‘If you focus on what you left behind, you will never see what lies ahead.’
– Gusteau, Ratatouille
Today’s photo is less sexy, less sinful, and more a continued catalogue of change…
It is now 9 days since our beautiful daughter was born. It has been the most wonderful, different, surprising and difficult week-and-a-bit of my life, and I am loving it so much!
But as I have photographed how my body changed during pregnancy, it seemed important to do the same for my post-pregnancy body because it’s not back to how it looked before yet, and I am concerned that this phase is less celebrated than the fecund and blossoming pregnant stages. Unless it is to comment on how quickly we have lost our baby weight or ‘got our body back,’ of course.
From being tight and tense, my belly has a softness to it now. It’s palpably empty. The linea nigra and stretch marks still decorate my skin, and seem even more obvious to me now as there isn’t the same massiveness to distract me!
In comparison, it is my breasts that are tight and tense. They don’t feel sexily big though. They’re sore and swollen and functional, and continue to change throughout the day with each feed. (The photo was taken just after she’d fed on the right and I do think the left looks distinctly bigger right now!)
When thinking about the postpartum body, it makes me sad how much focus there is on losing baby weight – a survey on my pregnancy tracking app when I documented the birth asked if this was a priority after delivery and only 5{f9264c1b08ec794f1cf6cd6d13ef8a87ec0de6a492dab0f81db5d3b37fb3799c} of respondents said no…
I don’t know what is going to happen to my body in the next few months or if it will ever be the same as it was, but I’m pretty proud of it right now. I may not feel as sexy as I did last year, or even a few weeks ago, but it grew a huge, healthy baby and pushed it safely out! It would feel strange if there was nothing left to show for all this effort and I love it for what it has done.
So this is how it looks right now – soft and marked and different from the body I know, but still kind of wonderful!
Don’t forget to click the kiss to see the other photos shared this Sinful Sunday…
And the voting for the UK Blog Awards closes tomorrow on Christmas Eve. Sex blogging is a new category and I’m thrilled to be nominated! Thank you if you’ve already voted but otherwise, please click the image below to see the list of nominees as there are some really impressive nominees, and I’d love it if you could vote for me!!
