put some meat on those bones!

i guess you could call me a private person. when i'm in public, i don't care who you are or why you're looking at me, but you will probably get glared at if you don't look away fast enough. after all, is it more rude to glare, or to stare? (i know i'm silly.) when i'm pregnant, i feel especially conspicuous. complete strangers stop me in the store to ask me about when i'm due and my weight gain. now maybe i'm confused, but isn't weight gain a personal topic? maybe they think if they repeat a complement enough times, that a rude question is no longer rude?

i didn't have the easiest pregnancy. i was nauseous through 2/3 of it and couldn't manage to gain any weight until i was 20 weeks along. my blood pressure was normally 100/55 (near fainting all the time). i did a whole lot of sitting on the couch instead of all the fun things i wanted to be doing with my boy. i did a whole lot of worrying over whether my new baby would have the nutrients she needed, whether she'd be underweight and have to spend time in the NICU, whether i'd be healthy and strong enough to have the baby naturally the way i hoped. everything has turned out great; i have a healthy big baby and i got my home birth. my blood pressure is getting back to normal and i'm feeling better and better. tomorrow will be 1 week postpartum, and i don't really look like i ever had a baby. and yes i am happy, lucky, blessed, whatever all those strangers want to tell me i am. i know that almost all women struggle and agonize and cry over post-baby weight, and that i don't have to. but if i could have chosen between looking this way now and having been able to play with my son and spend more quality time with my husband the past 9 months, guess which i would have chosen?