Beauty Secrets Post-Baby
I didn’t realize how hard it would be to get my oompapah back post-baby until I had my third.
I was 32 when I gave birth to Ethan and it was very different from when I was 23 with Angel and 26 with Cayla.
Also, I had a miscarriage before my firstborn and an ectopic pregnancy before my lastborn so you can imagine that these would have taken its toll on my body as well, let alone on the condition of my skin and hair (which I find changes the most next to body shape).
Beauty tips like using eye cream with caffeine in it (I used the Garnier roll-on kind) now make sense. Although immediately following those post-baby days I just felt like a truck had ran over me, and certainly when I looked in the mirror apparently I looked it too. So I wasn’t really looking for any beauty secrets or tips, I was looking for miracles!
Of course there are a million and one beauty secrets out there, post-baby or not but the most important secret of motherly wisdom I can give you is to relish and enjoy the journey, that is, the beauty journey.
That means setting aside that ever-present maternal guilt. Note I did not say get rid of it, because there is no getting rid of it. As much as we feel that clucky, gooey feeling whenever we see our babies, we will always have the attendant maternal guilt when we have to turn our attention to something else.
And turn our attention to ourselves we must – it is NOT selfish, it is necessary.
The most important secret of motherly wisdom I can give you is to relish and enjoy the journey, that is, the beauty journey.
Motherhood is such a serious and heavy responsibility (with many light and beautiful moments of course) that most of the time we just think that it is terribly ‘shallow’ for us to make sure we look nice, let alone to aspire to be beautiful (again).
It doesn’t seem as important to take the time to put on our makeup, fix our hair, wear something pretty as it is to make sure we set up a routine for the baby, prepare healthy meals for the family or any of the other myriad things that constitute what we believe is ‘good motherhood’.
But to be beautiful is to be a beautiful mother is to be a good mother. In fact, a great mother.
And as much as your baby needs a responsible, industrious, dedicated mother, he also needs an engaged, tuned-in, relaxed mumma who is grown-up enough to know that she can best take care of others if she takes care of herself first.
Fashion-wise, there is no excuse now. Don’t even get me started. Vintage is back, so button up shirts can be had for less than $5 at the nearest op-shops, or eBay, or etsy, if you just take the time to look. You can look casually chic, and conveniently breastfeed your baby at the same time, for much less than you would fork out if you bought new. It just takes a little bit of resourcefulness, of which mothers have bucketloads of but is always somehow directed to help other people and not ourselves.
So go on, be resourceful and get your oompapah back. Let the secret out.
