Being Comfortable in My Pregnant Body

So here's a little secret:  I hated being pregnant with Little Miss.  Oh sure, there were things I liked.  I loved feeling her move around and...yeah, I think that was about it.  I was so incredibly uncomfortable with the changes in my body, that I simply could not enjoy pregnancy.  Even when I was feeling good in the second trimester, I still didn't like my body.  I felt fat.  I didn't feel like the cute pregnant woman I always dreamed I would be.  You know the ones.  The ones that hardly look pregnant except for that precious bump that screams "I'm growing a child and I'm going to wear my pre-pregnancy jeans home from the hospital."  Yeah...I felt bitter.  I just looked chubby for the longest time and then by the time I was clearly pregnant, I was also fat.  And I had stretch marks.   It was rough.

But take two and it's a completely different experience.  I was the exact same weight at the beginning of this pregnancy as I was before my first, but it feels so different.  I suppose some of it is that my body has done this before.  It's not as much of a shock.  And maybe it's because I figure most of the "damage" was done the first time around.  The stretch marks are already there.  They're not going away and chances are they're not going to get much worse.  The boobs were huge to start off with this time around because I'm still breastfeeding, so there's no getting used to that.  Overall it just seems more familiar and I'm more comfortable in my own skin again.

I also made a little New Year's resolution (although, it really had nothing to do with the new year, more with not feeling nauseous anymore) that's helping me love pregnancy.  I decided I wanted to be more fashionable this year.  I'd been feeling pretty frumpy and behind on the times and had decided to just give up until my kids were older, but then I ran across this article on Ain't No Mom Jeans. This line in particular really struck me:

"Ignoring trends year after year after year is exactly how you wake up one morning, 20 years later, with a permed mullet and legwarmers wondering why everyone else looks so different."

I just kept thinking, "I don't want to end up as the Mullet Mom!!!" 


So I'm putting more effort in.  I'm doing a bit of research and I'm taking a few risks.  There were quite a few trends that I just figured would never look good on my body type, but I've since been converted.  My favorite right now?  Belting the bump.  I love wearing a belt to accent the top of my baby bump.   It makes me feel like I definitely look pregnant, not fat.  I feel kinda sassy doing it, too.  I'm also trying more and more non-maternity clothes to pair with my small pregnancy wardrobe.  It's actually turned into a pretty fun process.

I'm finally figuring out what so many other women have experienced already:  that pregnancy can be fun!  You can feel comfortable with your body and enjoy the changes.  You can still feel fun and sassy and sexy.  I felt like I had lost that part of me with my first pregnancy and journey into motherhood, but this time around, I think I've recaptured it.  Now hopefully I can hold on to it.