Mom Couture

So.

You get up in the morning and look through your closet only to find that a smattering of random pieces fit you (right now) and nothing really matches. The baby wakes up crying and your boobs start leaking in response. You waddle over in your oversized sweatpants and stained t-shirt, your super cute pair of depends rustling the entire time.

Sigh.

This is the life. This is the dream. Apparently.

When I dreamed about becoming a mom and staying home while raising my children, I had NO idea about all the other things that came with it.

A leaky, healing body.

The pain and struggle of figuring out breastfeeding and the final triumph about a month later when it started NOT to hurt so much.

Sleepless nights…or nights where all I wanted to do was just sleeeeeeep and baby wanted to be up and nurse or needed a diaper or just to be held.

It’s such a wonderful thing to hold a newborn! And it can become such a hard thing to do, especially when it’s your first child because you are not used to being touched that much ALL. THE. TIME.

Also, OMG the emotional roller-coaster that is postpartum, not to mention The Fourth Trimester. I mean, who really talks about that?! All I ever heard was lots of info on the first three trimesters and maybe a whisper about the fourth. Good golly, ladies, The Fourth Trimester is *just* as important as the first three! It’s HARD and that’s okay. A whole new you is being formed. You are a freshly born mom and so is your new babe! I didn’t know it would take so much time to adjust, but eventually, I did adjust and things went a lot better.

And, the clothes. All the cute clothes I wore before I became pregnant didn’t fit anymore and I didn’t know if my body would stay it’s new size or shrink back down. It’s very unnerving to look at your whole closet and dresser (minus all the maternity things you now own) and know that pretty much NONE of it fits, not even your shoes. That can be enough to have a meltdown…or several.

You feel you’re expected to love motherhood and to ace everything and to “bounce back”. Except none of that happens, at least not overnight. It takes (and can take) a LOT of time to grow to love your new role as a mom, to figure things out (I think this takes YEARS), and to figure out your new body. Yes, it’s new. It grew a baby and birthed it. It’s never going to be the same. Also, from a cool science point, the hormones that are released into your body during pregnancy and afterward CHANGE YOUR BRAIN. You’re literally a new person. I don’t have any articles to cite, but you can look it up.

You have to figure out what being (and feeling) beautiful means all over again. You went through this in highschool and now you get to do it again. Whoosh. That’s really hard. A lot of the things you may have counted on that you consider pretty about yourself may have changed. HUGS. I’m giving you a huge hug right now. It’s okay to cry about this and I promise the sun will shine again and you will feel beautiful again in your new body. You just need to give yourself time and grace to make friends with it. 🙂

Anyway, back to the whole “mom couture” thing…

As moms, we wear many hats and perform many jobs and have to be the most flexible people in the entire world. This, then, requires quite a variety of outfits and no two are the same, though many are alike. We need something that is comfortable, functional, and hopefully, kind of cute. That can seem like a very tall order when dealing with a changing body, fluctuating hormones, matrescence (I’ll talk more about this in a later post), and the day-to-day demands of raising children.

Sometimes (actually a lot of the time) the accessories we wear with (or on) our clothing are chosen for us…food, poop, pee, baby spitup, vomit, or food we dropped on ourselves because we are so tired. The variety and color choices are endless!

Here’s another thing, I believe that each one of us has something we need to do every morning to make ourselves feel human and beautiful and on top of things in at least some way. For some it might be putting on makeup, or doing your hair (I am definitely a hair person), or making your bed, or wearing a specific kind of shoes, or accessory/jewelry, etc. This is a wonderful thing and I highly encourage you to find what it is for you and to do it without shame! It does wonders, mentally.

Personally, I am a very big fan of all the “mom-wear” out there now…shirts, sweatshirts, hats…all the ones that say things like “mama bear” or “momlife” or “blessed mama”. It is my goal to have a collection of these sayings in shirts and sweatshirts and a few hats. Why not? I like to think of these kinds of clothing as advertisements for my job and workplace…just like someone might wear a t-shirt with their workplace logo on it. It’s awesome! And, I’ve discovered, that if there is a shirt you want that is not out there, YOU CAN GET IT MADE. Wow. Mind bomb. So, I did just that!

Anyway, the whole point of this post is to point out the fact that there really is such a thing as “mom couture” and I think it’s awesome! We each have our own style and what works for us. Don’t be shamed into wearing something (or not wearing something you enjoy) that doesn’t fit you or how you live your life. Find your new #momstyle and wear it proudly!

Because the world needs more moms who are proud of the job they do and aren’t afraid to show it. Bring on the awesome, ladies!!!

Much love and blessings,

Kristi

Xoxoxo