Author: Bonnie (SOAM)

14 Months Later (Linda)

Bonnie (SOAM) No Photos (Story Only), Question, Submissions 6 Comments

I am 29 years old and first time mom to a beautiful 14 months old girl. I really don’t have any complaints about my body, the few stretch marks that showed up 2 weeks before I had her, seem so faint that really don’t bother me. Three months ago, my husband didn’t think I should be wearing a two piece bathing suit, but after he came back from military leave he mentioned how my stretch marks seem almost non existent. I’ve always felt very comfortable about my body, until someone mentions how thin I am. I’ve always been a thin petite woman, before Leah and now. The difference now, is that I am even thinner than before I had her, my breasts shrunk one size (I was a B cup and not i am an A) and my derriere completely disappeared. I’ve never felt so skinny in my life and I thought I was losing weight drastically due to breast feeding, so I quit (or she quit) when she was 10 months. I also had an IUD implanted 2 months post-partum, and I am beginning to think that this is the cause to my weight loss, loss of libido, shrunk breasts and hairy breasts!!!

I’ve lived with this for the past year, and this past year my life has been so busy, that I didn’t stop to think about my body changes until my husband came back from leave. He never mentions anything, he is absolutely perfect and he loves us and we love him. I eventually want to have another baby, but I want to know if what I am going through with this IUD is normal. I am thinking about taking it off, and hope my memory doesn’t fail me when I have to do the monthly contraceptives.

I would love to post pictures but I feel like somebody will find them! maybe next time…

2 Babies Later (Bryana)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Postpartum, Pregnant, Second Pregnancy, Submissions, Teen Mom, Update 8 Comments

When I was 17 I found out I was pregnant for the first time. My boyfriend and I were without a doubt scared beyond belief but also very excited about the new adventure we were about to take on. I found out I was pregnant April 2005. I was still in high school, but graduated with my class in June 2005. 6 months later our beautiful baby boy, Rayden, was born. It was a very long labour and delivery, lasting 47 hours. With the help of forceps and the vacuum, our son was born on December 12, 2005 at 2:34pm. He weighed in at 8lbs 14oz and 21 inches long.
Before I found out I was pregnant I was 4’11” and only weighed 120lbs. During my pregnancy I gained a lot of weight. I went from 120lbs to a whopping 198lbs the day of delivery. It took over 2 years to lose the baby weight.
Low and behold, October 13, 2008 I found out I was pregnant again! We were once again very excited. We were more prepared and had a much more steady life at that point. This pregnancy was much different, in every single way. I went from 115lbs to 147lbs the day of delivery. I was more achy and tired, and wanted nothing more than to sleep 9 months straight, however, a 3 year old doesn’t really allow that! But on June 23, 2009 at 6:37am our gorgeous daughter, Cairo, was born. She weighed in at 8lbs 7oz and 21inches after only 7 ½ hours of labour and 3 pushes later.
After this pregnancy though, I lost all the weight within 2 weeks. It literally fell off and all I was doing was sitting on the couch feeding our daughter and tending to our son when needed. This is a complete 180 turn around than with my son.
However, I am now 22 and have the stomach of a 70 year old woman that birthed 10 children. My skin not only sags, but is covered in stretch marks from hip to hip. But really, I have learned to love it. It is my battle wound; my proof of birthing 2 children successfully!

-Age 22
-2 Children:
Rayden Wolfgang Born: Dec 12, 2005
Cairo Sofia Born: June 23, 2009

Updated here, here, here and here.

A work in progress… (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Postpartum, Second Pregnancy, Submissions 2 Comments

I was so glad to come upon this site and will share it with other moms. I have ALWAYS struggled with my image, always have tried to keep up with the magazines, etc…..never really felt 100% confident except maybe my wedding day….I’m 5’3″ and weighed 120 in High School (really thin for me…Ive always had a more athletic build than a skinny one)….after college I was at 165lbs and worked really hard to get down to 135lbs for my wedding and felt really comfortable there. I gained 45lbs with my pregnancy and gave birth to my beautiful boy in February 2009. I’ve lost 30, but still have the remaining 15lbs that cant seem to go away. Its mostly in my stomach and thighs where I never carried weight in the past….it really bothers me on a daily basis and I wish it didnt. Im working hard to get it off….more excercise, less calories….I know it will come but its a struggle in the process:) Im so thankful for my baby boy but will feel so much better when the rest is gone!!! Its nice to see how others are dealing with the same:)

