Hi everyone just wanted to let you know IT IS possible to get a great body after baby…this is my stomach after about a year of having my kid..and my kid was 10 pounds! im five ten and now 122 pounds…i worked out all through my pregancy too and used Vichy stretch cream on my belly all the time…i have NO stretch marks either, i didnt allow myself to eat any junk during the entire pregancy…So yes, it is possible to look great after having a baby, i think i look better after haiving kids…though i wish i could have kept the huge boobs! lol
hmm… stretch marks are hereditary & cannot be avoided with topical creams, oils or lotion. it’s nice to keep your epidermis hydrated, but stretch marks happen in the deeper layers, where creams fail to penetrate. and i agree that it’s possible to look great after pregnancy – but remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder & what may be “looking great ” to you might be “painfully thin” to another, just like “looking great” to one might be “kill-myself-fat” to elizabeth hurley. i preferred to enjoy my pregnancy, relax & indulge. for me, it wasn’t a time to work out every day, it was a time to celebrate my growing roundness.
I’m also 5’10 and weight just about 130. My son was 9lbs, 22in at birth. I used the same cream religiously throughout my pregnancy also ate well and gained 40lbs which I lost all, but I’m now covered with stretch marks and loose skin. Luck of the genetic draw!
Wow you look great! I want to start working out now, 5 month after my baby boy was born. I did`nt get any strechmarks either, but reserach shows that this has to do with genes (and is not influenced by bodylotion!). I have a belly that I want to reduce, but mye body will never be the same, and that is completely okey. Life is change, just want to be healthy and not too owerweighty.
Keep up the good work!
you look great. but not everyone is as lucky as you.
Oh my god, that is exactly what I’m aiming for. You look so good! I am dying to know what exercises you did…I’m not sure how much is safe to do through each stage. With my next pregnancy I am hoping to run on the treadmill..do you think this is safe to do? I’d really appreciate your opinion and advice.
Jen
xxx
I gave birth 5 weeks ago and am feeling desperately unhappy about the state of my body. I visited this website because I thought it might make me feel better. Your posting has made me and I imagine a lot of other people feel a great deal worse about themselves. I too used cream during my pregnancy yet have lots of stretchmarks – as did my mother, which is relevant if the geneticists are to be believed. I was instructed by my doctor not to work out during my pregnancy as I had a history of miscarriage and was suffering intermittent bleeding. Obviously I am delighted to have a healthy baby but am left feeling very fragile and the 28 pounds heavier woman that I see in the mirror makes me very unhappy. You are very lucky , and obviously dedicated, to have such a great body but maybe now you should work on your sensitivity towards other women?
I agree. Too many women seem to think that pregnancy will automatically ruin your body. If your body isn’t ruined; they assume you had plastic surgery or good genes.
I love my body more now than before I had my daughter. It looks better. I feel better than before. I’m able to focus more on my health than vanity. And I’m more confident. Pregnancy was an improvement for me.
Congratulations on your baby! I too bounced back great after my baby but I think it has to do with genetics. I have friends that gained less then I did and weigh less then me but they got stretch marks and have a much bigger belly pooch then I do! I certainly understand that I am lucky!
Ditto about the boobs!
I think a lot of us ultimately know it is possible to look great after having a baby… but what I believe you are missing is that the interpretation of what “great” is, is much farther reaching than you seem to be insinuating. Women of ALL sizes, shapes and stretched out form are beautiful and make women what they are… beautiful proud mamas who continue the human species.
Stacy
Congrats, you look great! Remember though that the creams do not work and it is your blessing of fantastic gentics that left you stretchmark free!
Thank you SO much for posting your pictures!!! I am 5’11” and weigh 140lbs and have been fearing the notion that I WILL dislike how I look after giving birth. (My hubby thinks I’m crazy when I worry.) However, I am very active and workout, and eat very healthy, so I’m hoping I will be okay! And I know 27 isn’t that old, but my mother looked amazing but she had my sister and I in her early twenties… and they say the older you are the tougher it gets to get back into shape. So it leaves me wondering how my body will do! Anyway, your pictures are encouraging… thank you!
Hi. You do look fantastic.
As do all the women here.
Your lack of stretchmarks is genetic. No cream in the world will make every woman stretchmark free.
All women should be grateful for their childbearing body. No matter what it looks like after.
