Self Care | The Before
35 Weeks pregnant with Edith and self care routine in place.
I have always loved makeover shows especially What Not To Wear. I would sit there and think oh how I would love to do that but at the same time how embarrassing it would be to actually be picked for the show. I promised myself that I would never get myself to a point where my friends and family or random people would see me on the street and say that lady needs to go on a makeover show. However after becoming a mother I feel like that is exactly what I need.
As a mother I have really fallen into the stereotype of that women who puts her family first and herself last the majority of the time. Until recently I hadn’t put any effort into my clothes, my hair, my skincare, make up or anything. The only thing I have been doing for myself, and even with this I slack at times, is getting in my workouts and attempting to eat healthfully.
8 months postpartum and …yeah.
I would say a big part of this was a result of postpartum body the first time around (you can read about that here). It is really a challenge to wrap your head around a postpartum body because it’s so foreign and such a huge shock. I mean as women we spend nine months growing a human being and then all of a sudden the baby Earth side and we are left with this foreign body. We don’t know how to dress this new body and on top of that we are dealing with swollen, leaky boobs, a baby who needs our attention, a lack of sleep and basically we are trying to figure out how to navigate our new life.
I wore maternity clothes until I was basically a year postpartum and even then I only bought clothes that were as cheap as I could find and then when I was ready to actually invest in new clothes I found myself back in maternity ones. I rarely took a shower that was longer than 10 minutes. I had no skincare routine and makeup ….what’s that? Oh and hair? I have had my haircut a total of three times in the past two years. I basically did nothing that made me feel good. I spent my days in yoga pants, sans make up (not that I think you need make up to feel/look good), I couldn’t even be bothered to wash my face and doing anything more than throwing my hair up in a pony tail was considered fancy. Basically I didn’t do anything to make me feel mentally or physically beautiful. Until now.
I’ll end this post here and next week I’ll return with the now.
What does self care mean to you?
For mamas or anyone who has experienced big changes in body image or even just lifestyle how have you focused on your self care? What challenges have you faced and how have your/are you working to over come them?
