I am 16 weeks pregnant and already have had major changes occur physically. My breasts have grown an entire cup size and I was already a 36D to begin with. They are uncomfortably large and I assume will only get bigger. I plan on breastfeeding (God willing) so I can only imagine what these puppies will look like this time next year! I also got horrible stretch marks when I went through puberty so my hopes arent high on not getting them through this. I love this little one with all my heart. I am still a woman, however, and cant help but stress over my appearance. I came across this website and truly feel blessed to have done so. What a WONDERFUL place this is. To be able to unabashdley share our thoughts, feelings, even PICTURES of and about our bodies before and during the awesome miracle of motherhood is so very empowering. Yes, our bodies are beautiful. Yes, they are amazing in EVERY sense of the word. No, I will not be ashamed of the changes in my body but rather, I will embrace this new ‘me’. Im going to be a mommy with one heluva mommy body. Thank you all ladies for your encouragment and bravery. In a few more months you will all be seeing a few candid shots of yours truly…..and the little bundle of joy I call my heart…..Theres no question in my mind, now, that it will be worth it. Thank you again ladies. Im so lucky to have found this site!!
Submissions
Lost and Found Pregnancy, 7 Weeks Postpartum (Charity)
Meant To Be: My Pregnancy Story
I’m a 22 year old single mom and I can’t tell you how excited I am! This baby was DEFINITELY unexpected. I knew I was pregnant from day 1, but didn’t find out for sure until the end of January. My boyfriend and I were on a technical ‘break’ at the time, and after I contacted him, we decided that keeping this baby wouldn’t be a good idea. The day of my appointment to end it, I started spotting. I spotted and cramped for 3 days, finally passing a large clot on Valentines Day. A week later I saw my ob/gyn and he felt me up and said that my uterus was small, my cervix closed, and yes, I had probaby passed it.
I was sad, but also sort of relieved that I wouldn’t have to be the one responsible for ending it. I went on birth control and an antidepressant. Two weeks later, my blood pregnancy test came back positive, but my doctor assured me it was probably still reading positive because my hormones were still high when they took my blood.
28 days after beginning my birth control, I didn’t get a period. I waited a week for it… nothing. It took some balls but I finally got a pregnancy test…. positive. I took another one. Positive. I called my doctor, who still stubbornly insisted I had probably had an ‘incomplete miscarriage’. So I scheduled an ultrasound.
I’ll never forget the moment they put the scanner thing on my tummy. Instead of bits and pieces of an incomplete miscarriage… there was a teeny tiny miniature person in there, waving at me frantically. I screamed and started crying. The doctor said I was measuring 13 weeks and 3 days pregnant.
I had the world’s best labor/delivery. I was induced at 39 weeks because of the size of my baby and because his daddy was going out of town the next day. I was in labor for about 7 1/2 hours and pushed through 5 contractions for 12 minutes. Thank god for modern medicine, because I had the epidural and because the baby came so fast, I tore pretty badly.
My boyfriend and I remained close friends through my pregnancy, and once we went through labor together, it pretty much went without saying that we were back together.
I’m 6ft tall (i was a teenage runway model who quit because I was sick of the eating disorders I had to resort to in order to stay under 120lbs) and though I lost 30lbs in the first 4 weeks pp, I am now 7 weeks pp and stuck at 170. My goal is 145 by 6 months pp.
I’m walking 1.5 miles a day and just started doing a 20 minute Pilate dvd, which I’m trying to do on a daily basis as well. I’m a nursing mother, so I can’t cut back on calories too much, but I find just by tracking what I eat, I am eating much less than I was before.
I love being a mommy, and I am proud of my stretch marks. Once I lose this baby weight I’ll be as proud of my body as I was when I was a teenager… except now I’ll be healthy.
I Am Beautiful (Anonymous)
These photos were taken a couple of weeks before my daughter turned two. Actually, as I write this, she will be two years old in less than 24 hours. She is a total blessing, so bright and inquisitive. And I see that being a mother to a little girl who will someday be a woman bears its own weight. The way I see my body will effect how she sees herself. In realizing that, I will try to say I am beautiful and tell her that she is, too.
