Original entry here.
My son is now 6 and a half months old and feel worse the ever about my body. I love my son so much and feel so guilty for hating my body as it carried him for for 40+11 weeks. My body created a beautiful 10 lb 10oz baby boy but I can’t accept it. I feel like at 19 years old my body is ruined. The worst thing is I know I’m being stupid but I can’t help it. I don’t understand how over women do it.
i’ve been visiting this site for nearly two years now and, since the beginning, i’ve wanted to submit my story. i am a 30 year old mother to two sons, aged 3 and 18 months. we are currently expecting our third baby, through international adoption. my husband and i were married in june of 2004, and two months later we found out that we were pregnant with our first child. i was, on my wedding day, *thinner* than i’d ever been since high school, weighing about 135 pounds at 5’7″. very quickly, in pregnancy, (many thanks to emotional eating coupled with milkshakes, and peanut butter m&ms) i gained nearly 80 pounds. somehow, i thought that all of my pregnancy weight would just “melt away.” my lowest weight between baby number 1 and baby number 2 was 152 pounds. now, a year and a half after the birth of our second child, i weigh about 13 more pounds than i did the day we were married, when i was at my *thinnest.* today, i am stronger than ever before. in may, i completed my first half marathon (something i NEVER could have done when i weighed 135 pounds.) i’ve run over 500 miles in the past year. i’m currently training for another 13.1 mile race, and i’m working towards a 200 mile, 10 person relay. while i don’t absolutely love the body that i see in the mirror every single day (especially not its stretch marked tummy or “pancake-y” breasts) i stand in awe of what it has accomplished; my body carried two strong, healthy baby boys to 41 weeks and 2 days (each!), it endured two natural childbirths (the first one totaling about 20 hours, with nearly 4 hours of drug free pushing!), it’s nourished and sustained and comforted and carried and protected two amazing little boys who are in love with every single inch of their mama. and, it’s being loved now, by my husband, like it’s thinner self never would have dreamed possible. (my body truly is a wonderland.) as i wait, now, for my third child to come home to us, i realize that there is so much more to the shape of a mother than her outstretched stomach, her rippled thighs, her c-section scar or her wrangled belly button. what’s more important are the marks left, the changes made, inside of her. while i may not be showing, my heart is fully expecting.
I had my little boy july 31, ’08. 2 months after my 21 birthday. He is my world. I appreciate him coming into my life because he saved me from myself. He made me into the best person I can be, and I will always be indebted to him for that! I started out at 140lbs (I’m 5’8) and when I delivered I was 212 pounds! yikes! lol. I have stretch marks~even on the back of my knees!~and my tummy is not tight anymore, but I don’t have any regrets! But that doesn’t mean some days I don’t miss my old body!
Well here goes nothing… My name is Rachel I’m about to be 21 I have 2 wonderful kids A boy that is 3 and a girl 1. I had my son when I was 17 ( yes i was married and got married at 16 ) and i hated my body after I had him and made me feel even worse on the inside when I had to stop breast feeding my son.. he was allergic to my milk and when my breast milk dried up Osaw all I never wanted to see small raisin like boobies….and then my Husband who had been in Iraq got his 2 weeks leave and I never took off my clothing with out the room being pitch black… but in afew months time I went back down from 166lbs to my 120lbs self and that made me happy!
Two years later we made another baby she is now one and im 130lbs and have grown to love my body breast in all… I am who I am a MOM !!! and i love all that comes with it even the slobber kisses an dthe sleepless nights and the dirty nappys.. Muah love to all you other moms you are all beautiful!
View my original entry here.
When my son was born 5 weeks early, with severe IUGR and weighing only 3lbs, I was angry. It was all my body’s fault. I learned not long after submitting my original entry that my heart was struggling with the pregnancy and I had developed pregnancy induced hypertension. My placenta was only 2/3 the size it should have been, because my heart wasn’t pumping adequate blood supply to it. I was hospitalized, medicated, and watched 24 hours a day. I was in danger of a stroke or toxemia.
I lost 25lbs of baby weight in 4 weeks. Breastfeeding for 5 months combined with healthy eating took off another 20lbs. Since then I’ve lost about 5-6lbs more, for a total weight loss of 51lbs since I delivered 8 months ago.
My body is healthier now than it has been in years. I went from a 12 before becoming pregnant to an 8 post-partum, and I’m still slowly losing (in spite of weaning my son – I pumped exclusively for 5 months because he was unable to latch.) It made a baby to the best of its abilities – we couldn’t have known that my heart wouldn’t like pregnancy. After all, I was only 26 years old, no health complications, and I should have been low risk.
