~Age:17
~Number of pregnancies and births:1
~The age of your children, or how far postpartum you are: 4 monnths PP
I got pregnant at 16 with a beautiful baby boy. hes my world.. before getting pregnant I weighed 115 pounds and I am 5″6. wasnt fat looking just normal size. After i had my son i was breastfeeding for about 2 months. I liked it but i was so busy taking care of him and everything and he was very colicy i had to stop at 2 months. I never ate hardly anything due to always cleaning and stuff when he slept which was a bad idea.. now i currently weigh 98 pounds. i had some stretch marks before pregnancy on my upper legs and outter lower legs around my knees.. due to growth spurt and gaining alittle weight when my dad died. now i have them on my butt,boobs,stomach,behind my knees,calfs,and lots on my inner legs.. if i didnt have these stretch marks i would be so happy… i try bio oil,cocoa butter, bio lotions, baby oil, vitamin e oil , etc… i will continue using bio oil to say i atleast tried hard… but i really wish they would go away!! i look at them all the time… they make me really upset and cry sometimes. i also use a dermaroller on them… it hurts but its worth it.. i find it made them look alittle better. my boyfriend and i always argue he says they “arent that bad” but they are!! they are ALL over my inner legs.. and i really want to wear shorts.. *sigh*
Updated here.
tanning does wonders!
Honey…I think you need to find somebody who can help you deal with this…even before you were pregnant you were tiny (115 for 5” 6) now you been 98 pound is underweight…your baby needs you but needs you to be healthy. You are beautiful and dont forget that or let anybody tell you differently. But please find help!
Wear those shorts! I had little whispy stretch marks at your age just from puberty. I was embarrassed by them, but now I wish I had never been! I was think and cute and I should have been more confident – and the same applies to you. :)
I’m with Karla, 115 at 5 feet six inches is skinny, not fat, and 98 at that height is definitely underweight; if you would speak to your doc and a nutrition expert, and get to a healthy weight, it would be good for you and baby. And wear whatever you want!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously when I look at your photos I don’t even SEE the marks, just how toooooooo thinnnnnn you are!
i know but im so scared if i gain weight i will get MORE!! :(
Don’t worry, it’s only been 4 months and stretch marks fade a LOT within the first year and more after that, especially when someone is young and elastic like you and has a healthy-ish lifestyle (i.e. no smoking or tanning). Speaking of tanning, Brandy, it really only works wonders for wrinkles and skin cancer later in life, I’d personally prefer stretchmarks to either. Try a self tanning lotion, bronzer or that Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs stuff instead.
Anyways, everyone always has something that they point to and say “I’d be happy if it wasn’t for THAT one thing”. Always. And if that one thing (be it stretch marks, small boobs, limp hair, pimples, really long second toe, blah blah etc) gets “fixed”, it doesn’t guarantee happiness because most likely it was never the true problem to begin with.
How can you love your new body? I’ll tell you- it carried and nourished a precious new life. Whether you are 98 pounds or 198 pounds… that very reason makes you beautiful. Also, before I even got pregnant I was always thin but had cellulite and some stretchmarks. Almost every girl does!
Girly, you go ahead and wear those shorts! You’ve got a great body for it, even better than mine! And I still rock a bikini. :)
This website, which I found a few months before I delivered my baby girl a little over 13 months ago, has helped me come to a place where I am SO freakin’ proud of what my body has done and can do! Even with all the signs that my body once carried my little girl. So proud that I even feel excited to show off all my FADED stretchies (for me, they faded almost completely by the time I was about 10 months PP, from an angry red, to pink, to silvery), and my tummy which has shrunk to it’s normal (though still not pre-baby) size and form. If it weren’t for the stretch marks, I don’t think anyone who doesn’t know me would guess I’ve had a baby!
Beyond being totally WHITE, I feel super sexy again. When I first discovered I was pregnant (a couple years before my hubby and I wanted to start–this baby was a surprise), I was 23 years old, 150 lbs, and 5’8″ tall. I reached a whopping 200 lbs by the morning before my delivery–I had gained 50 pounds! Twice the weight I had hoped.
