Recently, I reconnected with an old friend thanks to (what else) Facebook. After looking through some recent mama and baby pictures, he complimented my motherly "glow." While I appreciate the sentiment, I am not certain I agree. Unless he looked at my pictures in a black lit room, I do not glow.
At the risk of offending pregnant women and new mothers everywhere, I would like to demystify the motherly glow. When I was pregnant, I occasionally heard, "You look wonderful, you are glowing!" I had these people fooled. During the forty-two weeks of my pregnancy, my internal body temperature ran approximately two degrees higher than the standard 98.6. I had a constant fever. This fever made me sweat, no matter the temperature outside, no matter how many layers I shed. When people pointed out my glow, I smiled, said thank you, then turned and wiped the sweat away with a Ponds Cleansing Wipe.
Now that I am a new mama, I still occasionally hear about "the glow." I have the misfortune of looking at myself in the mirror every day. The reflection staring back has dark under eye circles and eyebrows in desperate need of a wax, but no glow. Nowadays, I rarely have time to wash my face or apply make-up and I have an oily complexion. My glow is grease. If I had time to properly care for my skin, my glow would undoubtedly vanish.
Maybe some pregnant women and some new mamas really do glow. But not me, I glisten.
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