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Your Postpartum Image
How to Love the "New" You
By Katherine Bontrager
Likewise, Michelle Pipia-Stiles had to reclaim part of her old self to start feeling collected again. "I have an 8-month-old son, and after giving birth, I can remember the need to feel 'pretty' again," says the New Yorker. "So I went to Elizabeth Arden and got my hair cut and highlighted, packed away all of my maternity clothes and moved my pre-pregnancy clothes up front and center again in my closet. And that was a great feeling and quite liberating!"
Reestablishing your sense of self is not only a physical battle, but an emotional and mental one as well. To this end, Pipia-Stiles relished in some quiet time and the occasional run when her husband returned from work. She also sought to reconnect with friends and co-workers while on maternity leave to help alleviate some of the loneliness while the rest of the world was seemingly working and caught up in the grind of the big city.
"On maternity leave, while my husband and most of my family and friends were at work, I started to feel as though life had stopped still for me – it was just me and my precious baby in our tiny city apartment in the middle of the cold, winter months," she says. "So as soon as spring arrived, I made sure I was out and about in the hustle and bustle of the city, taking my son for long strolls and being able to leisurely walk through the streets, as everyone else on the sidewalks were probably rushing to a meeting. I learned to appreciate that time with my son all the more."
"Eight months later and back at work, I would say that I am back to feeling like myself again, only my new 'self' involves the miraculous wonder and joy of what it means to be a mother," says Pipia-Stiles.
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