladybird pinafore set from Next and is SO cute! I bought it around mid-pregnancy, I’d actually spotted it right at the very beginning of my pregnancy, and had been so excited for her to wear it!