~Your Age: 29
~Number of pregnancies and births: 2 pregnancies, 1 birth
~The age of your children, or how far postpartum you are: 6 months

My body is wrecked (Elizabeth)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Diastasis Recti, Four or More Pregnancies, Postpartum, PUPPP Rash, Submissions 18 Comments

Number of pregnancies & births: Four
Ages of children: 9, 6, 3, and almost 5 months

B&W photo taken four month post-partum after fourth child
Beach photo taken 11 months post-partum after first child

I guess you could say I was proud of my body after the birth of my first child. I bounced back fairly quickly despite the severe case of PUPPPs and my fresh stretch marks. It only took a year before I was able to confidently wear a bikini and actually go out in public. With each subsequent pregnancy, I got more stretch marks, contracted PUPPPs two more times, and during my last pregnancy, I had severe diastasis recti. And with each pregnancy, I became more and more uncomfortable with my shape. I thought that I needed to be able to fit back into that bikini I proudly wore after my first son was born. I thought that I needed to be able to wear my pre-pregnancy jeans. In fact, I have a pile of jeans of varying sizes in my closet that still don’t fit, yet I hang on to them anyway. Perhaps I’m fooling myself into believing that I’m going to slim back down. Is it possible to be proud of a body that birthed four babies? I’m proud of what my body did. My body was able to labor and deliver four healthy children and nurse them all without complications. Who wouldn’t be proud of that? But in this culture where celebrity mothers emerge months after birth looking radiant and toned, I can’t help but feel uncomfortable when I look in the mirror at nine-year-old stretch marks, scars, and an abdomen that sags over even my largest pair of pre-pregnancy pants.

Don’t know what to think…… (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Postpartum, Second Pregnancy, Submissions, Update 7 Comments

I found out I was pregnant in March 2007 and I gave birth to my beautiful daughter November 2008. I am now almost 10 month PP and I still don’t know what to think of my body. Some days are good and I think I look great and others I just want to cover every inch and go sulk in a corner. I think it may be becoming a problem because i’ve noticed everytime (and I do mean EVERYTIME) I see a woman in a bikini or even sweat pants and a t- shirt and she has a great body, I just feel disgusted with myself and wonder why I cant make myself get down to a reasonable size. My husband says I look great which does help but sometimes I wonder if he’s just saying it to make me feel better. I just don’t know what to think anymore.

Age: 22
Number of pregnancies/births: 2 pregnancies and 1 birth
10 months PP

Finally Learning to Love Me (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Breasts, Eating Disorder, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Submissions, Update 14 Comments

I am 20 years old and gave birth to my beautiful daughter on August 9th, 2009. I loved being pregnant but was so afraid of how I would feel about my postpartum body…in the past I have suffered from body image issues and bulimia which I was slowly recovering from when I discovered that I was pregnant. My biggest fear was that I would look and feel worse than ever about myself after the baby and go back to my old harmful ways of binging, purging and abusing laxatives to try to lose weight.

But the most AMAZING thing has happened: by experiencing the astounding process of growing my daughter inside my body, and then giving birth to her and seeing this PERFECT little creature that I made!- I find myself feeling so much respect and awe for my womanly body and all that it is capable of. Something I have never felt before….I feel Beautiful and Strong and I’m (mostly) okay with the fact that I don’t look perfect. I am capable of being gentle with myself for the first time.

Instead of constantly putting myself down and thinking I’m ugly and I should eat less and try harder and I’ll never be good enough, etc., etc……I am surprised now when I find myself thinking “Good job, you’re doing fine. Take it easy.”….

I HATED myself at 115 lbs, thought I was fat and ugly and no one could ever love me, and now at 142 I’ve never felt so beautiful, happy and worthy of love in my whole life. My body that I loathed so much has made my wonderful daughter for me and I will never intentionally hurt it again.

Just wanted to share :)

These pictures are of me 1 month PP.

Updated here.

