Mom style with a mom body

Nearly ten months have passed since Max was born.  So much has happened in those 10 months and I have this blog to reflect back on and see how he (and I) have changed in just shy of a year.  One thing that I can say is that my style has not changed all that much from pre-Max.  I mean, some things have obviously changed (hello one-piece bathing suit) but as far as my actual style, I think I have stuck pretty closely to how I dressed before.  I do feel more confident in what I am wearing, however.  It's kind of hard to explain but once you have grown and birthed a baby, you can have a whole new confidence in your body, in yourself.  I have also learned what looks good on my body type (big chest, big hips, big legs, big butt, ha) and how to hide what needs hiding. There are certainly days in which I get a little down on myself (especially after receiving my first truly negative and mean comment on this blog) but I think doing this blog and making myself get in front of the camera as often as I do creates a piece of mind with who I am and who I have become.

Right before I got pregnant, I had lost some weight.  It's kind of funny because when I was younger, I was severely underweight.  I don't just mean thin; I mean really thin.  So much so that I used to wear 2 pairs of pants to school so that people wouldn't make fun of me.  I remember always just wanting to gain weight, to be able to wear shorts without someone making a comment that would make me want to go home and put on a third pair of pants.  I was also an athlete, most notably a runner and very good at it.  I will never forget the summer before my freshmen year being told that I may not be able to be on the cross country team because I was just too thin.  My mom and I both explained to the doctor that I did eat, I was just picky and had a super fast metabolism.

As I got older, into college, I was still underweight for the majority of my time there.  I did get to a place in which I was happy with my weight, although I don't know if at the time I really understood that I was in that place.  Then somewhere around my mid-twenties, I started to gain weight.  At first I welcomed it.  I loved not being the skinny girl.  But that certainly does something to someone's psyche.  Before I realized what had happened, I was actually starting to pack on some pounds.  Don't get me wrong, I have never considered myself fat.  I did, however, consider myself out of shape.  So, I started going to the gym regularly, running, and really putting a lot of stock in what I ate.  I became vegan for just shy of 6 months.  I also became pregnant at the same time.  I was healthy though, being sure I was getting enough calories and all of the vitamins and nutrients that I and my baby needed.  I never dieted.  I just changed my eating habits.

I gained a minimal amount of weight for most of my pregnancy.  I think I was around 28 weeks and I had only gained 8 or 10 pounds.  Shortly after I stopped being vegan, I started to gain more weight.  I don't completely attribute the spike in weight gain with starting to eat dairy.  I was in the last trimester of my first pregnancy.  I was going to gain some weight no matter what.  But, I do think post-pregnancy, the combination of exhaustion and reintroducing dairy into my diet made me keep the weight on longer than I thought that I would.

So, here I am,  10 months later with a my mom body and my mom style.  Both are only slightly different from who I was pre-Max.  I have full intentions of going back to the gym and to start running again.  This year was an adjustment for me.  Having Max.  Going back to work.  Accepting myself as a new mom that maybe can't do it all.  But I think I can do it all.  I just need to be patient with myself and allow myself to love the woman I have become.

Here are all of my style shots since giving birth to Max.  The first one was taken on our 2nd wedding anniversary, 5 weeks after Max was born.  He truly was the best anniversary gift that Damien and I could have given one another.