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I am a 26 year old mother of one, my amazing son, Patrick. Despite remaining very active during my pregnancy, and not gaining any weight until the third trimester, I still managed to pack on 40 lbs in the last six weeks. I’ve included a picture of a hike to the top of a local waterfall at 33 weeks, over 4 miles round trip. We still do not have an explanation for the weight gain, but it happened. After 25 hours of natural labor, my son was born via c-section because his head was turned, and he was rather stuck. He was born 6/9/05 at 36 weeks, 6lbs, 11oz. He is the joy of my life, even though he’s screaming at me right now for typing this, and I don’t know what I would do without him!

My weight loss was good at first, I quickly lost 25 lbs, but then stalled, and actually gained 10-15 of that back and floated between 195-197. I’ve been taking Merida since June 23rd as all other attempts to loose weight have failed, and I’m now down to 178, getting closer to my prepregnancy weight of 170. I plan to try to loose more though, and get back to 135 if possible. I will be back with more pictures when I’ve reached my goal! Between the beginning of a new school year (I teach juniors at a local high school), and chasing around my very active toddler, I think my journey won’t be too terribly long, though I know it won’t be easy.

I applaud your efforts with this site, as they have encouraged me to be proud of my badges of honor rather than ashamed!

Dearest Shape of a Mother,

I have been searching in vain for the Shape of a Goddess website only to find that it doesn’t exist. drat! So I am offering up my humble photos to your site for inclusion in the ‘wall of yummy mummy fame’. Please note that this divinely bovinely body has housed THREE children and supported their subsequent nutritional needs for almost 9 years consecutively, or totally, or you know, for a really really long time. These photos were taken in my cowgoddess lair by my nine year old at 2 years 1 month 16 days postpartum. (and also, please note that during my pregnancies I like to add on about 70 pounds due to a sweet sponsorship deal with Ben and Jerry’s and then as a side note: Ben and Jerry’s doesn’t actually pay me in any way.)

I am wearing a mask in the photos so that I may remain anonymous – You may of course include this letter in its entirety,

Love,
The Goddess of Moo

Hathor the Cowgoddess and the Evolution Revolution
Amusing cartoons and insightful/incite-ful commentary about homebirthing, breastfeeding on demand, maintaining constant contact, sharing space, unschooling and saving the world.

https://www.hathorthecowgoddess.com/

I am the mama to two beautiful girls.

I never had a lot of confidence in my body until after I had my babies. Now I think my body rocks!

I suffered a stroke when I was born and have some muscle weakness along half my body. I was always treated by my family like there was something wrong with me. I am not a big person and was told not to gain weight because it would make my limp worse… basically it was a set up for a crappy self-image. I never was athletic and I was slow to mature. My teen years were filled with all the usual body anxiety, and then some.

But finally I grew some, got older, got married, and concieved easily. My pregnancies were problem free, essentially, except for the weight gain. I gained about 40 pounds with one pregnancy and 50 with my second daughter. My normal weight is about 110 so walking long distances, stairs, getting in the car, and carrying my firstborn became so difficult. I have good skin; the only stretch marks I have are very old silver ones on my hips and buttocks from a teenage growth spurt. Pregnancy did not deliver any more for me, thankfully. (I worried about them a lot.) My belly sags now, though, after my second pregnancy, and I havent sprung back like I did after my first. Its been nine months and I probably should start doing some exercises to help things along. Can skin even tighten up after it’s been stretched so far?

I had a good hospital birth, vaginal delivery with my first. With my second, I had a super fast labor and delivery at home (we planned the homebirth). Delivering my baby on my dining room floor, with my husband catching the baby, is a memory I feed on when I feel powerless. I am amazed at what my body can do. I enjoy being pregnant so much and miss having the babies inside. If I have another, I want to enjoy every single minute fully and hope to deliver at home again. Being pregnant and witnessing all that my body can do, and can do well, has given me much more faith in my physical body and deepened my faith in God as well.

