Cesarean

It’s Not Really So Bad (Autumn)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Cesarean, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions 7 Comments

Your Age: 29
Number of pregnancies and births: One pregnancy, one birth
The age of your children, or how far postpartum you are: 9 months

Today marks 281 days since my daughter was born. The same amount of time that she spent on the “inside”. I’ve been looking forward to this day, it feel momentous for some reason.

I look over the landscape of my changed body and I’m grateful that I’m not so changed that i don’t recognize myself but also thankful for the signs that my daughter once occupied my space. The day after her birth (by c-section, after 27 hours of hard labor) i saw my deflated belly in the mirror and thought “I have arrived”. My mind went back to all the mothers on this website and i knew that i was going to be
with the majority with my stretchy skin and mother’s “apron” and not one of the few who return to hard, flat bellies within a few weeks.

Silvery stretchmarks line my belly but they’re only visible in certain lights. In the blinding, brilliant sun they fade into the rest of my skin but in harsh overhead lighting they look like craters. But I’ve grown comfortable in the skin i’m in. I’m not saying that I’m about to get in a bikini and head down to the beach, but i also realize that I’m not in competition with 19 year old spring-breakers. I credit this website with the acceptance, and even love that i have for my new form. Before SOAM i hadn’t seen what a “real mother” looked like without her clothes off. My mom, through genes that somehow skipped me, had no stretchmarks and maintained a very svelte figure. So thank you to all of you for having the courage to post your photos and stories and for giving me the courage to love my jiggle and stretchmarks and even my c-section scar enough to do the same.

Photos-
1 – 40 weeks pregnant, I was HUUUUUGGEEE
2 – My 40 week belly, it was not a “pretty pregnant belly”
3 – Today, sucking in makes it look worse
4 – Today, letting it go makes it look smoother
5 – Today, in the right light everything looks pretty good
6 – My daughter, the reason for this post in the first place.

Amanda

Bonnie (SOAM) Before Pregnancy, Belly, Cesarean, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Submissions 19 Comments

hello there. my name is amanda,i’m 23 years old. i thought i would send a quick note to go with the photos! my daughter is now 15 months old, she weighed 10 pds 9 oz ( healthy baby) i gained 70pds with her, i went up to 212 pds. i didnt have 1 strech mark till the last month of my pregnancy! i had a c-section after 27 hours of labour! so now after all the stretch marks, weight gain, and c-section, i now have skin the feels empty ( if that makes any sence) and it droops over top of my cesarian and i have a pooch :( i hate it.. so here’s some photos of before pregnancy, 12 weeks after haing my daughter to right to the date of today! so roughly 15 months after having amilya! i tried sending the pics other ways but my computer has a block on it for some reason! do wut u like with my pictures!

Really Having a Hard Time With This (Kali)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Breasts, Cesarean, Child Loss, Postpartum, Submissions, Third Pregnancy 21 Comments

Age: 38
# of pregnancies:3 total, 2 miscarriages before 12 weeks, 1 full term
Postpartum: 4 weeks postpartum, C-Section

At my age and given that I lost 2 pregnancies before this I should really not be so vain, but I am horrified and floored at what I look like now. I don’t think that time or exercise are going to help.

I started my pregnancy at 5’5″ and hovering between 151 and 155 pounds. I lookied pretty good at that weight because I carried a lot of muscle, although 145 would have been perfect. I felt like garbage my whole pregnancy and lost my job at the end of my first trimester, so I was not very active. I did not, however, eat like a crazy woman.

Imagine my shock when I weighed myself the day before I had the baby and was at 205! FIFTY pounds. The stretchmarks aren’t too bad, fairly faint and all on the lower belly.

In the 2 weeks after I had him I lost 35 pounds. I really had no appetite after the c-section, so it wasn’t too hard. Now, however, my metabolism seems to have crashed. The scale hasn’t budged in 2 weeks, and I am eating healthfully, and trying to eat more to keep myself from going into starvation mode. I started walking 1 week postpartum and just started back at the gym this week.

Here’s the thing, I could handle the stretchmarks, I could handle the fat, even the fact that my boobs have gone down a cup size and headed south, but the hanging apron of skin is just gross. I feel deformed. It even smells bad under there so several times a day I have to pull up the flap of skin and clean & dry the area so it soesn’t get all sweaty & nasty. Plus I think I have a hernia. I feel a weird “ball” just over my belly button. The front pictures don’t look so bad, but the side picture shows the hangy stuff.

