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Thongs, briefs and the undies in between
My husband was at work for the day and I was home alone with the baby. She was asleep and I took the opportunity to take a shower and attempt to shave both legs and at least one armpit.
I had two thoughts going through my head while the water was running over me: 1, I hope she is still asleep and didn't manage to sit up in her crib for the first time while I am in this shower and 2, I am absolutely putting on my enormously oversized, white, cotton panties when I get out of this shower and I am going to thoroughly enjoy it.
And I did. I checked on the baby; she was sleeping sweetly, so I skipped into our bedroom and opened the drawer that contained my three pair of brief-cut underwear that I purchased specifically to wear after my planned C-section. When my cousin advised me to get some before the surgery, I told her, "Okay, but I am going to have to Google 'brief-cut' because I have no idea what you're talking about." After my Google images search of this world of underwear that had previously been unbeknownst to me, I found myself walking sheepishly down the aisle in the store where these frighteningly large pieces of undergarments were apparently sold to the general public.
I bought them, I wore them, and I fell in love with them. After my beautiful baby was born, I healed well, but it is more than safe to say that I milked wearing these wonderpanties for quite some time post-partum. Let's be real, no one was trying to sneak a peak at what I had going on under my also-oversized sweats that I wore every day for about seven weeks. (Okay, in full disclosure, I rotated between at least 2 pair of sweats).
Some time passed and I started to feel a bit more like myself. I wanted to wear my regular yoga pants and my pre-baby jeans, and well, the briefs were just not fitting under those the way underwear should. The waists were too high, the lines were embarrassing, and they were bunching up in the wrong places. So, down they went…all the way to the bottom of my undies drawer, and out came my oldies that were nearly a fraction of the size.
They stayed there for a few months until that day when I was in the shower lathering some more coconut oil on my six-month, post-partum, tender, keloid scar and all I wanted to do was indulge in some serious underwear comfort.
That morning, I adorned a pair of these gems and an oversized tee-shirt and proceeded to take care of the baby, wash the bottles, change the diapers, clean the toys, clean the dishes, put away the laundry…and then of course clean more dishes.
I didn't pick one wedgie. I didn't viciously scratch my scar through any irritating lace. I didn't worry about ruining another pair of lightly colored underwear because, well, there was enough room for a pad. Imagine that?
I was torn. On one hand, my old lace thongs represented a piece of me that felt like my body and my life might be "going back to the way it was" pre-baby. On the other hand, the briefs represented the side of me that both knew and accepted that things would never really quite go back to the way they were.
I decided to find a new, happy medium. I went out and I bought brand-new, black, cotton underwear of all different sizes, some with more coverage than others. These undies represent this new chapter of my life: thirty, mommy, comfy, and, yes, even sexy.
So, to all the mommas out there, I urge you all to wear whatever underwear helps to make you feel like the very best version of yourself, whether that's a hot pink thong white grannie-panties, or something in between.
And the next time you find yourself in just a shirt and underwear (because you didn't have the time or energy to put pants on, of course), and you're standing in the kitchen washing what feels like the 837,275th dish of the day, I hope you think of me.
- Amanda Motisi
Amanda Motisi is a new mommy, wellness blogger, health coach and teacher.