23 Weeks // Body Positivity During Pregnancy
June 27, 2019
🤰🏻23 weeks/5 months now and finally taking a bump picture. Even now, it took Zach days of coaxing and lots of anxiety to snap it and now post it.
It’s weird to feel self conscious about my body right now because it is currently doing the unthinkable & creating a baby against the odds. I should feel on cloud 9 everyday and never have a negative emotion, right?🤷🏻♀️
But pregnancy has been a weird experience in my body positivity journey. I knew who I was in my not pregnant body - I accepted that body and weight and shape and felt like I had come to good place with my past disordered eating & exercise compulsion. I knew that body. I don’t know this body.
Being pregnant has brought up a lot of new doubts - primarily comparison to other pregnant women. Every day of the last 5 months I’ve thought - Is my body too big to be this far along? Can people tell I’m pregnant? Have I popped too early or too late? How big am I going to be at 9 months? Will people assume I’m having multiples bc I’m too big? Even now I’m worried what people will think when they see this picture. I feel like a stranger in this body - it continues to grow & stretch outside of my control. I’ve gained 0 lbs but my stomach is getting bigger and my brain can’t compute that.
I’ve always had a round stomach and since I’ve gained no weight in the last 5 months, I didn’t think much had really changed. But now that I can’t suck my stomach in, my soft spots are hard now, and I can feel kicks everywhere - I think I can say I’ve officially “popped” and that the baby is taking up a good portion of the bump.
I don’t post this to fish for compliments or because I’m back to 100% body positivity, but just to share some vulnerability for the others who have struggled getting to know their new bodies (because I know I’m not alone in this experience).
✨All bodies are good bodies.✨
Not just if you’re a certain size.
Or if your body can make babies or not.
Our bodies enable us to live here, create memories and bless others. No matter what they can/can’t do or what size they are.
Without these bodies, we couldn’t exist here.
And I’m really glad to be here.❤️
0 thoughts