23 weeks and feeling really big :(

[H0709]

Hi all, I'm 23 weeks pregnant with my first child and I'm feeling really down about my size. I'm normally a size 14/16 and so far I've been embracing my new baby bump which has popped out in the last few weeks. I've been wearing tight dresses and enjoying having a bump. However I also keep being told how big I look and being asked when I'm due as if it's imminent. My sister is also pregnant, due next month and she's got a perfect tiny bump and is really skinny, I cried when I was made to do a bump to bump photo which made me look bigger. I really want to ignore all of the negativity and enjoy being pregnant, has anyone got any advice on how I can just block it out to feel a bit more cheerful? Xx

My first baby too and I’ve been told I’m huge since about 20 weeks... it does get me down but I try to just reply saying “yes I’m having a beautiful big healthy baby, what a relief!” Or something like that. I think people forget how big you are supposed to get. But people are also super invasive. I don’t think they mean to hurt feelings, they are just clumsy with words. Try not to get too down xxx

I had similar.
My bump suddenly popped out at 22 weeks and I was loving it. I looked a lot further along though and I also started as a size 14/16. Closer to the 16 on the bottom half😳 we have very large hips in my family.
I loved that I finally looked pregnant rather then a bit of a podgy belly.
Anyway, my cousin was 6 weeks ahead of me and we did a bump photo when I was 30 weeks and I looked bigger then her. It did start to worry me, about whether I was having a huge baby. And the fact that she looked so slim and I looked huge and out of proportion with my smaller boobs and slightly slimmer top half, then this huge sticky out bump and huge butt and thighs.

But to be quite honest, the feeling hasn’t lasted long. I love walking around showing off that I’m pregnant. I’m so proud of it.
People comment because sometimes I think it’s just something to say and people are socially awkward.
And when they say ‘look how huge you are’ I stick my bump out and rub my hands over it and say ‘I know, I love it. He’s such a big boy’.
Don’t get too upset. I know some people take it to heart more then others.
But quite frankly, you are doing something incredible, embrace it.
And once you get to the point that I’m at (35 weeks) and you’ve got other things going on ( like a lack of sleep, struggling to walk, an achy back, feeling like your gonna topple forward all the time, and getting everything ready for baby’s arrival ) you won’t have time to think about it. 😂
Chin up OP. X x

Hi both, thank you so much for your responses, it has really really helped and I will use them to remind me not to let it get me down. Xxx

People comment (and not always consistently). In my first pregnancy I had an equal number of people saying I was whale like as I had saying I had a lovey neat bump. Some people just carry differently. I’ve said this a few times on here but I’ve got a great picture of me and a friend at about 6 months pregnant. She had the tiniest orange shaped bump and I was looking very pregnant. 6 weeks later she had overtaken me and was enormous. We had very similar sized babies in the end. I’m still not quite sure how it was physically possible for her to have changed shape so much in a few weeks but it proved to me that you can’t read too much into bump size.

I’m currently 29 weeks and so many people tell me I’m huge. It’s like thanks for that, I hadn’t realised?! An old lady I know who hadn’t seen me in about 12 weeks said “oh wow you’ve slapped some weight on since I last saw you?” This was while I was at work in a busy pharmacy. I just said yea being 6 months pregnant does have that affect on the body? Some people are rude without meaning to be and other people are just plain rude imo.