Author: Bonnie (SOAM)

10 Months PP with Baby #2 (Kimi)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Postpartum, Pregnant, Second Pregnancy, Submissions 9 Comments

I am Kimi. I am a 24 year old mom of 2. My DS is 2 (8-3-06) he was born 8 days late. DD is 10 months (1-25-08) and she was 2 weeks & 2 days late. I gained & lost over 100 pounds in about 2 years. As you can see my children are close in age & as many mothers know that can take a huge tole on your body. I loved being pregnant. I took advantage of it. I worked out during both my pregnancies to keep healthy. I nurse my son from the time he was born, through my pregnancy and right along with my daughter after she was born. I contribute that to a huge part of my weight loss. That and the fact that once my daughter was born I had a wild 18 month old boy to chase around.

I was very unhappy with my body after my son. I was by no means over weight but I had stretch marks & hated them. I got pregnant with my daughter shortly after & I forgot how much I hated my body since I loved being pregnant so much. After she was born, I wore my stretch marks as a badge of honor. I didn’t get that many compared to some women but I do have several on my hips and bum. I was so self conscious in front of my husband but he assured me that I am more beautiful than I was before I had children. That I should be proud of my body!

I went on to work out with my child and get my body to the shape that I was happy with. As a gift to my wonderful husband I had some pictures taken in lingerie. I was 9 months PP in them.

I have included pictures from both during and after both pregnancies!

The 1st picture is 36 weeks pregnant with #1.
The 2nd picture is 41 weeks pregnant with #1.
The 3rd picture is 1 month PP #2.
The 4th picture is 22 weeks pregnant with #2.
The 5th picture is 30 weeks pregnant with #2.
The 6th picture is 1 month PP with #2.
The 7th picture is 4 months PP with #2.
The 8th picture is 9 months PP with #2.










belly (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Before Pregnancy, Belly, First Pregnancy, Piercing, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions, Teen Mom 8 Comments

i was 19 when i had my little boy. my body has changed and im trying to accept it. im almost at my pre-pregnany weight but my stomach is still mushy and i have soo many stretchmarks all over the place it makes it hard to love. i do however love my son and i wouldnt trade him for anything. if it means that ill have a mushy stomach and a road map on my butt the rest of my life then im just fine with that.







Mom of 3 by 19 (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Cesarean, Postpartum, Pregnant, Teen Mom, Third Pregnancy 4 Comments

Hi, I was 16 when I found out I was pregnant with my son. after a otherwise great pregnancy at 34wks and 4days my water broke and I was taken to the hospital. I was in labor for 63+ hrs wth no meds except antbiotics I only dilated to a 3 and he didnt move down and I ended up having a c-section. When my son came out all I can remember is not being able to hear him crying. He was rushed to the NICU. Although he was 6lbs 5ozs he could not breath on his own. He was in the NICU for 2wks. The hardest thing I have ever done is leave my son there everyday. Right after I turned 18 I found out I was pregnant again. I was so scared my son was only 9m old. But I had a pretty good pregnancy. And after 38wks and 1day my baby girl was born after 18+ hrs of labor via c-section I was tryig for a VBAC but the same thing happend I only dilated to a 3 and she didnt move down. She was a healthy 8lb 3oz big girl. Then 5m after I had her I found out I was pregnant again. With another baby girl. When i found out i was already 8weeks. I am now 32wks and I am going to have her via c-section. In December. 4m before I turn 20. The only think I can really say is that at least i’m not doing this on my own I dont live with my parents me and my BF live alone and he works HARD so I can stay home with the kids. I love him to death and I dont knw what I would do without him. Here are pics of my babies and me at 21wk.





Doesn’t it Make You Wonder? (Alicia)

Bonnie (SOAM) Activism, Body Image, My Own Ramblings, No Photos (Story Only) 1 Comment

Reader Alicia commented on a recent post and I found her quote to be so relevant – such a simple and perfect way to sum up why we are all here at this site – that I wanted to share it with you, bolding the part that struck me as especially important.

doesn’t it make you wonder? what are we ashamed OF exactly? why are we embarrassed, what have we done to be embarrassed of? who is our anger directed toward?

i finally realized something. the longer i act ashamed of and embarrassed by my body, the longer i hide it, the more i propagate the belief that i have SOMETHING to be ashamed or embarrassed of! not only that, but what kind of example to we set for our children by feeling ashamed of something that is so natural?

let’s stop hiding our bodies and start showing the world what a REAL woman looks like! it’s not going to happen overnight but who knows? someday maybe our daughters can be proud of those stretchmarks, and our sons will be exposed to reality, not airbrushed and photoshopped bodies!

if i can do it, with my stomach that looks like an elephant knee – then you can definitely do it! one day at a time

We are all, of course, here to work on ourselves as individuals – and that is deeply important work. But, I hope we are all here to change the world a little bit, too. Even one comment at a time can have astounding effects on people. Let’s take this to heart and remember that loving our bodies does more than just make us whole in our womanly selves – it makes the world whole as well.

As an aside, I want to apologize for my recent absence. I fell far behind here due to a combination of general business, holiday and birthday preparations and that evil head cold everyone you know has. I’m back now and hope to be catching up quicker than I was before! And I hope you all avoid the sickies like the plague!

