Day Twenty-Five: Beauty is Pain...

As any new mother will tell you, their morning routine and rituals change significantly after having a baby.  Gone are the days of long, leisurely, steaming hot showers and thirty minute hairstyles...  Instead, the new mother learns to take a shower in a matter of minutes, (seconds on particularly bad days!), and the wash and go hair style takes on a whole new meaning...  

For this new mama, I had barely figured out how to keep my toddler safe long enough for me to take a five minute hot water run-through before the brand new baby set me back to zero.  Lately, anything beyond the basics of shampoo and soap has slid to the point of becoming a novel experience in and of itself...  Thus, while wearing a skirt at the beach yesterday in celebration of the warmish weather, I let the wind whip through my hair...  and realized that I was feeling a similar sensation around my ankles...  Yikes!  Clearly it was time to re-institute my commitment to the Great Postpartum Defrump...  The question was how was I going to make this happen?

First, some background for those who have not been initiated into the world of the new mother's shower...  A mother of small children who wants to be able to shower on a regular basis, quickly learns that it is IMPERATIVE to become as efficient and organized as is humanly possible.  You see, every moment spent in the shower is a privilege that can be taken away without notice.  Therefore, the act of showering is transformed into a highly hierarchical routine with the most essential acts coming first and all non-essential acts being placed at the end of the list.  As a result, the probability of completing a task is directly proportional to its place in the hierarchy.  

Now this mama lives in Maine...  If you've never been to Maine in the winter let's just say that it tends to be a bit on the frigid side here.  If I leave the house at all, I am typically insulated from head to toe with only my eyes subjected to the frigid air.  I am also blond...  Unless someone is looking closely, (which hopefully they are not), no one will be able to tell whether I've shaved my legs or not.  So, shaving my legs is at the very end of my shower hierarchy.  Add to the equation the fact that I have not one, but TWO very needy, (but lovely), children, and I have about as much of a chance of shaving my legs as I do of winning the Power Ball!  

That being said, there are several compelling reasons to remedy this issue:

1.  I am very much committed to the Great Postpartum De-Frump

2. I live in a beach town, and

3. Summer is just around the corner!

So, clearly I needed a solution that was highly efficient, effective, and could be fit within the many confines of my life as I know it. I briefly entertained the option of having my legs waxed by a professional.  However, the probability of me getting to the spa is even less likely than that of getting through my shower.  (And, let's be honest here...  If I actually get the time to go to the spa, I am going to be lounging in the steam shower, sipping my ice water with blueberries, and getting a massage!)  As the spa option was ruled out, I instead decided that my novel experience for the day would be to try to wax my legs myself at home.  

Now it is appropriate to note that this experience is novel to me on two levels:  One - I've never had my legs waxed, and Two - I've never waxed anything myself.  Prior to having children, the pain rumored to be involved in this process was never worth the time I would save by not having to shave my legs.  However, I have since gone through natural childbirth, with no pain management, on two occasions.  On one of these occasions, I had to be induced, which made the contractions particularly frequent and awful, was in labor for 23 hours, and ultimately gave birth to a 9 lb 3 oz baby.  I reasoned that if I could tolerate that level of pain, waxing my own legs should be child's play.

So, with my son and husband asleep and Gracie content in her swing, I microwaved my sugar wax as instructed and set to work.  

And, yes, it was a painful process... it is clearly not for the faint hearted!  But it was faster than it would take me to complete my pre-baby shower routine... And it is rumored to leave my legs hair-free for weeks!  If this is true, then I truly might have hit the new mother jackpot!  I guess I'll find out in a week or two.  In the meantime, there's one less thing on the shower hierarchy list and one more item on the list of novel experiences that might not remain very novel!