Our gym started offering swim lessons in their brand-new, indoor pool so I thought I'd check into their program. Now that Delaney's almost two I think she'd really enjoy the Aqua Tot, "mommy and me," classes they offer. The schedule looks good and the price is right. There's only one problem: I'd have to wear a bathing suit in public.
Becoming a mother gave me a confidence in my appearance I'd never experienced before. Well, it's either that or the fact that I have less time to care about what other people think. Whichever it is, I'm glad. Except when I'm faced with wearing a bathing suit in front of other, certainly more fit, people. Sure, I wore a suit on my honeymoon but we were in the tropics. It was either wear one or wear nothing at all and I wasn't about to subject the friendly islanders to that. I was also smaller then and not sporting a post-partum bowl full of jelly in my midsection (it was more like a bowl full of oatmeal and, therefore, so much more appealing). And although I weigh a bit less now than I did when I got pregnant, pregnancy had a sinister way of rearranging things so my flaws stand out even more than ever.
My fantastic plans to drop 20 pounds in a week haven't gone the way I'd hoped and yet the swim class registration deadline swiftly approaches. It's time for me to suck it up (and in) and get over my self-consciousness. I need to find a suitable suit with spandex in all the right places and stop obsessing about what others might think. Delaney definitely won't care if my belly pooches out a little (or a lot). She'll be way too busy bobbing around, splashing her mama and having fun. That is, after all, what it's supposed to be about.