Ashley Graham is looking at the bright side of becoming a new mom during the pandemic.
The model played guest host on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and didn't hold back during her opening monologue.
"Some of you may know me from the Ellentube show Fearless, my podcast 'Pretty Big Deal', my Instagram, my Youtube, or maybe you just know me as an international model of mystery," she said, while a photo of herself wearing a black bikini on a runway appeared. "That was also five years ago, twenty pounds lighter, hello pandemic and a baby."
The new mom welcomed son Isaac Menelik Giovanni with husband Justin Ervin on January 18, 2020.
"He made it just in time for the world to shut down," she joked. "Being a new mom has been really hard as it is, but being a new mom during the pandemic is a whole other level."
Despite limitations, Graham shared that the pandemic gave her perspective.
"It gave me the maternity leave that my body could have never asked for," the first time mom said. "Some working moms have to go back to work just after a few weeks and thats assuming they even get a maternity leave at all. It’s like these employers are like 'hey congratulations on growing a whole new human from scratch, but we really need you back at work like A-S-A-P.' It’s not OK."
Like so many across the country, the pandemic afforded the family extra time together.
"The lockdown meant that we got to spend a lot of actually extra quality time together as a family," Graham said, adding they moved into her childhood home in Lincoln, Nebraska with her mom and her mom's boyfriend. "It was definitely a real role reversal and it was really tough because we’d be trying to get Isaac to sleep...and we had to be like hey could you please keep it down up there!"
Graham didn't shy away from detailing her postpartum experience, using humor to explain common motherhood woes like sleeping training and hair loss.
"So you hear how hard it is, but you can't fully understand what it's like until you’re lying in bed, in the middle of the night, listing to your baby scream while your boobs are leaking everywhere. It’s really sexy," she said.
"Oh and did I mention that all of my hair fell out? Well at least my hairline. I had postpartum hair loss and it’s also a really sexy thing that happens after you have a kid. And I say that it all fell out of my head, because you know who thrived during that time? My armpit hair."
But through it all, Graham is cherishing every moment.
"This year has truly been crazy, but as every parent says, 'I wouldn’t change it for the world'," she shared.
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