Frumpy Housewife no more?

When I was single, and even once I first got married, I thought, "How can women look like slobs when their husbands come home from work? The guys are around professionally dressed people all day, and then to come home to a wife who's wearing sweats and hasn't done her hair or makeup; I would think it would be a disappointment for him. If she looked like that when they met there's no way he would have considered dating her." I told myself I would never let that happen to me. And then I had a kid.

I have now become what I thought I never would: a frumpy housewife. Mc comes home from work and I'm not dressed, I haven't showered, my hair is a mess... and makeup? Forget about it (I'd need a shower first). What happened was: I had a child, and one who at the moment has a case of separation anxiety. When your child is young you're told, "Sleep when your baby does." Especially now that I'm pregnant again I really need the sleep. That leaves me with only being able to do things around the house when my baby is awake. Housework is manageable since I can be within eyesight of her, but she cries whenever I leave the room for more than a few seconds and she crawls after me. Once I tried putting her in her sitting chair and placing that in the bathroom while I took a quick shower, but she absolutely hated it and cried the entire time. I've heard some mothers say they just let their kid cry while they take those few minutes for themselves. I tried that once and I won't do it again. It may work for some mothers but I don't like doing anything that purposely causes my child distress (and it's real distress, she's not old enough to fake it yet).

So until now my only option was to wait until Mc got home from work so he could watch Baby Girl while I made myself decent. When he walks in the door I smile and say hi, and Baby Girl gets so happy when she sees him, and then I hand her to him and hop in the shower. But that means that for a few minutes he sees me looking my worst, and sometimes on top of that I'm in a bad mood if Baby Girl has had a rough afternoon. I always feel better after the shower but I wish I could take it before Mc gets home.

Today I tried something different. I let her loose in the bathroom but I put some of her favorite toys in there, and it kept her occupied long enough for me to shower. I feel great, and I'll try it again tomorrow. Now Mc can come home and he can think, "Oh, you look nice," instead of thinking, "Oh... you, uh, wanna go shower or something?" He's never said anything like that-- he's not mean-- but he knows that I know that we both wish I looked better. Perhaps once Baby Girl grows out of this separation anxiety phase I'll be able to leave her in the living room for 10 minutes while I shower up, but that probably won't happen for a while. So until then hopefully this new routine will work out for both of us. It's either that or lose precious sleep to go shower, and that won't last long. Hopefully this is the end of my frumpy stage... until I give birth again. Ugh. I'll think about that later.