After birth, a woman’s belly is rarely ever the same as before pregnancy (let alone, multiple pregnancies!).

I never developed stretchmarks, but I did lose my pre-pregnancy, tight-muscled, flat belly. My cute little belly-button slit is now just a hole. My now-soft, stretchy-skinned belly makes funny “faces” at my kids and sends them in to giggle fits. I have a little belly pooch, I like to think looks womanly. Too bad my middle is still about as wide as my hips, which I never did really grow any during my 5 pregnancies.

Came across a wonderful website this morning, The Shape of a Mother. A website almost any mother who has experienced the body-morphing effects of pregnacy could identify with…

Pregnancy and Birth can be an amazing time for a woman. I found myself drawn to stories, images and having many questions about what if. Sharing our birth stories seemed very natural to me, even though things didn’t always go how we’d wished they would. In the end, we’ve been blessed with 4 amazing children, here on earth with us – who continue to inspire, bring awe and smiles to us daily.

Do you have a birth story you’d like us to link to? Please let us know. :)

Unassisted Home Birth – birthed at home, in a pool… just us.
Tege’s home waterbirth – a hospital transport
Unassisted Pregnancy – belly pictures

Hospital Births
Cassie – my first Grandbaby Anna – Labor / Birth Story… in a hospital. Anna has her own website ~ Anna Riley. See Anna Riley flickr set for pics.
Cassie – first birth
Emily – second child – story to come
Ryland – pregnancy – belly pictures
Ryland – hospital birth with midwives.
Ryland – home again

Stillbirth – Our loss Jordan Riley was my husbands first baby.. lost at 36 weeks gestation.

Jordan – Stillbirth (disclaimer)
Jordan – Pregnancy of a Stillborn – belly pictures
Jordan Riley – Stillbirth Story
Jordan – Stillbirth (after) – Contains pictures

Other Pregnancy & Birth Related Pages:
Baby Shower Gift Ideas – I did a belly cast during my pregnancy with Teigen.. and we did one for Cas. It turned out so cute!
Memorialize Your Pregnancy – Six ways to make your pregnancy memorable. Nine months of pregnancy seems to last forever, but looking back, the time flew by.. Don’t forget little the things.
Beautiful Belly Pictures – I share a site I came across about womens post-pregnant bellies… good to read.

Teigen – an unassisted homebirth, waterbirth with transport to hospital after the birth.

We had so much fun taking pictures every few weeks during the pregnancy. I particularly enjoyed it… it was fun seeing the changes. Nothing like a growing pregnant belly!

Pregnancy with Ryland seemed to go by so quickly. There was much for me to think about, the past two births weighing heavy on my mind, heavy on my heart. In some ways it was nice to have it move along so fast, as each of my previous pregnancies seemed to really drag out. On the other hand, knowing that the reason it was going so fast was in part due to fears that I just couldn’t get resolved and in part because I dreaded the end and new beginning of my relationship with Teigen. After Ryland got here, we had lots of changes to make, lots of adjusting to do, in particular Teigen and I, but we’ve made our changes and we are happy to have Ry with us. Even Teigen thinks he’s pretty cool (some times!).

In looking at these belly pictures, notice the one at the bottom, how round my belly looks. Every single pregnancy, boys and girls both, I was round like a basketball. Fun, but sure hard to find clothes that fit good!

3/8/00 – 27 weeks – Belly is getting bigger…

4/14/00 – Almost 33 weeks. Nice and round like a basketball!