It’s hard for me to get to know this new body — it’s smaller, and I feel good physically. I can see changes in my appearance, and I have greater confidence in spite of the breasts that have flattened out (thanks to breastfeeding!) and that crease from hip to hip. I have a love-hate relationship with it — I love that it’s smaller and that I’m wearing a size 8. I hate that it is not good at being pregnant, and that I’m not sure if I can ever have more babies.
It’s a day by day process — I can easily accept the stretchmarks all over my breasts and thighs, but I’m having a harder time with the unknown of what will happen if I try to conceive again. Another pregnancy could be fatal — to the baby, to me, or to both of us. I don’t know the risk yet, but it’s there.
For mommies who grieve the loss of their bodies through pregnancy, try to remember the beauty of your children. You are SO BLESSED. Look back on your uncomplicated pregnancies, your chubby healthy babes, and the exciting potential of more amazing little ones in the future. You have much to celebrate!
Updated here.
My beautiful, rewarding, amazing son was born ten months ago. I wanted him, but had no idea how much my life, including my body would change. Most of the changes are awesome. Sometimes I wonder if I suffer from post part em depression. I see this site and think I am being heartless and selfish for complaining about the way I look. I am just having a difficult time coping. I feel like I do not have the time or motivation to work out. My husband is big into fitness and is always at the gym and eating right. I try to watch what I eat, but sometimes I just give up and feel like I am always going to look like this. My boobs fell, my nipples are enormous, my butt fell,my arms wave that “thing” with the slightest motion, and I still have about fifteen pounds of baby fat left. I am only 22 and when I get the chance to go visit old friends and we are getting dressed for the evening, looking at them hurts. I remember looking like that and I envy their bodies. I want to love my body, but the truth is I don’t…I obsess over my naked body and how I wish it looked. The women on this site are amazing and I hope to gain the kind of hope and confidence they possess. My husband tells me Im beautiful all the time and that he loves how I look. I just get so jealous and hurt even when a Victoria’s Secret commercial comes on. I am secretly hoping he does not notice because I do not want him to see them and wish I looked like that..my son is so worth this pain I feel, I just feel like I am in a slump that I can’t get out of..all i want to do is sleep all day. I love my life, I just don’t enjoy shopping anymore or getting ready to go out..am I cold? Is this normal? Almost a year..I just want to loose the 15 pounds or so..advice please!
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
I recently just had my second child, a precious little girl a couple weeks ago. After I had my first child in 2006, I submitted photos to this site. Now after my second I am sending updated ones. With both pregnancies I gained 30lbs, starting out each time around 130. I am currently down to 145, but it is harder this time to lose the weight. I had a csection with both, so my scar is pretty obvious, but I’m ok with that. I think of it as a “smiley face” where my children came out of. I want to say thanks for this website, it is so amazing!
im a 21 year old mommy to my almost 2 month beautiful baby girl. My fiance and i are thrilled to have her in our lives, though i do not feel at all physically attractive. i was 150 before i got pregnant at 5”6 and though i needed to lose weight, little did i know i was pregnant and would be gaining 60+ lbs over the next 9 months. i also got a lot of stretchmarks, although they didn’t show up till my last month of being pregnant! i was so close! i ended up being two weeks overdue so when she was born she was almost 9 lbs! no wonder i stretched out so much lol.i had to be on bedrest for two months and didn’t get much excersize to do cramping and spotting. at the end of my pregnancy i weighed 216 and now weigh 180, im hoping to get back down to 150 or even less would be nice.i am breastfeeding and i hear that helps, but im not patient at all when it comes to this…i also started working out and tanning last week so i hope it pays off. this is such a great and supportive website to dedicate to women who are all struggling with the same things, and its great to know im not alone. feel free to leave comments or give feedback. congrats to all the mommies and thanx for reading!
the after pics are 6 weeks month post partum and the preggo pics are at about 8 months. my daughters name is chloe and shes 5 weeks in the pic.
When I first Got pregnant at 16, I was completely horrified. I was scared of everthing from baby care to stretch marks. I was 5’4 and 115 pounds. I gained about 17 pounds throught my pregnancy. I was so scared that I was going to be overweight and have stretch marks from head to toe.. but I didn’t get but two tiny half inch stretch marks, one right above my belly button and one right below, and you can hardly notice them. I guess I’m just trying to share my pregnancy experience with other teen moms so they don’t see pregnancy as a bad thing. I lost all the weight and more. And on top of it all, I have a happy heathly baby girl…Lila Mae