My fiance is loking to be intimate and I just hate the thought of exposing myself to him. He’s several years younger and has a permanent 6-pack, and although he would never say anything bad about the way I look, I can’t deal with the thought of him being secretly turned off by what’s happened to my body. I know I am.

5 Weeks PP 2nd Baby (Shannon)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Cesarean, Child Loss, Children with Health Complications, Second Pregnancy, Submissions, Update 18 Comments

Original entry here.

i had liam april 10 via cesarean at 11:53, 7 lbs 15 oz, 19 in. he is very healthy, although i am still so scared to lose him. it has been a very emotional month…the 1 year anniversary since connor passed was may 1st. i miss him so much, he would have loved his little brother! i know he is in heaven watching over us and making his baby brother smile! liam is amazing and i love him just as i love connor. i will be posting my body at another time…but that is not what matters right now, it gave me the 2 greatest boys ever!

pics:
connor
me the night before i had liam
liam at birth
liams 2nd walk and my connor shirt
liam and mommy 1 month pp

Updated here, here, here and here.

From Hot to Not (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Before Pregnancy, Belly, Cesarean, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Submissions, Update 33 Comments

I’m a 20 year old single mother to a beautiful baby boy and I HATE my new body. Before I got pregnant I was 5’8 138lbs and wore a size 4. I gained 55lbs while I was pregnant and I did nothing but sit and eat. All I did was eat and I regret more then anything. My doctor knew I was going to have a large baby so I was induced 2 days before my due date. I was in labor for 30 hours when finally a nurse felt my stomach and realized my son was sunny side up. I was then prepped for a C-section. My son was born March 3, 2009 weighing in at 9lbs 8oz and 21.5 inches.

The first time I look in the mirror and saw my new body was 2 days after the c-section. I was getting in the shower and got a glance of myself in the mirror. WHAT? Is that me? I was so disgusted with the was I looked.. Every time I took a step I felt my fat jiggle. I cried the whole time in the shower looking at my legs and my stomach. My stomach was covered in stretch marks up to my belly button, despite my effort to religiously moisturize it. My once tight and firm tummy looked like a road map was on it.

11 weeks PP now. I’m weighing in at 150. I’m of course happy that I’m loosing weight quickly, but the stretchmarks still remain.. And that’s what hurts the most. I feel ugly and unattractive still. I live in walking distance to the beach and I used to just put on my little bikini and walk to the beach and I’m incredibly depressed I can’t wear a bikini anymore. I had a great figure before I got pregnant and now I just look gross. I’m so insecure with the way I look. I feel I will never feel good about my body again. My breast were once a small B are now a full C small D. I’m breastfeeding and I can already tell my breast will not be the same once I’m finished breastfeeding.

I love my son more then anything and I would rather look the way I do now then not have him but I’d definitely looking into treatments to reduce the appearance of my stretchmarks.

The first 3 photos are me pre-pregnancy and the last 3 are of my stomach (currently 11 weeks PP)

Updated here.

9 Weeks Postpartum (Kara)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Cesarean, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Submissions, Teen Mom 12 Comments

I had my son on my 19th birthday, and it wasn’t planned.
My blood pressure dropped severely low after I got the epidural. I’m not sure
if this caused by son’s heart rate to drop, too. Because of this, I had to have an
emergency c-section. The cord was wrapped around his neck, head, and chest. Thank
God for modern medicine! His name is Gabriel.

Age: 19
# of pregnancies & births: 1
9 weeks postpartum

Trying to Cope With My Shape as a New Mother (Revae)

Bonnie (SOAM) Back, Belly, Breasts, Butt, Cesarean, Cesarean Scar and/or Incision, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions 20 Comments

Trying to cope with my shape as a new mother!!!!!Please help!!!

My name is Revae and Im 22 yrs old first time mom. I am currently 14 weeks postpartum, and Im having a really hard time coming to terms with my new body. I had my beautiful little angel Jan 18 2009 and I love being a mommy. Ok here goes nothing, my pre pregnancy weight was 170 and I am 5’9, I got up to 225 when I was pregnant alot of the weight just fell off and Im now 183lbs and I love the way my new size 16 jeans look on. But when Im naked I feel disgusted with my apperance, My husband says he likes my new look and that he thinks that’s the way a mother is supposed to look. But I just feel so unsexy when we make love ya know all the jiggly jello just makes me uncomfortable PLEASE HELP ME COME TO TERMS WITH MY NEW LOOK I NEED THE SOME ADVICE AND NEW MOMMY FRIENDS!!!!

