MotherSpirit Article: Starting to Show?

Starting to Show?

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for MotherSpirit

Can anyone remember how soon they started showing with their pregnancies? This is my third, but there is 4 years between this one and the last! I forget! I'm sixteen weeks now, and I getting a definite bump. I just can't remember exactly when I started doing this last time.

THE RESPONSES:

Showing!!.Oh!,this "state of being" has caused me such grief!!!*L*.Why?,because I am one of those womyn that wanted, oh-so wanted to show, show, SHOW & I LOVED the idea of a round & swollen pregnancy belly & yet was one of those womyn instead that had to wait what felt like ages to even look suitably pregnant!. With my 1st pregnancy I can honestly say that unless I went all out to display my ripening midriff I could've looked distinctly un-pregnant up until at least 7 months (approx 30 weeks)! (argghh..sob,this broke my heart!!).
With my 2nd & OH! thanks be given! I started showing much earlier *L*. But then again I was also at my heaviest entering this pregnancy so I had some "healthy" padding to start with too!! *LOL*. I would say I was showing quite well by about 18 weeks this time & looked (I thought!) positively "pregnant" by 25+ weeks!. With this my last preg it took ages for me to show & oh! how this depressed me .I honestly thought being my 3rd & therefore having the strechiest womb yet that I'd pop right out!!!...well this was not to be! (sob again!). Admittedly I did enter this pregnancy at a very light weight (virtually underweight) & I also got very sick at 12 weeks. I do know that both these definitely affected how quickly & readily I took to show this time, but boy did it get me down. So I would say I was at least 20 weeks along this time before it was apparent that I was infact pregnant AND I still heard ALL the time (as I did with ALL my pregnancies)........"Oh my!, you are SO small?. How far along did you say you were?!". Oh how I hated this. It depressed me beyond words & it made me so angry. You'd think after 2 pregs I'd be used to it & able to brush off these insensitive comments more,but it bugged me more than ever this time! (arghhh). Maybe because I know I grow healthy, decent sized babies & after 2 pregnancies of letting these dumb, rude remarks bother & undermine me (& my ability to grow babies) I KNEW this time just how uncalled for they were....& believe me when I say almost EVERYONE who commented on my pregnancies commented on how small *they* thought I was. Maybe the plus side is that even though I have proudly grown, carried & birthed 3 beautiful, healthy children ranging from 6lbs 14 ozs,8lbs 10ozs & 7lbs 9oz I have NO strech marks whatSOever!!!!!..... so I'll let that cheer me up & be the rude finger at all those rude people out there!!!! *LOL*. Rejoice in your growth as it is unique to you & your special baby growing inside you!. Take it from me & my experience anyway that every baby & every pregnancy grows,shows & births differently!.....just as we think we have it all worked out (!..not!!*L*) something comes along to suprise us!...you know I actually miss being pregnant! (though it is LOVELY,glorious to be able to cradle my babe in arms after my womb doing it for so long!)...I do miss that sacred state...make the most of it!.
I don't remember exactly, but it was earlier with each subsequent pregnancy.
Ahem* I am only 11 weeks and you can already tell I'm pregnant - but I am short-waisted and showed this early with my first too.
I started showing at 12 weeks.
It was different with all three. With my first I was 10 ish weeks, with my second I was 20 weeks (I didn't even know I was pregnant until 12 weeks though), and with the last one, I literally started to show at THREE weeks. I knew then that this baby was going to be a chubba bubba.