The "Mom Body"

It's been just about two months since I gave birth and I'm still adjusting to how completely my life has changed! And it's pretty darn cool. Really! It is! (and maybe the fact that the boys are amazing sleepers!)

Gone are the mornings of sleeping in and my leisurely shower. I'm on call for my little nuggets (with help from Grandma!)  And I feel like a slave to my breast pump - who I'm developing a serious love-hate relationship. At the moment - I HATE it. But I'm grateful to be able to supply breastmilk to the fellas. Pumping for twins is a daunting task and I feel that I sometimes spend more time with my  pump than my boys. Curse you, Medela.

But my biggest struggle is with my body. I KNEW my body would be different. I knew it! I thought I was prepared for the change. Not so much. I was in good shape during my pregnancy - I only gained 28 pounds but Lord! I don't think I was truly prepared...

And I completely blame celebrities. Yes, that's right. Celebrities. And their amazing bodies one, two, three months after giving birth and who claim to have lost weight by "running after their children." Harrumph. Explain to me how you lost weight "running after" your newborns ... But I digress. Celebrities give the general public a greatly distorted view of how a woman should look after giving birth. Women feel the pressure to get back to their pre-pregnancy weight immediately and men think women should be walking the Victoria Secret runway three months later (damn you, Heidi!).

Heidi 8 weeks after giving birth. (Gag)

Thankfully, Husband likes me just the way I am. But I'm still working on it myself. I'm in a horrible limbo at the moment where I'm still too big for my pre-pregnancy clothes but too small for my maternity clothes. I've pretty much lived in my PJ's (which has been so comfy!) but when it's time to actually get dressed and venture out into the real world - dilemma city.

I came across an article on Today.com (here) on how out of 3,000 women polled 31% hate their bodies. And my inner voice screamed "Me too!" The article ends with pictures of women and their post-pregnancy bodies. MAJOR kudos to them for posting pictures. They are much bolder than I. Their pictures showed me that I'm not alone. That there are other women going through what I am too. (I know, duh).

It's a mindset thing. An attitude thing. We leave for Florida in a few days. (17 hours in a car with two infants AND my in-laws. And, of course, we leave the day after the boys get their two month shots...Yes, we are crazy.) I've purchased a few things to get me through - mostly dresses to conceal the still-look-five-months-pregnant-tummy and my Pamela Anderson boobs (I can't tell you how much I miss my "old" boobs ...). Hopefully the dresses will get me through the week. Don't even get me started about swimsuit shopping. Horrendous.

So I'm learning to love the post-pregnancy me. I'm working out when I can and that helps me feel good. My body carried twins for (almost) nine months and successfully delivered twins. Not too shabby. I want to feel proud. So I'm working on it.

~M

P.S. here are the answers to said survey. Very interesting results!