1st pic 8 months preggo
2nd pic Me
3rd pic 14 weeks postpartum
4th pic 14 weeks postpartum
5th pic 14 weeks postpartum
6th pic 14 weeks postpartum
7th pic 14 weeks postpartum
8th pic 14 weeks postpartum
9th pic C- Section scar

My Baby Bellies (Kelly)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Cesarean, First Pregnancy, Pregnant, Second Pregnancy, Submissions 4 Comments

I can not believe that I have accidentally found this wonderful website – a breath of fresh air!! Thank you so much for dispelling the myth that we all go straight back to our post baby bodies, it is such a relief to see that others know this fact and accept it. Why should we go back to that body anyway, we are different, more important people; we are mothers!!

I had my first child when I was 23, and I did not have too much trouble losing the 23 kg I put on during that pregnancy. I was lucky, only a few stretch marks on my breasts. However with my second child, while I put on less weight, I had a bigger baby, I got heaps of stretch marks, and a lovely saggy tummy that just won’t budge.

I see pictures in magazines of celebrities who lose all their weight in like 4 weeks, and have wonderful flat stomachs – it just makes me feel horrid. I always though that women (and their partners) need to know the truth; if you can be prepared for the complete transformation that you go through, I’m certain that we would be able to accept and possible even love, our post-baby bodies.

First pregnancy, 40 weeks. 38 weeks pregnant with Luci, my second child, born via c-section then following morning weighing 8lb 7oz.

C-Section Scar (serenebabe)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Cesarean, Cesarean Scar and/or Incision, Postpartum, Second Pregnancy, Submissions 18 Comments

(Originally posted 4.28.09 at her blog.)

I hate the doctor who did the c-section to get Althea out. My midwives suggested it’s possible I make scar tissue well and that an incision close to my first c-section wasn’t an option. Maybe that’s true. I still hate that doctor. First of all, she never even told me when the surgery was starting. Seems only courteous to say, “We’re starting the procedure” or some such indication.

Then, rationality aside, I blame her for the ridiculously high incision. Wide, too. Sure, it will heal thinner and less obvious. But, it will never get lower or less wide.

In honor of TMI Tuesday (a weekly holiday I celebrate with Stephanie H. on Facebook) I’m going to share photos of the fucked up scar and the older and less fucked up scar.

Here’s the first incision that I don’t mind, about 6 years old.

052709-serenebabe-1

Certainly TMI because if you look closely I think some pubes are showing (on this and maybe each of them, I think). Not ideal, but I doubt a little hair ever hurt anyone. The thing is, this incision is *right* at the line of my pubic hair. The photo makes it seem like there’s space but, really, it’s about on top of the hair line. Barely visible when I’m naked.

Now, here’s the second incision from almost three weeks ago.

052709-serenebabe-2

Sure, it’s healing well. And, it will look different in another few weeks. But, do you see how close it is to my belly button? WTF? I can’t imagine there’s any reason for that thing to be so high up.(not sure why it’s rotated funny)

This photo shows them both.

052709-serenebabe-3

And, of course, you can see the slowly receding stretch marks. The badges of motherhood. If the higher up marks are any indication, these lower ones will fade almost entirely away. If I was vain enough I would have waited until the skin wrinkles (from my pajama pants) had faded away. But, here I am, in all my glory.

It’s what a real woman looks like. A real woman who was cut by a fucking asshole surgeon.

Hating my Stretch Marks! 3 Months PP (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Cesarean, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Submissions 13 Comments

I´m a 24 years old mom of a 3 months old gorgeous baby boy. I found out I was pregnant while I was planing my wedding
I got really exited about having a baby and so did my now husband, I love my baby to dead without a question he is the best ever hapend to me, But… I really hate my body now, I was never a skinny or fit girl but I was in size 3 or 4 jeans (I am only 5´1 so yeah I was slim but not skinny trust me lol) anyways now I´m wearing size 5 or 6 but I´m no way close to look like I once did, specially with all the stretch marks that decided make an apperence in the las 2 weeks of my pregnancy, more than the loose, saggy skin the stretchmarks are what I hate the most, maybe because I know it´s nothing I can do to get rid of the stretch marks, I´m trying to watch what I eat and I´m playing the wii fit (lol), Ohh by the way thanks to all of you ladies to give me the courage of posting here you are great brave BEAUTIFUL WOMEN!!!!

These are pics of me at 3 months pp and one of my georgeous baby boy!!!! I´ll keep you posted!!!