The biggest physical change motherhood brought me is breasts! I have them now! My husband teases me that he liked them better beforewhen they were smaller. They have never been big and they arent big now, but they are bigger. They changed significantly during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. They grew. They shrunk when I lost all the pregnancy weight plus ten pounds. Then they grew again with my second pregnancy. I hope they dont get too saggy but I dont care too much. My body is changing and so is my outlook. My stomach, which flattened out after the first birth, is soft and the skin is crepey. Maybe it will tighten up; maybe not. I dont really care, because I know there is far more to life than vanity.

About the photos: I am 8 months pregnant in the belly pic–I got even bigger! In the breast pics, one was taken when my first daughter was 16 months old. The other was take two weeks after I delived baby number two. The other pic is me, nine months postpartum after the 2nd pregnancy.

A friend of a friend is trying to gather stories for a breastfeeding book so I thought I’d pass the word along in case anyone is willing to participate. Details below. :)

How to participate:
1. Email me your “Letter to my nursing child”, written as if you were writing to your child, about what it has been like/was like to nurse that child. 2-4 paragraphs. Please know that you may send a letter for each child you have nursed, no matter how many children you have. PLEASE START EACH LETTER WITH, “DEAR (CHILD’S FIRST NAME),”

So, EMAIL ME!!! And pass this email address along! letterstomynursingchild@gmail.com

This site has done wonders for my body image. When I got pregnant with my now 24 month old daughter, I weighed 125lbs. During that pregnancy I was basically a couch potatoe and constantly snacked, resulting in an astonishing 75lb weight gain. I hated my body, I got stretch marks on my belly, legs, and arms. After my daughter’s birth I had to work extremely hard to lose the weight. I went on Weight Watchers and got down to 145lbs, then went back up to 150/155lbs when I got pregnant again. This pregnancy I have been much smarter, eating healthier, excercising, etc. So far I have gained 40lbs less that what I gained in my first pregnancy. I feel good, I don’t hate my body, and I feel a LOT healthier than I did during my first pregnancy. My body image is also a lot different. I only have new stretch marks on my tummy, and I am proud of them, I think of them as badges of honor. My breasts are saggy from nursing my first daughter, but I couldn’t be more proud of them either, I think of them as working breasts. My husband, daughter, and I went to the beach a few weeks ago and after about ten minutes of awkwardness I had no problems wearing my bathing suit. I read your site all the time, and it has definately helped change my perspective on my body….now I don’t see myself as having a “fat” body, but instead view myself as a vessel of life. Thank you for this site.

This picture of me was taken this morning, I am 35 weeks pregnant.

Side view

In this picture you can see my new “badges of honor” on my tummy. The ones from my first pregnancy have faded to a silvery white and are not really visible.

I got pregnant when I was 17. I was a cheerleader and was working out atleast 15 hours a week. I never liked my body, I always thought I was fat. I MISS that body and wish I could go back an accept it.

This was me just before I got pregnant.

I figured I would bounce back and boy was I wrong. I weighed 175lbs when I gave birth and weighed the same a year later. Despite exercise and diet. In the past 10 months I have come down to 145lbs-147lbs. I teeter in that area. I have a horrible body image but this website has helped alot !

My stretch marks will always be with me and I have not gotten to a point where I feel showing my stomach to anyone.

Someday I hope I can proudly walk around in a bikini and not be embarrassed of my “baby lines”

5 Weeks pregnant

19 Weeks

30 weeks

40 weeks

Almost 23 months after giving birth to a healthy, happy daughter

my stretch marks

Thanks for this great website !

I got pregnant with twins on my honeymoon. I never had to go on bed rest and I worked up until the day before I had them. I had high blood pressure all through the pregnancy but dangerously so towards the end, so I had a c-section at 36 weeks. If I had had normal blood pressure I’m sure I could have carried them to term, although I don’t know if I would have wanted to: My son was born 8 lbs 10 oz and my daughter at 6 lbs 9 oz.

Before I had the kids I felt okay about the way my body looked; I could have stood to lose 5 or so pounds but I was relatively fit at about 145/5’8″. At my heaviest, I was probably around 240, I forget now, but being pregnant and weighing a lot didn’t bother me. I think it was the first time in a long, long time that I didn’t feel guilty about eating.