22 years old, three beautiful kids (Andree)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Cesarean, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Second Pregnancy, Twins 8 Comments

My story starts about four years ago, when I met the man of my life. Shortly after dating we decided to get married, and start a family of our own. We were wed in August 2006, and then in November 2006 found out that we were expecting a baby! I didn’t gain much weight up until the 6th or 7th month of the pregnancy — it seems like I got massive overnight! I gained a total of 50lbs, and had a very large, pointy belly, and ended up giving birth to a healthy 8lb 8oz baby girl at 42 weeks gestation. My stomach looked pretty bad for a long time, I used to call it my jello-filled fanny pack…. hehe Because I had such a large belly my bellybutton obviously popped out, and never went back in. I guess I am at fault for not working out and whatnot, so my stomach never looked very good after that. Then a year later we decided that we were ready for another baby, and found out in October that we were actually expecting identical twins! To be honest I was very upset upon learning that, I mean, it’s scary when you start thinking about all the complications, risks, etc, that come with bearing twins. I knew I was going to get very large, and be in a lot of physical pain. It was a long and strenuous pregnancy, having to travel twice a month to a specialist, one hour drive from home, one hour drive back home. They had to closely monitor me for gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, and twin-twin transfusion. I had a lot of pain just about everywhere –I grew incredibly large, larger than I ever imagined…. at around 32 weeks gestation I measured 48″ around! The doctors wanted me to make it to 37 weeks gestation, but at 35 weeks I learned from an ultrasound that there was a 17% discordance between the twins, twin A being about 2lb smaller than twin B (twin A also being breech). So the next week, at 36 weeks gestation, I went to my regular obstetrician to schedule a c-section, and at 11:30am that morning I found out I was having a c-section at 6:00pm that night. Everything went very well, although I was completely stressed out, insecure, having all the fears in the world. At 6:05pm our baby boy Jesse was born, followed by his brother Jeffrey at 6:07pm. Jesse (twin A) weighed 6lbs 0oz, and Jeffrey (twin B) weighed 6lb 1oz. It turns out that the ultrasound technician who had performed the ultrasound at week 35 was in training, and didn’t measure things quite right, making us believe that our babies were sick. We are happy that our family is complete, having a girl and two boys. I am hating my postpartum body more than ever now, I have so much excess skin, stretch marks, you name it I have it. And some poor lady at the grocery store asked me when I was due, to then be informed that I’d had twins one month earlier….. hehe I have been a big fan of girdles and shape forming underwear since the birth of our first child. I’m unhappy with the way I look. But I tell myself that all this doesn’t matter. That my body is what has given me all these beautiful babies.

Name : Andree
Age : 22
Pregnancies : 2
Births : 3
Age of kids : 2 year old daughter, and two 3 month old sons.

Picture #1 : Nine days before giving birth to my first child
Picture #2 : A year and a half after giving birth to my first child, and right about when I got pregnant with our twins
Picture #3 : The morning of my c-section for our twins, at 36 weeks gestation
Picture #4 : A week after our twin boys were born by c-section
Picture #5 : My beautiful two year old daughter
Picture #6 : Our adorable three month old twin boys

11 Months Postpartum (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Postpartum, Second Pregnancy, Submissions, Update 12 Comments

Original entry here.

11 months postpartum
2 sons, a 5 year old and a one year old

Just wanted to update after my pregnancy weight loss. It’s been close to a year since my wonderful son was born and he is just amazing. When I first posted, I was literally crying every day over my stomach. I am so thankful to this site for making me feel more confident than ever!
I’m still planning on a tummy tuck, (what you can’t see in the pictures is how horrible the stretch marks are and loose skin) hopefully in the next year or two, but I am grateful that my stomach actually looks better than I thought it would! I lost 55 pounds and now am going to concentrate on toning my entire body as much as possible.

Thank you!

Plus-Sized, Proud and a mommy to a monkey! (Monkey’s Mommy)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Breasts, First Pregnancy, Plus-Sized Mom, Submissions, Thyroid Issues 31 Comments

Let me start of by saying I am very proud of who I am. I don’t let the numbers on the scale dictate my happiness. With that being said, here is my story. I am 24 years old and i am a plus sized mommy. I have been plus size since 4th grade and so I really don’t know or remember life any other way.
I got pregnant May of 2008 at 308lbs. I had recently become engaged to my now husband and we had planned a July 2009 wedding. Little did we know we would become pregnant and push up our wedding to September 2008. Our child wasn’t planned, but was 100% wanted. Since we weren’t planning this pregnancy, we were unsure of when she was conceived. We ended up having a Due Date Scan to find out that our child was due January 27th, 2009.
I was over joyed with the fact that I had this life growing inside me. I couldn’t wait for the 1st kicks and I counted down the months until we knew the sex (a girl that we found out 3 days before our wedding, and kept it a secret until our wedding reception where I announced it to all our family and friends). I had a normal pregnancy. No Gestational Diabetes, and only a high blood pressure issue from 36 to 38 weeks that corrected itself. My due date came and went. I stayed at 1cm until I was induced.
My induction went very smoothly and my daughter entered the world on February 4th, 2009 at 8:10 pm via a vaginal, medicated birth. She weighed in at 8lbs 9.4 oz and scored a 9 out of 10 on both her apgar scores. I ended up weighing 326lbs right before delivery. Once home I weighed myself and I was down to 311lbs.
At 4 months postpartum I was diagnosed with PPT (Postpartum Thyroiditis) I have to now take medication for my thyroid. Other than that, I have had no issues with myself. My current weight is 290lbs and I am 7 months PP. I have been working on trying to be healthier, not so much with weight on my mind. I am happy with my body, my husband has never know, seen me any other way and he loves all my curves.
For all the women out there who feel like they would be happier a size or three smaller I say, be proud of who you are, not what your BMI is or your weight is. Love you for you!

