Knock knock, anyone home?!
It’s been, ahem, 5 years since we posted on BCLC thanks to a combination of lockdown, baby(/ies), big work successes, and just life in general getting in the way. But we thought it might finally be time to revive this old thing!
The new BCLC may not be quite the same as it used to be. Like I said, we’ve both got a lot more committments in our lives nowadays than we had a few years back. For me (Sian) though, I’ve been missing this little corner of the internet to share my thoughts on lingerie and bra fitting journey, as it is still quite a journey!
Char is super busy with life right now, so at the moment, the posts are primarily going to be Big Cup and more general lingerie focused, although I’m sure we can persuade her to pop in and say hello, along with some other guest cups from time to time to get a good overview of the bra world at the current time.
So why am I finally back?!
When I left you in 2019, Emmy was just a few months old so life was hectic, but I was also wearing approximately 3 bras on rotation as I was feeding her, and finding nursing bras in an H cup is tricky! You’d very quickly get tired of seeing me feature those 3 very tired bras over and over again! I also lost a bit of interest in the lingerie world as I knew that I wouldn’t be purchasing or wearing any of the beautiful pieces I was seeing across the internet, so honestly, I just stopped looking.
So it probably started as a bit of a break with all good intentions to come back once life calmed down, but unfortunately life didn’t calm down in the slightest – not when March 2020 came along! Emmy turned 1 right as lockdown hit. I’d been back at work after maternity for around 6 months at this point, but with most of my team furloughed, there was a suddenly a huge workload on my shoulders, along with no childcare – we were lucky however that my husband was furloughed for part of it, so he ended up spending valuable time with Emmy! At this point, not only was BCLC forgotten, but my personal blog that I’d been running since 2010 was abandoned too. It’s only in the past few months that I’ve somewhat revived that too!
And it’s taken that long because in 2021, just as lockdown was coming to an end, our little boy Archie came along! Now this is a lingerie blog so I won’t go all in on the details, but where Emmy was a textbook baby, let’s just say Archie wasn’t! He’s now just about to turn 3 and life is getting slightly easier – aside from the 2-3 wake ups every night still, but that’s our life nowadays! But life with a velcro allergy baby with severe reflux, along with a toddler, doesn’t leave a lot of room for blogging!
But like I said, I’ve been missing this world, and I have a lot of thoughts to share. I stopped feeding Archie last summer, which was lucky as I was down to just 2 nursing bras at that point! But this meant my size suddenly started changing again, as has my breast shape/composition – it’s very different nowadays, so my reviews will likely change a lot! As a quick breakdown, here’s how my size/shape has changed in the past few years – it might be useful if you’re feeding a baby, are a similar size and shape to me and would like to get an idea of what your future might look like!
Early 2021: Feeding Emmy, then pregnant with Archie. I still had a pretty rounded and full breast shape and was wearing around a 32H in nursing bras.
Late 2021: Heavily pregnant with Archie, wearing a 34H most of the time.
2022/23: I had 3 nursing bras on rotation in a 32HH and 34H – I had 2 Hotmilk bras and the Freya Pure.
Mid 2023: I stopped feeding Archie and my size and shape started changing, as I thought it might – it was the first time in 5 years that I wasn’t pregnant or feeding a baby (or both!). I lost a lot of density in my breast tissue – hooray! Or at least hooray to start with – I’ve always had very dense, heavy breast tissue so it was literally a weight off my back! I was wearing a 32H for around 8 months between summer 2023 and early 2024 after having a quick fitting in Bravissimo.
2024: Ben and I started a new health journey – more about this on my main blog soon, but we basically just cut out all ultra processed food (UPF), which led to me losing a bit of weight, and the bra size changed along with that! Within 3 months, the 32Hs were gaping, so I’m now, after another fitting at Bravissimo in summer, currently wearing either a 32GG or 32G depending on the bra itself. I’m around the same dress size and weight as I was in the earlier days of BCLC, but then my bra size was a 28G/GG, so that’s interesting! I’m pretty comfortable in the 32G/GG size range right now. I think I could do with a 30GG, but I do like the fact that 32 bands are more mainstream, and honestly, they’re comfy enough for me right now! My breast tissue is a LOT softer than it used to be, and where I used to have a full on top shape, I’m more full on the bottom nowadays. This means that plunge bras aren’t as well suited to my shape.
So where do we go from here?
I’ve got a few new bras I can show you in the coming weeks/months. Who knows how often I’ll post – it may be weeks in between, so you’ll have to bear with me, but I’ll do my best!
If there’s anything you specifically want to know about, give me a shout and I’ll see what I can do. I’m excited to be back and to get my words back on the page/screen again!
