Once upon a time there was a girl who loved shoes. She had towering heels, fancy flats, glittery, bejewelled, colourful and cool.
She liked to think she was a bit of a shoe aficionado and practically sold her kidneys to buy Manolo Blahniks and Jimmy Choo. They were her pride and joy, works of art she loved to look at and wear. Each pair told a story.
Then she had children and her glut of fancy shoes got consigned to the back of the wardrobe, mainly because she never got a moment to think about what she’d wear, let alone what shoes would go with her outfit!
But the other most unexpected reason that most of her glam brogues sat collecting dust, was that after two babies in three years her feet had gotten permanently bigger!!!
Yes that girl is me and my feet have gone up a size since having my kids. Apparently it’s a legitimate post pregnancy body change many women end up with... thanks Mother Nature, is there no end to our bodily torture?!
And you might well think ‘oh so what, go and buy a bigger size!’ But when your feet were a solid size 8 to start with, going up a size is not so easy.
I’m 5’11, so I’ve big feet... I’ve come to accept that and these days it’s certainly easier to find larger women’s sizes online, but back when I was a teenager I can remember it was a complete nightmare!
I’d go into shoe shops, looking at all these beautiful shoes in dinky sizes, imagining myself wearing them, then asking if they had a size 8? Often they didn’t stock it and even if they did the shoes often looked awful in my size or didn’t quite fit. I felt like this huge, unattractive giant didn’t fit the mould of a petite pretty girl.
As I got older I began to embrace my height and even my large shoe size...
So what now? Will I ever get to wear the beloved Manolos again?! Even if I have to give myself a toe-ectomy I’ll bloody wear them again!
But for day to day shoes? Well, I’m sick of squeezing into runners which no longer fit and hurt my feet, so yesterday I went on a mad shoe clearing out spree and treated myself to size 9, yes size 9 pink cons.
Some post pregnancy body changes are easier to accept than others! But even with my bigger feet and wobbly pancake skin on my stretch mark filled tummy, I still look at my body and marvel at what it’s done!