I was 125 lbs.at 5’9″ pre pregnancy. I am 29 and this is my first child delivered via c-section. I was extremely sick for the first five months of pregnancy. After that i rapidly gained weight. I had severe edema and my doctor wanted me to take off work the last four weeks but with my husband out of a job i had to suck it up and work. I went into labor two weeks early and weighed a whoping 188! My daughter was breach so i forced to do a c-section. I thuoght with the swelling and birth i would easily lose half this weight gain. Not the case. So i breastfed until i returned to work so about four months. My daughter is now almost a year old and i look five months pregnant. I am a hairstylist so i deal with people all day, i have been asked when am i due. I always have a brave face when asked and i say oh im not my daughter isnt even a year old yet. But behind closed doors i cry my eyes out. I weigh 160 now and i am ok with the weight. I was underweight prior to having my daughter. I just dont want this belly anymore. I work out as much as i can and eat as healthy as i can but it doesnt seem to help. I am thankful i got very little stretch marks and now they are pretty much gone. But i sm not happy with myself. Especially when everyone i knew that was pregnant at the same time all look like they dont have kids. Reading some of these articles has help me feel like i am not the only one and i hope this helps others feel they are not alone. I am thankful that my husband has helped me feel beautiful and says that i look great. But ultimately if i could tone my abs a little more maybe i would feel complete.
Number of pregnancies: 1 and 1 birth.
Age of child: 10 1/2 months
C-section delivery.
Age: 29
You are beautiful and no amount of ab toning will complete you! :) Eating right and excercise will help you to feel strong and confident but that feeling of loving yourself has to come from the inside- cliche, but true! Also…it’s only been ten months! Be patient with yourself.
You look great. It takes time to really get back in shape. It took me 3 years after my twins and it has been 14 months with my recent baby and I am still not close to my pp weight. Just do not be hard on yourself.
Do you thnk you may have diastasis recti? It’s a seperation of muscles due to pregnancy. My stomach was swollen until I started doing certain exercises and it has gone down slighly. I would talk to your doctor about this and they could check to see if you have that.
Getting in shape after pregnancy sucks. But just know that there are other moms that are supporting you.
I couldn’t agree more with Andi’s comment – sadly, this is often a very difficult time in a woman’s life with regard to body image. This is often a time where eating & body image issues occur – I have treated all too many women who have either developed an eating disorder at this time, or indeed have relapsed from recovery. The most important thing to remember is that no woman alive has ever found true happiness through what their body looks like. As much as you can, focus on all those other aspects of your life that make you happy, and try not to engage with those negative body image thoughts. Like most women (sadly), you’ll probably never ‘love’ your body, but remember how much it does for you and try and accept it for what it is and get on with enjoying life!!
Fit2be has some really great core exercises. Sometimes women have that permanent pooch because they have muscle seperation that they don’t even know about. Exercises like cruches can make diastasis worse. Google fit2beU the girl who runs the website is bethany, she has awesome exercises to get rid of the pregnant tummy look that won’t damage your abs and aren’t hard.
You look great! Just an FYI, my friend had the same thing. She lost all of her pregnancy weight but still looked pregnant. It turned out her stomach muscles had actually stretched so much (she too was very thin to begin with) that they needed to be repaired in order for her tummy to return to normal. And it was covered by insurance, because it was considered a medical problem. EIther way, you are awesome.
You are so lucky you didn’t get stretch marks I look like a topographical map.