That New Mom Look
Oh yeah that’s right I’m have been rocking that new mom look, the one that typically includes a general stench of BO, masked by infant spit-up and urine, not mine ( it hasn’t gotten that bad yet). If you are a mom you know that look and remember it fondly, it represents a time of exhaustion and feelings of being generally overwhelmed.
The new mom look is inevitable, those who haven’t experience it yet, you will those who think you won’t experience it that’s like telling God your plans … all us experienced mom’s are already laughing at you. The new mom look is a staple to any woman’s life, it is a turning point when the needs of the baby outweigh your ability to shower, do your own laundry, eat a meal that hasn’t been sitting for 20 minutes. All of the baby’s needs come before your own, all of them. The fact that the baby may or may not wake up in 10 minutes to eat will trump your ability to take a shower. And when you don’t take that shower, your child will sleep for an additional 20 minutes. If you do dare to attempt to wash yourself your child will be up in 5 minutes. So you may or may not have time to wash the soap out of your hair.
At some point you will regain the balance between yourself and your kid, but it never again is weighed in your favor. Your child will always be cleaner than you, have cuter clothes than you, be more rested than you and generally seem to have their shit together more than you do. You will learn that anything you do for yourself is going to cut into your sleep. Because everything else that you now have to do to take care of the tiny human you will still have to do so there is no skimping on one end to be able to do something nice for yourself, there is simply giving up those 7 hours of sleep a night where lets be honest you are accomplishing anything anyway.
I like to joke that somehow everyone comes before me, my children, my husband the dog, I used to also include the houseplants in that list, but something had to go so the houseplants died of sheer neglect. So I guess I finally put my foot down and decided that I was more important that the ficus … go me. I do kind of miss having plants though .. I just couldn’t be responsible for keeping anything else alive.
I am about to return to work and will be going shopping with my sister in the next couple of days for some clothes which she claims I desperate need. She is right of course but even the thought of buying new clothes doesn’t fill me with glee, it instead says if you wear them you will have more laundry to do.
Guess I haven’t regained that balance yet, I’ll have to get on that though because the return to the work place is looming and nothing will make you get back on the balance horse than your co workers asking you what is on your shirt and you realize that its both day old food and morning of baby vomit.
