Thursday, January 13, 2011

Ode to stretch marks

The baby may as well have scrawled "Adina wuz here" across my torso. Nevertheless, even though I vividly remember my horror over seeing on other mommies the battle scars of pregnancy, I love my shifted shape. Maybe because I got sick of passing for a highschooler, or maybe because this pregnancy was so difficult and scary that to come out unscathed would seem anticlimactic. But my stretch marks remind me that the stork did not do the heavy lifting on our baby girl. I did. Its surprisingly easy to overcome body issues once the body has been repurposed. It is not here for aesthetic pleasure. It housed a life, fed it and protected it and strengthened it. Stretch marks are my evidence of the amazing fact that Hashem had the wisdom to encase our skeletons in something that CAN stretch.

The downside, however, is that I still need to find the motivation to get my body back. Its so hard to be enthusiastic when I am sooo tired. I understand all those daytime talk show women who pointed to their children as when they started to lose control and gain weight. I understand them but do not want to be one of them. Hm... any ideas for inspiration?
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2 comments:

Esther Shoshana said...

I think I'm seeing the beginnings of the stretch marks too and I was talking to my friends who are already mothers and one of them said she calls hers her 'badges of honor' or something similar. i think it's an amazing miracle that our bodies are capable of life-giving and life-sustaining, and to pretend that motherhood doesn't change you---on the inside as well as on the outside, is probably an incomplete experience of motherhood. as to ideas about getting your figure back, not that i can talk because i haven't experienced it, but my ideas are 1. walk with adina a lot. take her in the buggy and walk to wherever you can to do errands or whatever (this may be a bit 'israeli', but if you can it would be good) and 2. nurse for a long time and eat lots of healthy food. as long as you cut out the junky stuff, just nursing should help you shed most of the preg-o pounds.
love ya ;)

Anonymous said...

I keep re-reading this as a pep talk. Mine are TOTALLY freaking me out!

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