Sooo, baby is now three months old. He is the cutest, most adorable thing ever. (Disclaimer: if you're a mommy reading this, and you think YOUR baby is the cutest, most adorable thing ever, you're allowed to think that. We're all a bit biased. Don't be offended...just smile and nod.)
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| Are you smiling yet? Nodding? |
Having said that, when I look in the mirror (especially after a shower), I'm still not the same person physically as I used to be. Not yet anyway. Now, before you go on a rampage about how it's only been three months, please understand that this is MY blog about MY musings about motherhood, and I'm allowed to make observations about things as I go along! I'm not saying that I want to go jump in the river about it, just that I'm observing. And here are my observations, top-to-bottom:
The Hair:
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| Pondering...what on earth have I done?! |
About two weeks before becoming pregnant, I decided that I was tired of having to deal with my naturally stick-straight, boring hair. So I got a perm. To give myself SOME credit, I wanted natural-looking waves and brought in a picture of some celeb's hair to show the ancient lady at the hair shop what I wanted. She went ahead and gave me a circa-1980s spiral perm (but didn't tell me til she was almost done rolling it) and so, in a time when most pregnant ladies are revelling in having unusually lush, shiny, beautiful hair, I was growing out a frizzy, ugly perm. It's now been mostly grown or cut out, but now the postpartum shedding has begun and it's falling out by the handful. Thanks, ancient hair lady at the shop. My hair sucks. I'm blaming YOU.
My Boobs:
Ahhhh yes, the girls. Unfortunately, they currently belong to a small human who adores sucking on them at 3-hour intervals during the day. They have been stretched, kicked and punched, squeezed and abused more in the last three months than should be allowed. They do NOT look pretty. Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful that we finally got the hang of breastfeeding, but it is definitely taking its toll! About a month ago, I was saying something to someone about how my body was gradually making its way back to somewhat normal, and he said something to the effect of, Well, at least you can enjoy the benefits of having bigger boobs!
How do you explain to a non-baby person that there ARE indeed no benefits to bigger boobs when they are breastfeeding boobs?! They are FUNCTIONAL. Not RECREATIONAL. Nice try.
My Tummy:
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| Took 10 months to get this way...it's not gonna shrink much in 3! |
Whoever said that breastfeeding takes all the weight off pretty quickly was LYING. Yeah, my inside parts shrunk back to their regular sizes, but there is now a layer of pudge that has settled on the outside of my once-beautiful abs. I have been P90x-ing faithfully (until my inlaws arrived last week, at least) and let me tell you, no amount of exercise can shed that pudge. I even had a friend (who is a crazy Ironman athelete) tell me she also has experienced this, and she has been out running again since 8 days post-partum! So that made me feel better. I'm sure the pudge will gradually shrink, or may not go away entirely until I'm done breastfeeding, but...I've come to accept it. I will be ok. I just have to get used to it hanging out over my jeans...*shudder*...and speaking of jeans, we've now come to...
THE BOTTOM HALF:
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| Ummm, no. |
This is where the true magic happened late that January night (or early that January morning...?). Ladies, I'm hoping that one day my hips find where they were positioned before, because currently, they are residing precisely where they went at 5:59am on January 29th. WIDE OPEN. If I got pregnant and had to give birth tomorrow, that baby would just fall right out. And so, in desperation to finally get out of maternity wear, I went and purchased some jeans that would accommodate my new hippy-ness (and I don't mean the flowers and love kind). I'm sad to say, the jeans I purchased are like the modern-day version of the "mom jeans" I so scorned before. They are higher-waisted (to contain the muffin-top), and since there are no higher-waisted flared jeans out there, and there's no way you'll find me in current, trendy "skinny jeans", I went to a "premium boot-cut". Read here: modern-day mom jeans. I'm disgusted. But comfortable. Sort of. See the tummy section above....
My Feet:
We've reached the bottom of the body parts. My feet haven't changed at all (thankfully)...but my choice of footwear has. I was upset that the coming of spring meant I couldn't wear my pull-on boots anymore. Who has time to do up laces when you have a baby screaming in his carseat, waiting to leave? I need some sort of slip-on shoes that are acceptable to wear with jeans...or um, sweatpants...and I REFUSE to wear crocs (sorry to those of you that do...). So, we're still working on this one.
Wow. Who knew I could write so much about personal appearance? It's not vanity...it's observation. It can't be vanity when you're less-than-impressed with yourself. However, as I said at the beginning, it's a work in progress. It's only been three months.
I have to go now. P90x is calling my name..
Way to lay it out there, Kel! You're one up on me actually buying proper jeans. I just roam around in lululemon pants. The stretchiness allows me to believe I am fitting into pre-pregnancy gear, when really, the luon is just at max stretch capacity. Funny how low-rise styles are suddenly the devil.
ReplyDeleteI'm not too ashamed to say I WANT MY ABS BACK! If that's vanity, so be it. And I want to look effing good in a bikini again too. How's that Cinderella song go? "Don't know whatcha got, til it's gooooone".