I still won’t be wearing a bikini, though.

When I first got pregnant, or possibly even a little before, I came across a website called Baby Center that’s basically everything you’d ever want to know (and some things I wish I’d never found!) about pregnancy, childbirth, and having kids. Somewhere along the way I became hopelessly addicted to reading the forums and chatting with all the other crazy pregnant ladies that were on the site also. (And can I just say that putting 8,000+ hormonal, bitchy pregnant women together in an anonymous setting like that is really just not a good idea! There were some really involved internet fights, lots of hurt feelings, and more snarky comments than I could even keep up with. And that was just in the group that was having babies in April 2010 like I was!) I wasted a lot of time on that site!

But, that’s not really my point.

The women on the Baby Center site aren’t all mean and horrible, and there was also a lot of support for people when they needed it, and some good laughs to keep us all sane, too. Eventually we all had our babies, and things kind of mellowed out for a while. Obviously when Emily was born the days of wasting hours online quickly disappeared, and I stopped keeping up with things there.

This week I revisited the site and came across a really good post that I thought was worth sharing. I don’t go swimming much anyway, but after reading this, I just might! So here goes, from one brave mama to the rest of us.

So today my dad called and invited our little family to come out and swim tomorrow. I accepted without a thought because I LOVE swimming. After hanging up the phone I realized that the only bathing suit I have is a two piece from last year.

Let's just say this, when my mom describes my stretch marks from the last week of pregnancy she refers to them as "a sun burst." They go from the bottom of my sternum to being on my mound and across my hips. So...I'm covered in stretch marks, fat as hell, and want to go swimming. Then a thought occurred to me that I'd like to share. And I hope it helps everyone else this summer with decisions on what to wear:

We fought a battle. A 10 month battle, uphill, in the snow, barefoot. We puked, had heart burn, gained hair, lost hair, gained weight, lost weight, peed in tons of cups, gave more blood than most donors, were poked, prodded, shot, measured, gooped up, listened to, scolded, advised, tested, and tried. We have carried, given birth to, and take care of the next generation. We watched them grow on little white hospital monitors for almost a year. We have fought our battles and cried our tears. And I'll be damned if I let anyone tell me that I look bad because of the scars I came out of my war with. I will wear my two piece with pride and take my little warrior swimming tomorrow. And if anyone says a word, I'll just smile and kiss my little splashing victory.

Very well said! And now I’m off to go swim suit shopping! Maybe.