This is what my body looked like before I had any children. I was a circus artist, and in this particular picture doing my favourite circus skill, acrobalance. Basically I balanced on my hunk of a hubby in a variety of ways. It was fun, graceful and made me feel like a Circus Queen.
This is what I look like now and if my husband and I tried to perform the move in the photograph above, we might need to put in a call to a doctor afterwards.
My body has changed so much that sometimes I find it unrecognisable. Where do I start ? My tummy is soft and saggy, like an overstretched deflated balloon. My breasts are massive, seriously im considering naming them, so much do they dominate my every conversation with a man these days. They are also (when out of their supportive hammocks) extremely saggy, they will not be passing the pencil test any time soon (ladies you know what I mean).
I used to be able to look pretty good throwing on a tight t-shirt and jeans. Now I have to carefully consider my wardrobe, will it hide the bits I want to hide, emphasize the best bits, wear well, and hide the patch of baby sick on my shoulder. I don’t need a dressmaker, I need a miracle worker.
But do you know what, I don’t care (well not too much) because my body has given me beautiful, beautiful babies. It has grown them brilliantly (all my babies were over 9lb) and fed them fantastically. They cuddle up to me unaware of my saggy bits. They see their mum and all the fun we have, not the number written on the label in my clothes.
I want to live in a world where this is what matters, so I’m refusing to give up cake. I’m refusing to look in a mirror and see anything other than what an amazing, fantastic, job my body has done.
Good for you. I refuse to give up cake as well. Eating cake is a human right! You look beautiful in both pictures.
Why thanks and good to meet a fellow cake eater! Perhaps there should be a cake eating revolution
wow!! thats really you in that first photo? amazing!! my body was never that good pre baby days and like you my boobs would fail a pencil test and my tummy and my pelvic area have stretch marks, but it doesn’t really matter when i see what my body made every day. i wouldn’t change that for the world. its what being a mummy is about and anyone who gets their body back to a pre baby state within weeks of giving birth, must be super human!! great honest post x
Good for you for not woryring about your post pregnancy body unduly. There is far too much obsession with getting back to how we were before, and that is largely fuelled by the fashion industry and newspapers like the Daily Mail.
Keep enjoying your cake, and send me a slice next time you bake some!
Thanks, as it happens I baked a victoria sponge today , but it might be a victoria squash by the time it gets to you. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Great post and fantastic photos.
I would like to feel the same way about my body, and suspect I would if I could get clothes to fit better. As it is, I would prefer to lose some weight and be able to wear the clothes that I want to wear.
But, as a cake lover, this is easier said than done.
Thanks, it has taken me literally years to reach this point. I also recently had a really good wardrobe shake up and bought things that suite my new body shape and that has really helped. Thanks for stopping by my blog , I’ll pop by yours later and take a look.
I too love cake and Reubens. Bring back Rubenesque – lets start a campaign where wobbly bits are hot!!
I would love that, I have a Reubens piccy on my phone that I bring out if I ever get the wobbles regarding my wobbly bits. Im there with a billboard
It should be against the law for people to go off cake.! I ‘m sure all those supermodels would look a lot less miserable if they had a slice once in a while.
I’m on my first pregnancy and am already fed up of all the stretch marks – then I feel like a superficial fool for worrying about that when my body is growing a whole other person and having a baby has been my dream for years! So yes, please pass the cake, with an extra dollop of cream!
Where is the facebook like link ?
I’m new to blogging and a total technophobe so haven’t yet figured out such technical things as a Facebook to blog link.
What a fabulous post! I spent an hour yesterday looking through pre baby photos of myself and feeling strangely jealous of my past self. Flat tummy, thighs that don’t tough in the middle and a killer clevage. A long way from saggy C-section belly, deflated breast feeding boobs and dimpley legs. Really I should be looking at the wonderful children I grew inside me and be thankfully that they are happy and healthy.
I’ll have some cake too please 🙂 xx
Hoorah ! Well said ! I hate being saggy and baggy but I soon forget about that when one of the kids says something funny and makes me smile !
Motherhood is a tough beast – so why do it without cake.
such an inspirational comment – ha !
What a great post and so true.. yes our bodies change after pregnancy but hey, look what you have for it and what it has done… If only all mothers felt this way….
I popped over from Love New Blogs…
Nice to see you here, love new blogs has come at a great time for me. My blog is only two weeks old.
Wow ! Well reading it I would have thought you’d been doing it a lot longer !
Wow thanks. I’ve been doing it in my head for alot longer. Debating which post to send to love new blogs this week??
Good for you for being so kind about your body. I have been struggling with my new post-baby body. And like you I keep telling myself that eating chocolate is my right. I couldn’t stop eating it even if I wanted to. I just bought new jeans because I couldn’t fit in my old ones. I vowed I’d never do this after the first three babies but now the fourth is here I don’t have the time or energy to do anything about it so I am trying (not very graciously) to embrace my new body instead of getting hung up about the jiggly bits.
Thanks so much for linking this up for me to read! I’m so glad to hear that someone else finds her body unrecognizable. It’s not just the change itself — it’s that I’m having to come to terms in my head with this new shape, this new person almost.
But I love how you end: “They cuddle up to me unaware of my saggy bits.” I’m being reminded of this every day. The squishy parts of me are the best for hugging.
Beautiful! So very well said!
I’ve only just come across this post and absolutely love it. Beautiful words and beautiful thoughts. And beautiful woman.