Dee, while I don't hate what my body *looks* like (I actually find it quite freeing being pregnant and enjoy the look of it more then than when I'm not - probably because there's an excuse for the big jelly belly ) I hate how it feels, and during pregnancy I'm one long whinge.

I have chronic pain that just gets worse with pregnancy, I get so tired I cry from it nearly every day, I get massive headaches, my heart pounds, and my pelvis really, really hurts. And I know that in two months' time the really painful movement is going to start, and the irritable uterus has started up...

After five kids, though, I've learned to go with the flow. If I need a sleep, I have a sleep. If I need a jolly good walk, I go and have one. If I don't want to eat lunch and I just want fruit all afternoon, I've just learned that my body is trying to tell me something and I just do what it's telling me.

When dd5 was about five months old, I remember sitting on her bed in front of the mirror in her room and wincing at my hands. My fingers are quite stubby, and the skin on them is quite wrinkly from too much sun. But I thought, look at what those hands are doing. I was patting her back and holding her and transmitting so much love through those hands. And I looked at her hands the same way she must look at my hands - gentle things that guide her, hold her, stroke and soothe her. And I felt so much better about my hands after that.