Life Update: 6 Months Postpartum
Baby Blues, Body Image & Navigating the In-Between
Six months postpartum feels like a strange middle ground.
You’re no longer in the immediate newborn fog, but life still doesn’t quite feel “normal” again either. Sleep is still unpredictable, your body still feels different, and mentally you start processing everything that happened during those first few months.
Some days you feel strong and capable.
Other days you wonder if what you’re feeling is normal at all.
The truth is, postpartum doesn’t follow a neat timeline. Baby blues, postpartum depression, anxiety, identity shifts, body image struggles — they can show up at different times and in different ways for every mom.
As I approach six months postpartum with twins, I’ve been reflecting on what the last couple of months have actually looked like for me — physically, mentally, and emotionally.
And I asked a few moms in our village to share their experiences too.
Because if there’s one thing motherhood has taught me so far, it’s this:
The more we talk about these things openly, the less alone we feel in them.
Working Through Body Image
If you remember my 4-month postpartum post, I talked about a few small changes I wanted to make to help myself feel better in my own skin again.
Nothing drastic — just manageable habits.
One of the biggest ones was cutting back on the constant coffee and sugary drinks. My goal was water and one coffee a day. And honestly? I stuck to it more often than not. Of course there were days when I grabbed a sweet drink or needed that second coffee (because… twins), but overall I stayed pretty consistent.
Bubbly water quickly became my replacement when I wanted something different.
Another change that made a huge difference was buying clothes that fit my body now instead of waiting until I was “back to normal.”
And let me tell you — that alone was a game changer.
CRZ Yoga was a huge hit, and I also found some great pieces from Old Navy and Athleta. Having comfortable clothes that actually fit my postpartum body made getting dressed feel so much easier mentally.
It’s such a simple thing, but when you’re living in your body every day while it’s changing, those small shifts can really help.
Did I Have Baby Blues or Postpartum Depression?
This was something I thought about a lot over the last couple of months.
I was recommended a book about postpartum mental health that ended up being incredibly helpful in navigating some of those feelings and understanding the difference between baby blues, postpartum depression, and postpartum anxiety. It is called the Postnatal Depletion Cure – found here on amazon
A couple other books that were recommended to me – Wild Feminine, Wild Creative, and Wild Mothering all by Tami Lynn Kent. All about finding power and joy in femininity, womanhood, mothering and potential in yourself.
I also planned to start therapy.
However, because we are moving this spring, I decided to wait until we are settled in our new home rather than start with someone here and have to begin again in a few months.
Therapy is still very much part of my plan once we move. I want to work on:
- communicating better with my partner
- setting healthier boundaries
- and making sure I’m taking care of myself, too
Motherhood demands so much from us, and I’ve realized that having tools to navigate it all is incredibly important.
Some questions I’m asking myself right now:
- How am I feeling mentally compared to the early months?
- What habits or changes have actually helped?
- What am I still struggling with?
- What support do I want to prioritize moving forward?
Six months postpartum feels like a turning point — not because everything suddenly becomes easy, but because you start to see how much you’ve already made it through.
My mental is starting to dip lately, especially with so much going on, moving to a different province, my spouse is away for 3 weeks on course, dealing with a toddler and two babies that are hitting sleep regressions, trying to crawl and starting BLW. I take my everydae supplements, but I am definitely ready to start going to therapy to help deal with my emotions, as well going to Couple’s therapy with my husband to help with our communication. I have really put an effort into going for a walk every day, now that the weather is nice, I bought some new walking shoes and it is a great way to get a solid nap from the twins. I am still struggling with body image, I’m not where I want to be, and being around other women that aren’t in the same phase as me is hard, because we all compare even though we don’t need to. I have bought a few more clothes that are larger sizes so I do feel more comfortable in what I am wearing. Next is a larger nursing bra because I am still breastfeeding two babies and they are eating more and more – I dread the moment I stop breastfeeding and the deflation of my boobs. I am working on just one coffee and water every day, but I have definitely needed a second coffee sometimes.
