Kendra Wilkinson: I’m Back to Being Me After Battling PPD

Nearly two years after welcoming son Hank, first-time mom Kendra Wilkinson has officially bounced back.

“[After I had a baby,] I felt like I had to be a different person. I had to be conservative and wear turtlenecks and be someone that I wasn’t,” she told PEOPLE Saturday pool at Las Vegas’s Wet Republic.

“Now that I am back to my body and I felt well again, I have the perfect amount of balance. It’s all about finding balance.”

However, learning to juggle family of three – including her husband Hank Baskett – and yet retain their own self-esteem is anything but easy to be Kendra: beds, cocktails and my sexy back to the author, who was open about her struggle with postpartum depression.

“It is bad enough, [but] there is no place where I hurt my family. I was a great mom and doing what I needed, but I’m definitely very depressed,” he says. “[Motherhood] is a big change in life, and it happened overnight.”

For Wilkinson, 26, she believes that the problem began when all her attention turned to his son, so little time for yourself. And when she felt the public pressure to reconsider after the body of the child, the reality star admits he became too hot to handle.

“At that time I did what I could for the child, but I lost myself and it was really frustrating,” she shares. “Being in the spotlight, a lot of pressure to weight loss, [especially] the world of Playboy.”

Noting that “many women suffer from PPD,” Wilkinson hopes that sharing her story offers a support system for others facing the same struggles. “We need to talk,” he explains.

Now happily settled into his new lifestyle, Wilkinson admits that he learned “a lot of fun” – albeit in a different rhythm sounds. “It’s a completely different life, but a better life,” he says.

“Your child is not. 1 100 percent of the time, but I still have time – you have to do that at any moment. I’m back in that Kendra that everyone knew the Playboy Mansion, but much more mature and grown up. I am more aware of life. “