18 Months After CS and a Beautiful Girl… (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Breasts, Cesarean, Cesarean Scar and/or Incision, First Pregnancy, PCOS, Postpartum, Submissions 10 Comments

This is my body now. I hate it. After my CS i was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and Polycystic ovarie syndrom. Because of the Polyblabla its hard to lose weight, since everything you eat gains on the stomach. I was a size 36(european sizes.. small/medium) the day i had my girl, and the day after i was a size 46. I got a beautiful daughter and a body i hate, that is not mine, but her mothers. I feel so disgraced that she has to live with a mother like me, what will she think? Why me, why did i have to get diseases like that, making me invalid at 25… I try so hard to accept my body, and when i see all the skinny, beautiful women here i tend to get happy but also sad; you all look great!!! Luckily my husband loves me and my body, so i cope “fine” with it, but its a war inside.





One Mental Year Later (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Before Pregnancy, Belly, Breasts, First Pregnancy, Piercing, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions 7 Comments

Hi everyone! :) I found this site at the beginning of my pregnancy and thought that now, just past my daughter’s first birthday, would be a fairly apt moment to reflect on this mental year and nine months and make a post myself. I’m 5ft2 ish and I started my pregnancy at 9st (see before photo!) I put on about a stone in the first month then two more by the end – total weight gain of 3 stone or 52lbs !! I was also polyhydramnios (more amniotic fluid than usual) so I was MASSIVE. I thought I had got away without stretchmarks on my tummy until week 36 when they started creeping up from my knicker line. I also have a belly button piercing and that stretched alot. Also, I developed weird stretchmarks on both inner thighs from baout week 26 which got bigger and bigger until my daughter was born. Couldnt understand whay I got them there! I also have more on my hips and LOADS on my boobs, although these have faded quite a bit. My pregnancy went smoothly other than very low blood pressure which left me feeling faint and breathless most of the time from about week 34. I worked until 6 days before my due date and went into natural labour 6 days past my due date. I was due that morning to have a membrane sweep, which I didnt much fancy, so I was quite pleased with Lily’s timing! My waters broke slowly overnght and I gave birth at 18.50 the following evening, with NO PAIN RELIEF AT ALL to my beautiful 8lb 9oz baby girl Lily. She is the most wonderful little girl in the world and most definitely worth it all. I desperately wanted to breast feed but Lily just didnt take to it. The midwife decided to cup-feed her formula for one feed because they were concerned she was hungry and after that she just wanted really interested in trying to feed from me. I was very upset but managed to express breast milk for her for 8 weeks until my supply dried up. Im pleased that she got my breat milk, even thouh it meant milking myself every 90 minutes and feeling somewhat like a cow for 2 months! ;) My body was ‘better’ before in many ways – my tummy was flat and toned and the skin was tight and my boobs stood up more, but honestly Im happier with my body now than I was before. It is just so incredible what our bodies can do – way more amazing than a flat stomach and toned skin. I celebrate my body so much more now and I feel like a whole woman. I have included a before photo, several through my pregnancy and some after pics. :) :) :)


Before
121008-anon-1

39 weeks – two weeks before the birth

3 days PP

25 days PP closeup of tummy

20 weeks

3 photos at one year PP




Learning to Love my 21 Year Old Baby Body (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Before Pregnancy, Belly, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions 16 Comments

I’ve been through a lot in my short 21 years and 10 months here on earth. The good, the bad, the unexpected… In high school I was a 5’3, 117 pound cheerleader with an eating disorder. I was teased when I was younger for being chubby, so I made up for it during my adolescence. I hid the memories of my broken childhood with alcohol, prescription pills, and eventually hard drugs. All of which helped me to maintain my thin frame. When I was 16, I met who would one day become my husband. Fast forward to college, by the time I was a Junior I was 130 lbs. I was okay with this, I had grown out of my self-destructive behavior for the most part, but my weight was still a burden on my mind every day. I was living with my high school sweetheart when we found out we were pregnant on Thanksgiving of 2007. Three semesters away from attaining my degree and suddenly it seemed so far away. I took a year off from school, sat at home and ate, and ate, ate… Over the course of my pregnancy I gained 73 lbs. The day I went into labor I weighed a whopping 203 lbs, most of which I gained in the last 3 months of my pregnancy, leaving me with numerous stretch marks on my hips, my breasts, thighs and calves. Thirty hours of labor and six hours of pushing later, my baby boy was born at 8 lbs 9 oz. and 21 inches. A week later what I was left with was 180 lbs, nearly a hundred stretch marks and some saggy skin. Despite my previous obsession over my body image, I became less concerned with it, and instead focused my attention on my new son. With the help of breastfeeding, I lost nearly 40 lbs in the first two months. My weight loss began to slow, so when I stopped breastfeeding at 3 months post-partum, I began eating healthier. I am proud to say that today, on my son’s 4 month birthday, I weighed in at 145 lbs. I am still overweight for my height; however I have never been more content with or proud of my body. I look at my son everyday with pride, and when I look at my stretch marks they remind me of that precious little face. I am going back to school in January to finish my degree, and thanks to my beautiful little interruption, I have all the motivation I need. The attached pictures are, in order: my pre-pregnancy body, my 38 week pregnant body, my one week pp body, my 1 month pp body, my present body, and my baby boy…