Mommy Makeover

I knew when I gave birth to my son that life as I knew it would cease to exist. Anyone who is planning a family knows this. I had my fantasies of long walks with a stroller, music & me classes, mommy group play dates, snuggling naps on the couch and inhaling that addictive baby fresh scent. But I also knew there would be sleepless nights, hormonal breakdowns, spit-up... lots and lots of spit-up, and doubt of whether or not I could handle my new life. But no one told me about ponytails and slippers. No one told me that everyday, these two things would make up my new, and necessary, wardrobe. No one told me that I'd be getting a mommy makeover.

I have nice hair. I do; and it's my favorite physical attribute. In my pre-baby days, I'd always enjoyed "doing" my hair - curling irons, hot rollers, braids, twists, buns and more. Nice hair is especially great when you're pregnant. Your hair doesn't get fat. Your hair doesn't get bloated. In fact, I found that the bigger my belly got, the bigger my hairstyles went. In a weird way I was trying to balance out my body. In the way that they tell you to carry a big purse, so your frame seems smaller. So larger and larger I went with the rollers and the hairspray.

And shoes! Oh, the shoes. The more impractical, the more I wanted them. Sky high platforms, sweet kitten heels, and wild wedges - I loved them all. I went a long time without owning a pair of flats - even when ballerina shoes made their big trendy debut. I still wanted to be tall, tall tall... and then I got pregnant. It wasn't just that my feet were bloated and didn't fit my heels. It was more that, where was I going in all these heels? I was no longer perched on a bar stool on a Saturday night sipping martinis. I was going out for sensible early dinners at places like TGIFridays and sipping water with that celebratory slice of lemon. So out I went and bought practical flats and comfy sneakers. And then I did something I had never done before; I bought a pair of slippers. Everyone said, bring your own slippers to the hospital when you give birth. So I followed orders and found a comfy pair of pink slip-ons, which quickly went into my hospital bag, waiting anxiously by the door.

After the birth of my son, things changed in all the ways I expected them to. Up all hours of the night, constantly doing laundry, and changing more diapers than I could count. But my lifeline, my saving grace, were my ponytails and slippers. I couldn't have enough ponytail holders stashed around the house. With showers being a thing of the past, I pulled my hair back into that little elastic so fast each morning my son probably didn't even know I had hair. But he soon found out at 3 months old, when I managed to get in the odd shower and blow-dry my hair properly, and he learned how to pull on it. So back in the ponytails it went. And the slippers, well there have probably been more days than not, that I have spent all day in these fabulous footwear items. Even as I type now, they are lovingly caressing my feet, in the way that only a well worn pair of slippers can.


I do get out of the house more these days, and into more fashionable footwear (mommy appropriate flats, of course). But I live in fear that one day I will leave the house with my slippers still on and be that lady at the supermarket that other moms will look and give that totally-know-what-you're-going-through, sympathetic nod. I know sometime soon I'll be able to let my hair down again, figuratively and literally. But for now, I'm happy to shuffle around the house with my oh so stylish "do" because in my arms is the sweetest little baby you'll ever meet. And he doesn't care a bit as to what kind of fashion statement I'm making.