Belly

Postpartum (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, First Pregnancy, Infertility, Postpartum, Submissions 6 Comments

For the longest time I was told I was not able to have children. My husband and I just put the thought away. Shortly after we were married I found out I was expecting. I was shock. It took awhile for it to set in. I have always been an active person but due to my job I was not able to go to the gym. So throughout my pregnancy I did very little. I started my pregnancy at 106 and stopped looking at my weight at 165. I know I weighed much more than that by the time I gave birth. My pictures I sent are 6 months PP. I still have some work to do to ton my stomach area a little but I am not in a huge rush. Spending time with my son is the most important thing to me. When I work out I try and incorporate him. We do a lot of stuff at home. It makes me feel good that I am taking time for myself to make sure I am healthy but also by doing it with my son. We recently starting some water classes. It is great to see his fearlessness!

Confidence took a blow! (Lizzy)

Bonnie (SOAM) Before Pregnancy, Belly, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions 12 Comments

Age:23
Number of pregnancies:1
7 months post partum

Im from South africa,im 5″2 and pre pregnancy weight was 110lbs.
I loved my body.

Then April 2008 i fell pregnant with my first baby,a girl.My body changed but i didnt get stretchmarks,which im very gratefull for,i grew alot,my tummy was huge.
I gained 33 lbs and im currently 139lbs,which im not happy bout.When i look at myself in mirrors i start to bawl.

Theres just no time to exercise now.My husband loves the way i look.

But i dont.I love my daughther to bits though.
How can i make myself feel better bout myself?

Its amazing knowing my girl grew inside me,but cant accept the way i look.

The first pic is me 8 weeks pregnant(its says pre pregnancy but i didnt have a pp pic so i just use this one)

Second one is me 37 weeks pregnant

Third and fourth one is me 7 months pp

New Shape, New Life… (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Eating Disorder, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions, Teen Mom 5 Comments

Age: 21
Number of pregnancies and births: 1 live birth
Age of Child/postpartum: 25 months

I had only been graduated from high school for 6 months when I became pregnant with my son at age 18. I was a dancer for 13 years and never was a “stick” per say. I started high school in a size 4 an graduated in a size 12. I had body image issues which led into bulimia and anorexia. I was relieved when my baby bump started growing because I finally had an excuse to be “fat”. I only gained 9 lbs with my pregnancy. I lost a lot in the begining and I ate healthy throughout. When my son was born there was a smaller number immediately on the scale. I have had stretch marks ever since I remember because of such dramatic fluctuations in my weight and I was not surprised to see those little red marks appearing as the months passed. So in addition to a child, I have a belly flap/pooch, stretch marks on my thighs, hips, sides, stomach, arms, boobs, sides of knees, and a weird looking belly button. Over all, I like my body. I currently have 27 lbs to lose and a lot of toning to work on. My goal is to be bikini ready by next summer. I like my stretch marks. I call them “mommy marks”. No, I don’t have a flawless stomach with perfect abs, but I have a stomach of a mother, a nurturer, and a real woman. I would like to have tummy tuck after I birth all of my children, but I would never want all of my stretch marks to be removed (which I believe would be impossible). They are kind of like a trophy for me and if someone else can’t accept them then they can just move on and not look :). I am attaching a few photos.

8 months pregnant
25 months postpartum front
25 months postpartum side
25 months postpartum clothed
me and my son

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!