The holy grail of postpartum fitness is the prepregnancy jeans. When I was 7 or 8 months pregnant, Pinterest recommended a page to me about someone who fit into her prepregnancy jeans at 3 weeks or 3 days postpartum. I probably should have deleted my account. That’s the kind of “inspiration” I really don’t need. I’ll be lucky to be there at 3 months postpartum. It will likely be 4 or 5 months, possibly up to 9. Right now, I’m wearing maternity clothes and stretchy pants, and it’s a good thing. Those jeans are completely overrated.
After 4 kids, though, I’m used to this business. I understand the way that my body processes this, and I’ve had a revelation about prepregnancy jeans. Every time I go through this process, I’m quite delighted to squeeze into those jeans. However, every time I go through this process, I’ll set aside those now uncomfortable jeans in short order and buy a new pair of jeans because even if I weigh the same or close to the same as before, I change shape.
And that’s how adding another person to your family is. Your family will change shape, too. What worked for school or for keeping house or for recreational activities or family devotions or various family systems will have to be evalulated and changed as the family adjusts to this new member.
So, just as I will probably be buying new jeans in 4 or 5 months, we will be figuring out a new way to do things for the next few months. It’s not always an easy adjustment, to set aside old systems, but it’s always a good thing to meet and learn and adjust to this new life.
The blessing outweighs the difficulty of change.
