And maybe that’s more of the secret. Because I truly don’t think I’ve really expressed how hard I am on myself; how bad my body image is. That I cry all the time because of how big I am. That I have to be reminded over and over that I’m not fat; rather that I have a beautiful little babuh inside me. That gaining weight is normal and needed and expected at this point in my pregnancy. Etc, etc.
In regards to all this, my mom shared an awesome object lesson with me the other day while we were noshing on chicken nuggets at Chick fil A. She said she had been watching The Doctors (I don’t watch the show myself…have hardly even heard of it) and they gave an interesting analogy about pregnancy and weight gain, and I wanted to share it with ya’ll:
So, I don’t blow up balloons anyway, because I have about the lung capacity of a fetus, but you know how when you try to blow up a balloon, it can be really tough at first? That you blow and blow and the elasticity in that balloon just won’t stretch – it takes a lot of time and quite a bit of air to get that balloon to blow up, but once it does, if you let the air out of it again, and try to blow it up again, it’ll immediately fill with air, without any resistance like it did at first, because it’s already been stretched out?
Ta da! That’s exactly how it is with pregnancy. With your first pregnancy, your body remains tight and it’s harder to balloon up and get bigger. But, eventually, you do gain weight and get big. With second and third pregnancies, your body has no resistance. It balloons up quickly, but notice in the end; the balloon that blows up easier is really no bigger than the balloon that was tough to blow up – it was just easier to get it that way.
Make sense? I don't know why but I'm like SWEATING with the effort of trying to explain that! Haha.
So, honestly, that brought a bit of comfort. To know that my body (probably hopefully wah wah wah) won’t be much bigger than it was during my first pregnancy, it’s just getting bigger quicker. And really, with this being my 3rd pregnancy, I should go easy on myself and realize my body is tired and stretchy and this is just what it wants to do so I need to be okay with it and stop judging myself so harshly.
I am a balloon. Kind of a big balloon. But that’s okay! Right?
Right?
5 comments:
I absolutely love that analogy. Thanks for sharing it.
I think that the "post-pregnancy-tummy-pooch" is sorta like a balloon too....just deflated. I'm still working om my pooch 12 weeks later! Is it more of a struggle for you during pregnancy or after the birth?
-Heather Lindquist
Oh, Heather, I remember how tough it is to get your tummy back after pregnany. It took some time for me with Cade, and it eventually did go back to being flat(ter) on its own - but i'm not looking forward to that, either - there's no doubt that it's tough. hang in there!
First, I love reading your posts because I can relate so much right now. If it brings you any security I gained most of my weight this pregnancy within the first few months and now it has slowed down even though the baby is getting bigger. It didn't help either when people who didn't even know me made comments about my size early on.
I was at my doc apt. this afternoon and perusing a prego magazine and saw these most adorable baby shoes and I thought of you. Mostly cause they were yellow and they were $35 and I think most people wouldn't pay that much for baby shoes, but they were soooo cute! I considered dressing up my baby boy as a girl for a day so I could get them.
http://www.seekairun.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=TIANA-YELLOW
krista, thanks for your comment - it felt nice to know i'm not alone! and, omg, those might be THE CUTEST shoes i've ever seen!!!
This makes me sad. :( I like the analogy (or is it a metaphor? I get those confused). You're a lot healthier during this pregnancy and I'm so proud of you. For what it's worth, you are so not huge. Do you look like you're pregnant? Well yeah, duh, cause you are! You look gorgeous and I am jealous of your hair!
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