The support I want to prioritize moving forward is talking to a therapist and opening up more to my husband. We have decided to try once a week date nights after the kids go to bed, to help reconnect and have a better relationship. I also want to continue practicing more patience with my toddler and his tantrums, and the twins lack of sleeping through the night. It is not easy parenting, but doing it with help makes it a little bit more manageable, my Dad and Mom have been here so much to help me survive.
And that deserves to be recognized too.
Asking the Mom Village
One of the most powerful parts of writing this blog has been hearing from other moms in our village about their own postpartum experiences.
I asked a simple question:
Did you experience baby blues or postpartum depression?
What helped you through it?
The responses were incredibly honest, vulnerable, and unfortunately — very common.
So many moms shared that they didn’t even realize what they were experiencing until after the fact.
Some found help through therapy.
Some through medication.
Some through community and support.
And some are still working through it.
From the Mom Village
The honesty in these conversations is what builds the kind of village so many of us wish we had earlier.
Here are some of their stories.
Serinna
“With my first, I had the worst postpartum depression possible. It took months for me to actually bond with him. I think a big part of that was because I had a C-section infection and ended up spending a lot of time in the hospital during that first month without him. It was an extremely difficult time for at least six months.
What helped eventually was getting out of the house. I had a really supportive mom group, and when summer came around we started doing walks and beach days. That helped drastically.
My second child was a whole different experience. I still had depression, but there were so many personal stressors happening at the same time — my in-laws visiting, a planned C-section, moving, house hunting — all within the first four months of her life. There was zero routine, and my toddler really struggled with all the change.
Having Katie going through having a baby at the same time as me helped a lot. Just knowing I wasn’t the only one struggling with a baby and a toddler kept me grounded.
My dad also helped tremendously. Even though he lived a six-hour flight away, I saw him four times in five months. He never questioned my decisions, helped with anything he could, and always made sure I got a break — even when I said I didn’t need one.
With postpartum depression, many people don’t even realize what they’re experiencing while it’s happening. It just feels like you’re not handling things well, or that you’re tired, or that this is just what being a new parent is like.
It’s not uncommon to only realize you had postpartum depression after the fact.”
Lindsay
“With my first, I felt the baby blues pretty hard from about 2 to 10 weeks postpartum.
At the same time, there was also complete bliss. My husband and I would go for walks every day, talking about what our life might look like in a few years with this little baby we had just brought home.
Then the four-month sleep regression hit… and it was rough. She was waking up every 45 minutes and would only nap in my arms, so I somehow survived on almost no sleep.
Once that phase ended, I developed really bad sleep anxiety. I would get her down and then think, ‘Why bother going to sleep? She’ll be crying again soon anyway.’
I mentioned it to my doctor at one of the baby checkups, and she prescribed me sertraline. Honestly, it made my life way easier. I’m still on it now.
My husband was really my support during that time since we don’t have family nearby.
When my second baby came, I was already taking sertraline. I still noticed some baby blues, but I wasn’t crying all the time. He never slept well either, so I just got used to living on broken sleep.
My mom and sister came to visit when he was around six months old, and that helped a lot. Just having someone there made a big difference.
For me, medication was the biggest help. I’d always had some anxiety even before kids, but when you add sleep deprivation and caring for a baby, it becomes a lot. The medication helped me feel stable again.”
Alanna
“I had really intense postpartum anxiety and depression with both of my kids.
With my first, it started the moment she was born. The one thing I absolutely didn’t want was a C-section, and when it happened I remember sitting in the hospital room afterwards feeling completely devastated. I should have been happy, but instead I felt incredibly sad and angry about how everything went.
I ended up staying in the hospital for five days, partly because of some really poor postpartum care I received there, which made the experience even harder.
With my second, it was another emergency C-section due to heavy bleeding, but the care I received in Edmonton was amazing. I thought I might be more in the clear this time.
Then the baby blues hit hard when we got home. One night I became completely manic and even got physical with my husband when he wouldn’t hand the baby back to me because I thought he was taking my baby away.
Things settled a bit after that, but around seven months postpartum I called my nurse practitioner and told her I was scared I might hurt my kids. She immediately switched my medication.
After switching meds, things improved dramatically. The headaches stopped, the night sweats stopped, and I was finally able to regulate my emotions better.
