Astounding

In this post I spoke about the website which is also linked in my sidebar by the name of 'The Shape of a Mother'. I submitted the photos of my present postpartum tummy from my post to that website. This was slightly brave of me since, as you can see from the photos, my tummy doesn't look like the tummies on the covers of magazines. I don't wear bikinis (never did) and I don't wear anything that shows my tum tum off. I will say that I don't think it was as difficult for me to do this as it was for a large number of the women who have submitted their photos to this site.

You see, I am not what anyone might call, shy. This is partly the reason I became a hairstylist and also one of the reasons why I have a blog. I like to talk to people. I like to write about my life and if possible entertain people. Or to find common ground with others. I will, and have talked about almost anything, no matter how embarrassing, emotional or upsetting the subject matter. I'm just like that. An open book so to speak. That's why posting a picture of my naked stomach for all the world to see wasn't too traumatizing. Not because I'm all “Look at me.” just because I thought “Why not? It'll be cool”. Also, because I believe strongly in the purpose of 'The Shape of a Mother' and I liked thinking that someone might be comforted by seeing my post pregnancy shape and not feel as badly about theirs.

The trouble with people like me who jump before they think it through is that we are often surprised by what happens next... I use Site Meter to keep tabs on the traffic coming to my blog, to see what kind of freaky searches might land people here, who I'm getting referrals from, etc. On July 23 a link to my post was up on 'The Shape of a Mother' after which visits to my blog increased... a lot. On July 21 I received my weekly report from Site Meter giving the stats – weekly visits 318, average per day 45. On July 28 the same report looked like this... weekly visits 1,297, average per day 185. Holy...gulp. That's 185 people a day looking at my stretch marks. I hadn't banked on that. And how do I know that is where they were coming from? Thanks to the lovely referrals option on my Site Meter. It was solid with referrals coming from 'The Shape of a Mother'. Wow! I knew that site was getting a lot of traffic but I don't think I actually considered that all those people would be looking. at. me. *nervous laugh*

Do I regret it? No. I guess I was just caught a little off guard. It's a little intimidating thinking about all those people looking at my belly. I do know that I personally have appreciated every contribution to that website. I visited the blog of a recent contributor and think she is fabulous and entertaining.

So I guess showing my squishy tummy and stretch marks was worth it because:

-I may have inspired others to bare their lovely mommy tummies.

-Other mothers may have been comforted by my contribution.

-Lots of new people have visited my blog.

-I found a cool new mom from Hollywood who looks like a movie star, has wicked tattoos and is hilarious.

Its not all bad, right?