Love Your Belly…Wait…What? 

Hi guys! Most of Bella Vue Events’ blogs will be written in the voice of both of us, Elyse and Emily, when we are sharing tips, tricks, trends and other topics. Sometimes we will share something that is more personal to one of us and that will be written in a more specific voice, rather than the more neutral tone we typically use. Both of us are relatively private people, but we have chosen to use this platform to share some of our experiences with the hopes that maybe just one person can relate or “needed” what we felt compelled to write. We’ve both always felt a calling to make a real difference and we hope to do just that with Bella Vue Events, by reducing our clients’ stress through our event planning services and by offering a safe place to talk about the tough things. I, Elyse, will go first. 

This past weekend, we took part in an event called “Love Your Belly” to honor pregnancy and motherhood. I attended the event as a guest last year and knew that Bella Vue Events had to take part in the event this year and not just to grow our business but because of the cause. 

You know that saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover,” – of course you do! More often than not, we forget that each of us has a past and something that we are currently dealing with. Some of us hide the struggle better than others, what does someone with a difficult past look like? Do you know? Do I look like someone who was a victim of rape? Does anyone? I have kept that secret for nearly fifteen years and the weight of the shame has been a burden that has been unbearable to carry myself. I have asked myself on repeat for fifteen years “what did I do to deserve this to happen?” To deserve this to happen?! Yes readers, if any of you came to me and told me you were raped, I would wrap my arms around you with the warmest embrace I can give and just love on you! Then why is it so hard to love on ourselves? Why do we judge ourselves harder than we judge anyone else? Do I look like someone who struggled with a severe eating disorder for nearly half their life? Nope! Or someone who stayed in a verbally and physically abusive relationship for far too long? No way! I won’t give you any of the crazy self-talk that I have used to judge myself because that is definitely not going to help anyone, what I will tell you is that I have used the past few years of my life to embrace my relationship with God, and through His strength am dealing with the feelings from these past experiences instead of keeping them tucked real deep inside where they hurt the most. 

When I met my husband, I had very little interest in having children since I had been told most of my life that it may be impossible due to my previous weight loss choices. I had convinced myself that I would be just fine being the “cool aunt.” When I relocated to Lake Country, I switched my doctors, and was told for the first time that it shouldn’t be a problem for me to conceive. This was amazing news and basically changed my whole perspective on motherhood! After trying for over 2 years and several different blood tests, I was diagnosed with PCOS and it was determined to have caused me to be mostly infertile. As you can imagine, I was yet again emotional about all of this! My amazing doctor yet again delivered amazing news, that with some medicine and lots of tracking, she should be able to help us get pregnant naturally, and she did-the very first round of medication! To say we were overjoyed is the understatement of the century! 

I am happy to share that we had the most beautiful, healthy baby girl who has taught me more about love and selflessness than I could have ever imagined. Throughout pregnancy, I had planned to try to breastfeed, but honestly, I have to say maybe close to equally for the weight loss benefits everyone I know bragged about as much as the health of my new baby. So I nursed the baby! I nursed, I pumped, I pumped and I nursed, nursed, pumped and repeat…to the extent we had to get a stand along freezer! You guys, instead of losing weight like everyone I knew and read about, I gained weight-hello “hot mess express!” Although the eating disorder habits had been gone for years, I had never been more disgusted with my body. At about 20 months post-partum, I finally have medication, diet and exercise somewhat figured out, am proud to say that I have healthily lost forty pounds and am on a continued path to maintaining a lifestyle I would like my daughter to have. Do I still have a belly? You bet I do! Will I probably always have a pouch after my baby that I have earned by carrying my daughter? Yup! When I saw some of the ladies in my social circle planning the “Love Your Belly” event again this year, I knew right away we had to sign up because at 30 years old, I am finally proud to say that I love my belly (for what that means both literally and metaphorically!)