the mom at the pool

Saturday, August 01, 2015

One of Eric's favorite things to do is to take Saydee swimming. Sometimes I get in too, but most of the time I like to sit in the shade and let them spend time together. They rarely get to spend much alone time together during the season, so I love to sit back and watch them play. Their bond is so special.

The other day we were at the pool and another couple with a little girl around Saydee's age walked in. They parked their stuff on some empty lounge chairs under an umbrella near ours. We didn't talk to them much, just a few "hi's" and we let the girls toss back and forth the Minnie Mouse beach ball they had brought with them.

The mom was tall and pretty with long dark hair running down her back, and a few bright tattoos. As she got in and out of the pool a few times, to chase the ball, grab something from her bag, or whatever it was, I couldn't help but notice her making the conscious effort to cover her belly with her hand.

So, here's to the mom at the pool.

Thank you. 

Thank you for helping me see myself in a more beautiful light. 

Your belly may not be the one you had before you gave birth to that sweet little fish you were teaching to swim around the pool, but it's beautiful. It harbored a little pony-tailed miracle for months, and that's something to be proud of.

I saw your stretch marks scattered from hip to hip. They looked like the same ones I'm starting to get on my legs. The ones that I constantly sit in front of the mirror complaining to my husband about. But yours are beautiful. And if yours are, mine must be too.

I bet your belly looked a lot like mine. Big, sometimes round, sometimes lumpy, depending on where the baby's sitting. Maybe you had fun dressing it like I do, or maybe you tried to hide it for as long as possible. 

In t-3 months, my belly is going to look like it went through the ringer. It will probably be soft, and saggy, and squishy. By then, I may even have stretch marks there, too. 

But, no matter how my belly ends up looking, I hope I can remember why it looks that way. 

I hope I can remember why my body changed so much, giving me those tiger stripes, and making my belly so soft, and saggy, and squishy. Because I know it will be beautiful, just like yours.

I also hope that next time I see you at the pool, you're carrying your daughter under one arm, her Minnie Mouse ball under the other arm, and not worrying about hiding that beautiful belly she gave you.

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4 comments

  1. I loved this! I am currently pregnant and having a really hard time with my new stretch marks.I hope I am enable to embrace them one day!

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    1. It's so hard! You're so used to your body being one way, and pregnancy just throws it such a curveball in so many ways! Embrace them and remember why they're there <3

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  2. I'm 14, so I've obviously never been pregnant, and I have stretch marks on my hips and in small areas of my thighs. I look up to you so much, and I think you are gorgeous. I used to not like having brown hair, but I realized, "Hey, Kaycee has brown hair, and she's beautiful." so I took pride in my brown hair. I felt this way about a lot of other things too, and I know we have stretch marks for different reasons, me because I'm going, and you because you carried a precious baby inside of you. But thanks to your article, and you accepting stretch marks, I feel like I can now do the same. You continue to inspire and awe me everyday :) ♡ Thank you Kaycee, God bless you and your family!

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    1. Summer thank you so much for being so sweet to me! I LOVE my brown hair and wouldn't trade it for anything. Try to embrace the things that make you who you are, even though sometimes it can be hard. Thanks for being such a loyal follower/reader <3 xoxo

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