Motherhood was a HUGE change for me and I ate a lot of consolation icecream those first months with the kids. I packed back on a lot of weight, which I never really got rid of. Now, three years later, I’m still a size larger than I used to be, flabbier and with a bigger bra size. If I could change anything about my appearance it would be my breasts. I loved my pre-pregnancy 36 B breasts. Now I’m a sagging 38-C, down from a 38DD a year ago. I always said I would never get plastic surgery, but that was before kids. I’m seriously thinking of a breast reduction (no implants) but I don’t know if that will ever happen. My minimal stretch marks on my hips and thighs don’t bother me, the stomach could be firmer, yes. I’m getting back in shape after all this time, with jogging and a healthy diet and I hope to be where I’d like to in another couple months.

My children were born healthy, and after 2-days in the NICU and a too-long, five-day stay for all of us in the hospital, we went home and had a LOT of help for the first two months. It’s hard work being a mom, but I don’t think there’s anything better.

Megan in CA

I was either like one day pregnant in this photo or about to become pregnant. I had my honeymoon two months before the wedding.

Two months pregnant at our wedding. I had four pounds of foundation underware on. We were waiting to tell people until the 3 month mark.

Here I am at about 36 weeks. It made me tired to stand up. I took a lot of naps.

Three years later.

I got pregnant by accident when I was 20. My partner and I were both musicians, neither of us had a regular income. Really it couldn’t have happened at a worse time, but we decided it wasn’t right to terminate and tried to make the best of things.

During the pregnancy I felt happy about my body for the first time ever. I’d been a chubby child, and as an adult was convinced I was fat, blindly refusing to factor in my height of 5’11” in proportion to my weight. But with a smooth round, pregnant belly, I found myself attractive at last.

It didn’t last long!

After the birth I looked in the mirror naked and I cried. I looked like a road map, all purple and red. There was flab where I never knew flab could settle. I swore then and there that I would get my pre-pregnancy figure back.

I never did.

Now I’m on my own with my son, who’s autistic and quite hard to live with, and I despair sometimes. Who will want me now? Who would be mad enough to take on a single parent, one with a child with special needs and a disgustingly unattractive figure at that?

And then I found this site. It gave me such a jolt to see all these wonderful women with bodies like mine. And they weren’t in the least bit unattractive, in fact, they were all beautiful.

Which, I guess, means I am too.

Good luck with the site, I really think what you’re doing is fantastic.

Trenton sent me this link today and I thought I’d pass it along. While we’re on the subject, has anyone seen the Celebrity Baby Blog’s Breastfeeding Gallery up for World Breastfeeding Week?

And I wanted to say, that I am hoping to add a blog for women who are not necessarily mothers soon. :)

The other day I was in the line at the grocery store and there was a man in front of me – very fit, muscular arms – wearing a tank top. I saw that he had stretch marks on his arms. Now I don’t know, perhaps at one time he had gained a lot of weight quickly – or maybe this is a normal thing when lifting weights – but he certainly wasn’t “lazy” about his physique as commentors in the past have hinted about us mothers. It just struck me as interesting.

I also wanted to say that the number of submissions have dropped in the last week or so, and I suspect that it’s because of the diversity of bodies represented here. I imagine a lot of women look and think their body is nothing new. I just wanted to say, please don’t feel you can’t join in just because you’ve found your belly twin! (Reminds me of Joey and his hand twin!) I think part of the beauty of this site is in the stories told along with the photos, and those are never exactly alike.

In site news, we almost have the new submission form ready to use and you can now access this site from the new domain name www.theshapeofamother.com which will currently redirect you here. Working on getting the site transferred totally. I’ve got a few things up in the Cafe Press store so check that out and let me know what other ideas you have (I’d love to find some ideas for shirts for dad’s). I’ll be adding to it and tewakingthe look of it as the week goes on, but at least it’s there – I’m so excited to be getting some stuff from there, I’ve never been this excited about a t-shirt before. Hee!

Have a lovely week, ladies!