Even now, at 14 months postpartum, I still deal with irritability and overstimulation, but it’s much more manageable.
A big factor for me was the lack of support. My parents don’t live nearby, and even though my husband has a big family, there just isn’t much help available. I’ve had to learn to swallow my pride and ask friends for help when I need it.
Another thing people don’t talk about enough is antenatal depression. During my pregnancy with my second, I had severe depression and anxiety.
Because of how intense these experiences have been for me, we’ve decided we won’t be having any more children.
Looking back now, I can recognize how serious it all was, but when you’re in it, it just feels like survival.”
Alissa
“With my first postpartum period, I had this romanticized vision that I would immediately bond with my baby and it would be all hearts and roses.
But it took me months to actually bond with her, and that made me feel incredibly guilty for a long time.
During my pregnancy with my second, I developed severe prenatal anxiety and depression and ended up being medicated through most of the pregnancy.
When he was born, I actually did feel that instant bond. But around five weeks postpartum, after I returned home from spending two months with my family, reality hit hard when my husband left for camp again.
There were nights when all three of us — me, my toddler, and my newborn — were sitting in my toddler’s bed crying at two in the morning because I couldn’t get anyone to sleep.
At my lowest point, I would walk outside in the middle of the night into the snow and just scream because I needed to escape the moment. I didn’t want to hurt myself or my kids — I just felt completely overwhelmed.
It took me almost a year to finally accept that I needed help and start therapy.
With my third baby, I still struggled with guilt and overstimulation, but nowhere near the level I experienced before. Already being medicated and having a therapist made a huge difference.”
Kelly
“I had pretty severe postpartum anxiety and depression, but I was already seeing a therapist, which helped a lot.
Having that relationship already built made it easier to start talking about postpartum struggles.
My husband’s job contributed a lot to my anxiety, and honestly still does. The one thing that consistently helps me is exercise — even just a walk, run, or quick workout during nap time.
It gives me something positive to focus on.
I’ve also tried several different medications and am still figuring out what works best.
What really shocked me through the experience is how many women go through postpartum mental health struggles silently. I wish I had known how common it was before having my daughter. I probably would have been more proactive about building a stronger support system beforehand.”
Katie
“With our first, I definitely experienced baby blues a few weeks in.
My husband went back to shift work right away, working both nights and days. I had a C-section and struggled getting up and down on my own, so when he was on night shift I felt incredibly alone being up all night with the baby.
To make things worse, they had used a new adhesive on my incision that didn’t hold properly, so my recovery took a lot longer than expected.
We also have no family nearby, which made that early postpartum period really isolating.
Looking back now, I can see that I probably had postpartum anxiety too, but at the time I just brushed it off as normal newborn exhaustion and adjusting to being a new mom.
Things started to feel easier around the four-month mark.
When we had our second baby, I didn’t experience baby blues right away, but the emotions of going from one child to two — especially so close in age — were intense.
I felt guilty that my first was losing some of my attention, and at the same time guilty that I couldn’t give my second the same one-on-one time my first had.
The postpartum anxiety didn’t really hit until later — closer to a year postpartum — and that’s something I’m still working through.
It’s such a tough phase because you want to soak in these years while they’re little, but at the same time you’re realizing that you need support and time for yourself too.”
Final Thoughts
The Reality of Postpartum
If there’s one thing these stories make clear, it’s this:
Postpartum looks different for everyone.
For some moms, it’s a few weeks of baby blues that slowly fade away.
For others, it’s months — sometimes even years — of navigating anxiety, depression, sleep deprivation, identity shifts, and the overwhelming responsibility of caring for tiny humans.
Some moms find support through therapy.
Some through medication.
Some through friends, family, or community.
And some are still figuring out what helps them feel like themselves again.
What’s important to remember is that none of this makes you a bad mother.
Struggling doesn’t mean you love your children any less.
Needing help doesn’t mean you’re failing.
In fact, recognizing when you need support is one of the strongest things a parent can do.
Motherhood is beautiful, yes — but it’s also complex, emotional, exhausting, and deeply human.
And the more we talk about these experiences openly, the less alone moms will feel when they find themselves in the middle of it.