~Your Age: I am 24 years old
~Number of pregnancies and births: 1 pregnancy resulting in 1 birth

~The age of your children, or how far postpartum you are: Mya, my daughter is 7 months old and i am 7 months PP

Wanting accept my body changes (Ashley)

Bonnie (SOAM) Before Pregnancy, Belly, Cesarean, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions, Teen Mom 10 Comments

August 26, 2008 was the day i found out i was pregnant, this day was also my boyfriend’s birthday (what a birthday gift I gave him…hahaha). So I woke up that morning and for some reason I thought maybe I’d take a home pregnancy test because the day before I was worrying since we weren’t using protection. When I saw that positive I was so distraught, very scared and clueless of what to do. I barely turned 18 and my boyfriend was turning 17. Both very young with a big future ahead of us and finding out we we’re expecting wasn’t very easy to accept. We both thought about abortion and I made an appointment, the day came and the doctor told me the baby was too little to be seen in sonogram, I was probably less than 4 weeks and arranged another appointment 2 weeks later. During those 2 weeks so much changed.

I was living with my best friends family. I told my best friend I was pregnant and it was suppose to be a secret. She told her mom and she was against the abortion and talked to me about the choices I could do but abortion wasn’t an option. That day I realized I couldn’t kill the love I’ve made with my boyfriend. I felt very stupid for ever thinking I could abort and felt selfish. There’s a reason why these things happen. I thought to myself that if i would have aborted I would have felt like a coward and would have not owned up to my responsibilities for the actions i made. Each day passed and I was very happy with my choice except thinking of what my body would end up like.

I’ve always been a girl with low self-esteem my height didn’t help (4’11) and knowing that my body would change drastically wasn’t something I liked to accept, all the stretch marks and a big belly. Though days went on and I was happy that I had a real easy pregnancy with no morning sicknesses, I was able to sleep good even to the last day, and still no stretch marks. Until the last month was when I was able to see my stretch marks, they weren’t very visible but I knew they we’re there.

The day my water broke was May 1st and I was nervous, excited, scared, so many mixed emotions I just couldn’t wait to meet my little one I had been carrying inside me for 9 months. I was having trouble during labor. My cervix wasn’t dialating and after 10 hours I only dialated barely 2 centimeters. Doctor told me I had to get a c-section. I was very upset at first because this was not how I planned on how I wanted to give birth. On May 2, 2009 I gave birth to a beautiful healthy daughter named Hailey weighing 7 lbs. and 7 ounces and 18 inches long.

It’s been almost about 4 months since I gave birth and I am very proud and happy young mom. I love being a mother and I am very glad that I didn’t go through with the abortion because I know if I did I would never be able to forgive myself.

Everything is great except one thing. I love daughter so much but I’m still learning to accept my body. So far I’ve learned to accept my stretch marks because I know somehow one way or another my belly had to stretch for new life I was carrying and also because my stretch marks we’re made with love because of my little one. I just don’t like my sagging tummy and I just don’t feel good about my image. I see how many girls my age would dress and I would like to feel good in what I dress in and not worry about how I look or people say. Sometimes it helps when my boyfriend tells me that I shouldn’t worry that he still loves the way I look and my tummy is special because that’s where Hailey came out from. But I guess it’ll take sometime. I’m just glad that I was able to give life because she makes everything so worth it.

below are some pictures

1. Before pregnancy
2. 39 weeks pregnant
3. Hailey’s latest picture
4. 16 weeks postpartum front view
5. side view

Age: 19
Number of pregnancies & birth: 1
Age age of my child: 3 months and 4 weeks