The Pregnant Body

I briefly touched upon this in my most recent baby brother update and instead of going off on my rant there, I figured it warranted it's own blog post.

So here we are.

And can I just start off by saying, the pregnant body is a beautiful thing to behold and it's a gift to grow a human being inside my body.

It's wild really if you stop and truly think about all the ways God designed things to be and that by the grace of God He uses our bodies to grow babies, tiny little beings that will live outside of our bodies. And I just marvel at the magnificence of the female body.

Can that be the thing we focus on? Can that be what we talk about?

I've had so many people tell me lately, "You don't even look pregnant! You're so tiny! How can you possibly be that far along?" And it's always such an awkward moment, when I'm like, well I am.

And then they insist, well it must be your first pregnancy, and I'm like, nope my third (technically my fourth, but I don't go into that!). And then they gasp in awe or horror haha! I don't quite know and frankly I don't care.

And I find myself talking about my other pregnancies, and mentioning how I don't really start showing with a proper bump until like 25 weeks, how my babies just hide themselves deep within my body until they're ready to reveal themselves.

And I know it's all said with the best of intentions, and I'm sure they mean it as a compliment really, but friends, how about we just agree now that you don't utter a word to a pregnant lady about her pregnant body...ever.

Never comment on how big or small she is, or how she looks like she's having twins, or make a comment about how you must be due any day now, or talk about how good she looks post partum, did she not look good pregnant? Just don't do it even if you're trying to be kind and flatter her.

Pregnancy is such a wierd time, and let's be real, women are objectified all the time, but for some strange reason, people, especially other women feel it's the perfect time to further objectify women and their bodies.

And I find it all fascinating or slightly appalling/horifying depending on the day.

The truth is, our bodies are amazing and they come in all shapes and sizes, just like our babies come in all different shapes and sizes! And our bodies are temples for God to use for His glory and I'd love to just focus on that, to focus on the ways our bodies adjust to these growing babies inside of us, the way our bodies get curvier and our belly's expand all in the name of a growing, healthy baby.

And here I am just days before Ryan was born at 38 weeks!