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# I Love My Post Baby Body
- URL: https://dd.malinoix.com/i-love-my-post-baby-body/
- Published: 2012-11-16T06:00:44.000Z
- Updated: 2012-11-16T06:00:44.000Z
- Author: Maggie Winterton
- Tags: Health & Body, Body Image, Guest Blogger, Health, Love, Marriage, Motherhood, Women's Issues, #wordpress, #Import 2026-10-12 13:59

### [![](https://dd.malinoix.com/content/images/wordpress/2012/11/postbabybody.jpg "postbabybody")](http://www..com/2012/11/i-love-my-post-baby-body/postbabybody/?ref=dd.malinoix.com)\[Monthly Columnist – [Jaimie Bowman](http://www.jaimiebowman.com/?ref=dd.malinoix.com)\] – I’ll be honest–I’m not sure how to love my post baby body.

*It started in the 6th grade–didn’t it for most of us?*

I was in P.E. class, bending over for our warm-up, when the muffled laughter came from behind me and then grew louder and louder.

 *I turned around and asked what was so funny.* 

Three girls looked at each other, then back and me, and said,

> *“It’s just that….your butt…it’s as big as Mrs. Rowan’s!”* 

*Mrs. Rowan was our P.E. teacher–I was 12\.* 

### I stuffed that experience way back in the deep dark corner of my soul, hoping to never remember it again.

*Yet sometimes it emerges, like when I’m in the shower.* 

*Or looking in the mirror.* 

*Or trying on a new pair of jeans.* 

### At 36 years old, I still remember that experience like it was yesterday.

It happened again many times, like when I was in college and put on my bathing suit in front of friends. They didn’t mean to stare, but I did have big hips.

### I saw them looking.

When I got married, my husband told me over and over how much he loved my body. I had never had *anyone* tell me that before.

*For the longest time, I didn’t even believe him.*

> *“How could he love….this?” I thought.* 

### Yet over 13 years of marriage, every single day he has told me that I’m beautiful, that I’m sexy, that I’m *hot*.

*You would think that I would believe it by now.* 

*I do believe he feels that way, but I still don’t.* 

### For some reason, I have let all the other girl’s feelings about me trump what my own husband thinks about me.

After I got pregnant with our first son, I noticed the stretch marks that started showing up. It felt like every morning there were new ones, and they were everywhere.

*Deep purple, canvassing my belly like an odd painting.* 

After I had our son–who was a whopping 9 lbs, 7 oz., a nurse came in with a thick accent and actually said,

> *“Wow, you have a lot of stretchy marks!”* 

*Gee, thanks lady.* 

*Like I didn’t notice.*

### Thankfully through nursing, all of the baby weight fell off within a few months.

But I still could barely look at myself in the mirror without cringing.

Then came the comments from friends,

> *“You should love your body! Those are baby scars! Scars of love!”* 

*Uh, well, they still make me feel like a freak.*

### After I gave birth to our second son–another big boy–the weight came off again.

However, when I stopped nursing, the weight started coming back on, fast. It didn’t help with my self-image, although I would frequently tell myself these are scars of love!

### Now my boys are 7 and 5, and I am 40 pounds overweight.

I have scars all over my post baby body, and to me my belly looks deformed.

And yet every single day my husband tells me,

> *“You’re beautiful. I love you just the way you are.”*

### How can I learn to love my body?

*I want to, I just don’t know how.*

Through reading other people’s stories, I have been encouraged. Recently, a still, small voice whispered to me that I am beautiful–and it wasn’t my husband’s voice this time. It was from somewhere *deep* inside of me.

### I really think it had something to do with reading over and over on Renee’s blog [I Love My Body](https://devotionaldiva.com/tag/body-image/?ref=dd.malinoix.com) series.

*I think I needed to hear it from other women–women who have battle scars like me.* 

I’m also encouraged to tell other women that they are beautiful too, because no matter how beautiful I think they are, chances are that they don’t feel that way about themselves.

> *![](https://dd.malinoix.com/content/images/wordpress/2012/11/jaimiebowman-150x150.jpg "jaimiebowman")Jaimie Bowman is a minister, speaker and writer who lives in Southern California. She loves speaking truth into women’s lives and helping them find their unique purpose. Together with her husband and two sons (ages 5 and 7), you can often find them stuck in traffic on the 405, trying to find new places to explore. Jaimie blogs regularly at [The Wonder Years](http://www.wonderyearsof2.blogspot.com/?ref=dd.malinoix.com) and you can find out more about her at [JaimieBowman.com](http://jaimiebowman.com/?ref=dd.malinoix.com).*