I posted here before, but now I can’t find any of my posts. I am still breastfeeding and from the way it looks, I think we’ll be going strong for months to come, despite being down to 1-2 sessions a day. I enjoy the closeness and she does, too, obviously. Sometimes she’ll just crawl in my arms and assume the nursing position just to be held close. I am so blessed. So incredibly blessed! And my husband has always been so supportive of breastfeeding. He helped me from day one and he still supports me 110% with extended nursing. I am blown away, amazed, and so, so, thankful.
As far as my body type goes, I carry my weight in my lower body. What you don’t see in these photographs are stretchmarked, cellulite pocked buttocks and thick thighs. But I don’t care. I think I have a lovely figure. Before motherhood, I did not have breasts or hips. I was commonly mistaken for a twelve year old. Today I’m mistaken mostly for a sixteen year old. I think that’s a step up lol. After having my daughter, I threw out all of my size A bras, certain I would follow the path of my sisters and retain my voluptuous breasts, but alas they quickly deflated and now I’ve had to go out and repurchase 34A bras. That’s a warning to everyone out there. I also threw away several size small shirts… that I really liked and now REALLY miss. I wear size 5 jeans. I’m 24 years old, around 5 foot 1 and 3/4, and 125 pounds. I definitely owe any and all weight loss to breastfeeding. I weighed 160 the day my daughter was born, 138 two weeks later, 128 when she was 6 months old. And I’ve yet to buy jogging shoes. That would be a “Do as I say, but not as I do” situation. Do exercise. It’s good for you. I’m just terribly lazy.
Attached are photos of me two weeks ago, and a collage of my pregnancy belly photos.
Updated here.
Learning to Love My Body After 5 C-Sections, Pregnant With #6 – Hopeful VBAC (Stacy)
With my first daughter, conceived at 17, I was not fuller aware of the changes that would take place. I was young, ignorant to nutrition and was raised with horrible eating and activity habits. I gained almost 80 pounds and ended my long labor in a csection. My first daughter is an absolute joy, and in many ways saved my life for sure destruction. I met my husband when she was 3. We conceived about 9 months later. We have created 5 more children together (on in my belly currently), in the past 6 years. My body has undergone quite the toll. Almost continual pregnancies and breastfeeding. I am in awe of what my body is able to handle… I am sure that this most soon come to an end, mostly because I have had 5 csections. I am attempting a VBAC with this pregnancy, and if it goes well, as I have much faith and hope it will, then maybe I will be up for more children, but otherwise I think my body ready to move on to the next stage (whatever that is :) These are some pictures I took. I am currently about 18 weeks pregnant with my 6th and learning a little more each day,each pregnancy, to love and accept my body just the way it is.
12 Weeks After pregnancy #2 (Anonymous)
here is me 12 weeks after my second delivery. i was pregnant with boy/girl twins the first time and sadly we lost our beautiful baby girl 3 weeks after they were born (prematurely). i got pregnant again about 6 weeks after we brought our son home from the hospital. 12 weeks ago i gave birth to a beautiful,healthy full term baby girl. my body isn’t what it was (i was 115 lbs when i started and now i am down to 135) but who cares?! a healthy baby is all that matters…i learned that the hard way…
20 Year Old Mommy (Anonymous)
I am a 20 y/o SAHM of 2 boys and an air force wife. I got pregnant when my husband (boyfriend at the time obviously) were both 16. Our son was born 10/27/05 when we were 17. We got married in June 2007 and started TTC baby #2 in November. After 1 month of TTC, we got a BFP in December. We welcomed our second son into the world on 8/8/08. The first picture is my 12 hour PP picture. The next is 2 weeks PP. The last ones are 3 months PP.
