I know this blog reads like it’s mostly about William but I started it to write about my adventure in parenthood and other things in life’s journey. One of the things I’ve had to learn along the way is to love my post-partum body.
Prior to pregnancy I had a positive body image and during pregnancy I mostly was happy both with how I looked and felt. But during the last couple of months of pregnancy I was so big, that’s all people wanted to talk about. And of course, my discomfort level didn’t help how I felt.
After birth, I’ve been happy with how I look and feel. I acknowledge that my body is different but I am proud of what it is capable of. I think it’s a miracle that we can grow and birth a baby and then continue to provide through breastfeeding, the nourishment needed by baby.
I’m also very proud that I met my first goal in my breastfeeding relationship by making it to 6 months. To celebrate, I participated in a project called 4th Trimester Bodies. I hope you’ll take the time to read all about the project and find it inspirational like I did, to love your body and the miracle it’s capable of.
Participating in the project has been an interesting challenge. At first it seemed easy to pose for the pictures, but then sharing them on social media is entirely different. There was a certain level of anonymity to the project. While it’s certainly public, know one I knew would be aware I participated unless my friends or family were familiar with the project. I’ve decided to “share” my photo on my social media for 2 reasons. One, I believe breastfeeding should become “normal.” I had the option to choose for the project a photo of me breastfeeding William but I didn’t because I wasn’t ready to share that image with the world. I was afraid of the reactions I would get and repercussions that might extend to my professional life. And for what? An image of me feeding my son. I hope sharing my participation in the project is a small step to normalize breastfeeding and I applaud the women who are more brave than I am to share their breastfeeding relationship with the world. Second, I hope by sharing my part in the project I am encouraging others to accept and love their body and to stop criticism of themselves or others.Our bodies are capable of such amazing things, why must we criticize how we look or how others look?
In other news (read: William news), William is continuing to develop his motor skills. He is learning to eat those little puffs. He can pick them up but they don’t quite make it into the mouth just yet.
Nana in the North and his cousin bought him a keyboard and I’m proud to announce, he’s a musical genius! His random pounding on the keys is Ah-mazing! And he can play the piano with his toes as well!
Finally, he is getting to the stage where he can play happily by himself and entertain himself. Jacob broke out the pack-n-play and filled it with toys and let him go at it.
Our house officially looks like one big nursery. Oh, well.
Until next time,
Xoxo
Wendygirl and co.
wendygirlandco 