Olivia Munn Is Keeping It Real About Postpartum Life
In a candid post, the actress shares that she is both “struggling” and “happy.”
Life with a new baby quickly becomes a blur. It’s all an endless cycle of waking, crying, feeding, and diaper changing, and baby seems to pay little mind to whether it’s day or night. New parents often find themselves filled with joy one moment and overwhelmed to the point of tears the next. Even when you know that these challenges are expected and normal, that doesn’t always make it easy to cope.
Olivia Munn, who welcomed baby Malcolm Hiệp Mulaney with her partner, comedian John Mulaney, in November is sending out a message of solidarity to other parents who might feel lost or lonely out there in postpartum babyland.
“Hi to all the other moms up right now (and also eating late night cookies?),” Munn wrote on a post to her Instagram story stamped 1:54 a.m. Munn posted several middle-of-the-night mirror selfies to illustrate her postpartum reality, wearing a grey, long-sleeved Micky Mouse shirt and round glasses.
In one shot, she nibbles on a cookie. Another close-up is captioned, “Just checked and yeah, that’s baby spit up.”
Munn described the contradictory emotions that arise when you’re caring for a tiny, new human. “Postpartum life right now: everyone’s asleep except me,” she wrote. “Been wearing the same sweatshirt for three days (I think, maybe more?)”
“I’m so happy and at the same time I’m struggling (weird to feel both simultaneously yet so grateful to have all the happiness to keep me afloat),” the Violet actor explained.
Munn has been open throughout her post-pregnancy journey, sharing her feelings about returning to exercise and her struggles with breastfeeding.
“My hips still feel wonky from pushing out a human being, my postpartum anxiety is still here (and horrible), but I got myself up and took my first capoeira lesson today,” Munn wrote in another post to her Instagram story earlier this month. “Getting back to martial arts made me feel a little more like myself. Hope I can keep it up,” she said.
In February, Munn spoke frankly about her struggle with low milk supply. “I cried and cried,” she shared in a video posted to Instagram. “I felt like my body was failing. I worried I wouldn’t bond with my baby.”
In photos of little Malcolm with Munn and Mulaney, it’s clear he is a healthy and very loved infant, whose parents are doing just fine during the roller-coaster of postpartum life.