My strechies showed up on my hips first, around 34 weeks. I thought it was just a press mark from my jeans fitting too tight around my hips at first, but they soon stretched down toward my belly, and eventually showed up all over my belly (from the area over my pubic bone all the way up to, and even a couple spots over, my belly button), and the front and inside of my thighs, as well. They were wide, angry red trails that ripped across my skin, just like I had read that they might be. I got them pretty bad. I can thank my mother for those marks, since stretch marks are a genetic issue, not one you can prevent with oils, etc.
Thankfully I was expecting these marks. I was mentally prepared. It was not a shock. Perhaps my age and the fact that I had gone out of my way to read about all of the possible changes that might happen to my body had something to do with it, but I accepted my new mommy body as soon as I realized there was no more baby in there to make for a good excuse. No more baby to round out my pregnant form. I still looked quite pregnant for the first three or four months after my little girl was born, but I was glowing!
During the first three weeks I lost 35 pounds–water and my actual baby’s weight. I lost the final 15 pounds and reached prebaby weight around 9 and 1/2 months. From that time until now, I’ve lost another 15 pounds and am currently 135 lbs. I haven’t been this small since my husband and I got married, and even then I had dropped 5 pounds just from nerves before getting married, haha! All the pants I’ve worn over the past 4 or 5 years now slip down over my hips and bum without even unbuttoning or unzipping them! I feel awesome, and super proud. It’s taken a lot of work, patience with myself and my husband, eating right (and nursing, which burns SO many calories!) to reach this weight.
All that to say, you have to give your body at least as much time to recover as you had to grow that precious baby. Your body will pull itself back together–I promise.
Your body won’t be exactly the same as it was before pregnancy. (I WISH–I can’t believe how much I took my gorgeous pre-baby smooth skin and perky breasts for granted!) But your body will still become strong, tight, and those stretchies will fade with time and patience.
The one area I do struggle with physically is my mama boobs. They used to sit high and were perky and awesome. Now, after breastfeeding (though I have read this would have happened even if I had NOT breastfed), my breasts are not only smaller, but they hang lower by a lot. It’s hard to get used to their new shape and be completely happy with them, but that’s my struggle. I love how they have fed and nurished my baby girl until now. I am still nursing, and plan to continue for a few more months. My breasts have done something incredible, so at least I can be proud of that, right?
Anyway, I hope you can come to love your body like I have come to love and appreciate mine, for the awesome thing it has done, and for the beautiful life it has created. I’m in love with my little girly, and she makes all those little body image quirks worth it. Every one. I accept all the changes gracefully, even my breasts for the most part. (I’m working on that one!) :)
Take care, and ROCK THOSE SHORTS! Congratulations on your baby. Your body is awesome, and has done something INCREDIBLE!
I am 19 years old and had a boy too.. I have stretch marks on my boobs, stomach, front of thighs, back of calves, and inner thighs. They are dark dark dark in coloration. I can’t barely look at myself in the mirror I even cry. To make it worse my baby daddy makes me feel like im not good enough, hurts me by looking at other women and it just gets worse and worse i feel like giving up, I’m trying everything i can to get better. But its getting no place…. I am litterally starving myself to get down to normal weight as fast as possible. Im so stressed and i feel like i can relate to you because i look at other women who have kids and think “how come they didn’t get stretch marks on their legs” …its hot as hell and im afraid to wear shorts… You have giving me some hope, to keep trying. Thank you.
I agree with a couple others you need to find someone that can help you. I am 5’6″ and I am too thin when I hit 135 pounds…I have D cup breasts but I don’t think those can account for more than 5 pounds…So if I was flat chested and 130 pounds I would still be skinny…I am assuming you took those last two pictures of your inner thighs. What really worries me is I am having a hard time telling the difference between them being legs or arms. You owe it to your child to be healthy. I am saying this as a person that once accidently became addicted to laxitives. Sometimes we don’t even realize we have an eating disorder untill we don’t have one anymore. I became addicted because my doctor told me to take them and stool softeners to become regular since my stomach was hurting from not being so. My stomach felt so much better and I noticed I could eat whatever I wanted…so now I just eat foods full of fiber and I am perfectly healthy.
when you get soo skinny there is no fill left in your skin..if you gain a little healthy weight back some of your stretchmarks wont show so much..