Not all bodies can bounce back like yours. My extra skin wasnt caused by an unhealthy diet during my pregnancy and it does not go away with any kind of workout routine.
You are one of the lucky ones.
I too bounced back from my pregnancy 8 months ago. Not only do I love my body (its almost exactly the same) I am a little jealous of my best friends stretch marks. I worry that I’m not the only one that was a little offended by your post. We all know its possible and while I am happy for your quick recovery I hope that no one takes this as an insult:(
The big question is. Why is it so important to be thin??
You do look great. I ate well and tried to exercise while working and caring for another child. Stretch marks are genetic and I’m scarred all over my body. My body looks nothing like yours. I was pretty proud of how well I took care myself and well my body bounced back. Now I feel like I just didn’t try hard enough. I think you missed the point of this site. Looking great is taking good care of yourself and seeing the beauty of motherhood. Not the beauty of hollywood.
Wow you look amazing for having a child. I don’t know why some of these people are getting offended! I am 18 weeks pregnant with my first and have been taking care of my body the best I can and I really hope my body ends up back to how it was before I got pregnant. =D
I am another one of those women who is genuinely happy for you but feel compelled to point out that your post is mildly offensive. It is not appropriate or accurate to suggest that when women do not “bounce back” immediately, it is a result of a poor diet, lack of exercise, and failure to apply stretch mark creams to their bellies. We all know that it is possible to “bounce back” quickly and completely after pregnancy. However, a healthy diet, vigorous exercise, and stretch mark creams cannot and do not guaranty that possibility for all women. Like you, I worked out vigorously and consistently throughout my entire pregnancy (even ran a half-marathon at 20 weeks), ate an incredibly strict and healthy diet (it was the single healthiest time of my entire life – I did not indulge myself once), and applied every expensive cream and oil under the sun. The result? I was completely shocked at my inability to “bounce back.” It took me two years to lose the 25 pounds that I gained (despite exercising 6 days/week, training for and running a marathon, and breastfeeding for 23 months). My abdomen is covered with stretch marks from my pubic bone to my navel and I have loose skin. That said, while I hate the stretch marks and loose skin, I do feel good in tight jeans and if you do not see me naked, you will not know that I have had a baby. That is the best that I can hope for it. And I will take it! But you need to understand that while we are all proud of you for your hard work and good luck, you are insulting women who worked just as hard but did not get as lucky.
Hi I am also a thin mummy but I have a lot of stretchmarks, I feel quite offended that you would state ‘It is possible to look beautiful after birth’, insinuating that the rest of us on this website do not look beautiful. We are all beautiful and Im glad that you are happy with your body(I am too), but please dont put the rest of us down
I’m not really sure why anyone would take this post as an insult, she’s just proud of her body. She didn’t say anything about anyone else. This kind of reminds me of the whole Angelina Jolie entry, when everyone flipped out about how she probably had a tummy tuck or whatever. Who cares, it’s their lives…calm down.
It’s not that she is proud of her body, Shealene – it is the way she worded it. I imagine it was not on purpose – I believe she only meant to be encouraging and uplifting. But since this is such a sensitive topic, I think a lot of women took it to mean that if they were anything but perfect in the end, then the poster assumes they didn’t work hard enough and we all know – poster included, I assume – that that simply isn’t true.
In the spirit of not debating the thoughts or bodies of any of our posters, I am going to close the comments here. To the original poster – if you want to post a reply, just let me know (e-mail me) and I will post it for you.
Peace to all.
From the original poster:
I would like to know why some are excluded from the mommy club cause some of us didnt get stretch marks or flabby baby belly.
I see on the border of this page women whose bodies have been through pregnancy and i dont see any that still look the same after having a baby.
Why is this? If this is site is to make moms feel good about their bodies after having a child, why then can I not feel good about mine not being “ruined” after having a kid. Pregnancy doesnt have to be a downer and alot of the things I read are of women who hate their bodies, and feel that having a child has ruined them physically. Well why is this? I posted my pics here a while back and got crapped on cause alot of you said I was insensitve (which i wasnt you were just SENSITIVE) I am here to say that having a child doesnt have to ruin your body. Sure it may nevergo back to what it was but it also doesnt have to take a total 180 either. If you eat right, eat healthy and gain the right amount of weight you wil be fine. I am proof as Iam on my second child.
Iam sick of women saying they hate their bodies after baby and how they will never be sexy again, why on earth do you think that?