Nine months

I've always admired body confident women. Throughout my life, I've struggled with disordered eating and a general low self-esteem as a result of hating my body. In this light, pregnancy has been a journey - one that was altered considerably when I found out I was having a girl. You see, the last thing I want is to be a destructive example for my little girl. I want to bring her up so that she will value healthy eating and have a solid understanding of nutrition, but not obsess constantly about the size of her thighs, etc., as I wasted far too many years of my life doing.

Ironically, I think that the extreme changes my body has undergone during pregnancy have significantly helped to heal me of any lingering body issues. I'd be lying if I said they were gone entirely, but watching my body transform over the last nine months has been for me more awe-inspiring than traumatic, and that's nothing if not a step in the right direction.

I've shared some photos of myself throughout my pregnancy several times before, but thought it would be neat to line them all up beside one another. They range from week 14 up until today - almost 38. Technically I still have a little over two weeks to go, but I can't imagine getting much bigger than I am right now, or feeling up to another photoshoot, for that matter.

Apparently, I didn't have any photos taken from weeks 20-ish through 30-ish, hence the huge change between the second and third photos. The last one in particular is a little out of character for me to post, but I have anyway in honour of pushing my own boundaries. Here's to body confidence!