Hi, I’m Andrea. I’m 29 years old. I am so glad I found this site; it’s incredibly empowering.
I was around 150 pounds when I became pregnant last year and packed on 50 pounds during my pregnancy. Here is a photo of me at 36 weeks:
I knew about cocoa butter and other remedies to help with the stretch marks but really didn’t do anything about them once they began to appear. I didn’t really start to gain weight until my third trimester — and I think I put on 10 pounds in my last two weeks alone.
Here is a picture of my stomach now, six months after I had my wonderful daughter. She had to be induced after 41 weeks, but she was perfect in every way when she arrived.
I also have stretch marks on my breasts — they went up three bra sizes, and I fear that when I stop breastfeeding they will remain this size.
I lost most of the weight in the first two months while breastfeeding. My daughter is just starting to transition to solids. I figure I am about 10 pounds heavier than I was when I conceived.
I don’t consider my body to be ugly, but I’ve had no interest in sex since the baby was born (and for the majority of my pregnancy). I guess this is because I don’t feel like my body is truly my own anymore. I still nurse before and after work, and pump during the day. It’s the biggest postpartum issue I have.
I am so thankful for this site and to share my story with women everywhere.
I could have posted this! The only difference is that I just had my second child six months ago. But otherwise, our situations are identical (down to the no interest in sex part). It is nice to know that I am not alone.angieamj9549@yahoo.com
I am not a believer in the cocoa butter at all. Stretch marks come from WITHIN so all of the moisturizing in the world won’t help. You’ve just either got the stretch marks genes or you don’t. Unfortunately, I do! :) Oh, well. I think that your tummy looks good!Flaunt it baby, flaunt it!
Thanks for sharing. I think your line that “I don’t feel like my body is truly my own anymore” is really powerful, and I hope that sharing your story here will help it become yours again.
If you’re nursing, that might be the source of your lack of interest in “knocking boots” as well. Don’t worry that something is wrong with you. it’s nature’s contraceptive.
I think you look beautiful. I felt I wasn’t too interested in “baby making” after the birth, I think it was a lot due to the hormones.
Just a note about nursing. It supplants my sex drive. Even now, with the youngest child at almost 17 years old, ocassionaly when my husband brushes me across the breast, I feel my sex drive “turn off”.
I think it’s awesome that this site exists and that you posted this. Women in our society are so hard on themselves where the physical body is concerned. I think that we need a paradigm shift, particularly after we become mothers, to start looking at our bodies more like the vessels that bore our children and our future and that take care of those children after, whether directly through breast feeding or more indirectly by offering a warm, soft bosom for the baby to lay his/her head. I’ve never felt ashamed about any “scars” from birth, none of the stretch marks or scars from incisions; I look at them as a reminder of how important our roles really are as mothers. It’s a shame that we live in a society that really doesn’t seem to value this role as much as it should.
Just wanted to say that I think you look great!And don’t worry, your breasts will shrink back when you’re done nursing. I am still nursing my 3 year old, and my breasts went down to only slightly larger than they were pre pregnancy after about a year. Now that I’ve had another baby though, they’re huge again!