For the Next Time Around

Dear Self,

Please remember a few things about your body when you decide to do this again (and you will do this again.) It will take you more than a week for that belly of yours to go back down--you will leave the hospital and it will still be round and you will feel bad about it. You will probably say to your friends, I don't remember it being like this last time. It was. You personally won't feel it has gone down a substantial amount for two weeks. Do you hear me? Don't stress until after two weeks.

At which point, please don't stress some more because you will still not be able to fit into your pants (and you will start to try b/c you actually want to get out of the house in something other than yoga pants). You will try on your "bigger pants" which won't fit. You'll feel bad. This will happen multiple times over the next few months. In fact at around 6 weeks you'll start to feel like you've lost enough that those pants HAVE to fit. They won't. But that is ok.

It will take you until 3 months to fit into your pants again and even then your stomach will be saggy but it will be small(ish). You'll fit back into your fave jeans and you'll actually put on an outfit and feel good about yourself (because you aren't wearing something underneath that is holding everything in). In fact at 3 months things will fit you that didn't even fit you two weeks before that.

Three months. You hear me self? Stop the tears, the discouragement, the stress next time. Wait until three months. If that doesn't do the job, well then I don't know what to tell you because that pregnancy will be unlike your other two.

Here's to being a little patient the next time around...and remembering your body will never be "the same" but you WILL fit in your jeans again.

Cheers to pre-pregnancy jeans.