A recent picture of the belly in the wild in Tokyo. This one was taken just outside the Studio Ghibli musuem with Totoro, my absolute favorite cartoon character!

Two of the more standard shots.

This is me in my work attire for the day. My shirts are definitely working a little harder than they used to these days. But I am glad that I am still fitting into all the maternity wear that I bought when we were home in September. I am amazed!

Anyways, as I continue to grow I must say that I am continually amazed and pleased with how well my body seems to be handling this pregnancy. In addition to my body handling it very well, I am also happy with how much I am enjoying my pregnant form.

Early in the pregnancy I wasn’t sure that I would like my growing abdomen, but now I really, really love it. And I know that I am really going to miss it when it is gone. While I haven’t used this pregnancy as an excuse to “eat for two” and let myself go, I have used it as a reason to love and embrace the way that I look because aside from eating right and getting the exercise that I can, there isn’t much I can do to control my changing shape.

I am finding that the pregnancy is making me much less self-conscious about the way I look. I am not so pre-occupied with the little bulge I used to have in my belly because now it is a big bulge and it is filled with a happy bouncy baby. I don’t worry so much about my chest size because I know it is growing to ready itself to feed our baby. I find that I am looking at my body in a whole new way, appreciating how hard it is working to accommodate Little R and make adjustments for once Little R arrives. It seems like everything it does has a purpose right now, it all seems so important. And I can’t hardly be upset that it is doing such a good job of hosting and preparing for our little baby.

I kind of hope that I can continue appreciating my body long after the baby arrives. It makes me feel so much better about myself to look in the mirror and grin at the big round belly that wiggles about with each little kick and punch, rather than looking at myself with my brow crinkled and critiquing each little roll or area of dimpled cellulite.

I know that my post-partum form might leave much to be desired, but I am also sure that if I am patient with myself and that I continue to eat well and live right, I can get my body back into a shape that makes me just as happy as I am now. No, I will never look anything like the slim and trim models in magazines. Let’s face it, even the models don’t look like that without a little airbrushing, but I do want to make sure that I appreciate and embrace my body for all that it is now, and in the future. I don’t want to spend my whole life wishing that I looked differently.