Post-partum confidence

When I was pregnant, many of the pregnancy books I read had sections on "your relationship with your body": helping women understand that they weren't fat, just pregnant, and that they were still attractive despite feeling 'huge' and out of control of their own bodies. Certainly, there are definite challenges to feeling "womanly" while pregnant... but I must say that for the most part, I felt pretty good while I was pregnant. I got a lot of support for (and compliments even) on my rounded, expectant shape - so the need to "buck up" on my self-image just didn't present itself.

What I didn't expect, though, was how much more this would be an issue AFTER the baby was born. For the first couple of weeks, there's physical recovery (painful and messy)... but then after that there's still months of jelly belly, nursing bras (not very Victoria's Secret, I must say), leaky, functional (as opposed to dry and aesthetic) breasts, skin that loses its 'pregnancy glow' (and thus the return of spots!), hair that falls out in clumps as the human growth hormone exits your body... and then there are the last few pounds that seem barnacled to the butt...

But I suppose it doesn't matter. All these fade in comparison to the joy of having a little one... and besides which, once you have a baby hardly anyone looks at you anyway :-) It's all about the bundle of cuteness in my arms: and I can't take my eyes off her either.