My Body 8 Months PP, Second Child (K)
I have always been a healthy weight but still had to watch what I ate.I was pretty naive and assumed that my body would go back to normal straight after birth. I quit smoking as soon as I found out I was pregnant with my son (my first pregnancy)and the weight just piled on. I gained 20kg by the time I gave birth to him at 41 weeks, I was also covered in stretch marks After having him I managed to get back to my pre pregnancy weight by 6 months post partum but I still had the jelly belly. When he was 11 months old I fell pregnant again. This time I was determined to eat healthily and avoid too much weight gain. I put on 8kg with this pregnancy and had lost all that by 6 weeks pp. Today 8 months later I am actually 7kg lighter than what I was prior to falling pregnant with my first, but I am in no way happy with my body I look at my belly now and I am disgusted. It looks like elephant skin. I am no longer interested in being intimate with my husband because I feel so unattractive. He thinks I am beautiful of course and tells me everyday but I can’t help comparing myself to others who have had kids and bounced back straight away
Updated here.
5 Months Postpartum (Anonymous)
my son is 5 months old and the sweetest little boy ever :) He was totally worth every stretch mark and lb I gained. I would do it all again for him though, just like I’m sure any of us would. I’m getting used to the new body I see when I look in the mirror and I’m starting to be ok with it, but we there’s bad days still.
Body After Four Babies (Anonymous)
I had my first baby at 19, and that’s where I got all my stretch marks. She was 7lb, 14oz and my smallest baby. I started out pregnancy at 150 pounds and was 191 when she was born, in June 2001. My second baby was 9lb, 2oz and was born in August 2004. I started out at 175 pounds and was 210 when I delivered her. My third baby was born in July 2007. She was 9lb, 10oz. I was 190 when I got pregnant and 220 when she was born. My fourth baby (first boy!) was born 9/4/08 and was 8lb, 11oz. I started pregnancy at 211 pounds and was 226 when he was born. As I write this, my babies are 7 years, 4 years, 15 months, and 2 months old. I weigh around 185 pounds. I was alarmed at this rapid weight loss, but the doctor ran blood tests and it turns out all is fine. I chalk it up to great nutritional habits that I developed in my last pregnancy, as well as breastfeeding. (I breastfed all the others well into toddler-hood, but was eating mostly junk and processed foods.) The first picture is me the day before my baby boy was born. I was picking my four year old up from her first day of preschool. I was also in early labor. The next pictures are of me now, 2 months and 2 days after the first picture was taken. I love my body. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. However, it took me years of self-discovery (and self-loathing) to get to this point. I am blessed with an amazing husband who finds me “irresistable” in his words (which may be why we have four children!) and finally, finally the maturity to realize that nothing I do can change who I am, so its useless worrying about it. I can’t change me, so I embrace me, and after years of feeling fat and yucky, I finally love me.
Changing Shape at 21 (Anonymous)
Getting here was a tough road, in more ways than one. Although I am a young mother, my boyfriend and I planned for this baby. We had previously lost two little angels, the first was an early miscarriage while the second loss was discovered at 17 weeks. We were devastated, but it helped us to realize that we were ready to begin this journey together.
Six months after my D&C, we finally conceived our son. For years I had battled with my body, hating it, always trying to improve it, trying to learn to love it. When I got pregnant all of that faded away. I loved my curves, and I often complained about not being big enough to fill out my maternity clothes the “right” way. At 36 weeks I finally developed stretch marks. I had always hoped that I would be one of the “lucky ones” but despite genetics not being on my side, I secretly loved them, too. On May 28th, right on his due date, and after 33 hours of labor, our beautiful bundle appeared and the real journey began.
A friend of mine had her baby about 8 months prior. She was back in her pre-pregnancy clothes, looking great, at three weeks. Being the same age as she, and also breastfeeding, I was sure I would be the lucky one this time around. After having the baby I developed stretch marks on my inner thighs. Thats right, *after* the baby. I no longer loved those little marks. Try as I might, I could not picture them as my battle scars. After a month I still could not even think of fitting into my pre-pregnancy jeans. I was about to return to school, and I frantically bought what I called my “suck in underwear,” horrible afraid that when I walked around campus everyone would see my excess skin start to jiggle.
Along with that, I got post partum [depression?] which took a heavy toll on my relationship with both my son and my boyfriend. I was miserable. I cried every day. Breastfeeding was far more difficult than I had imagined it would be. We developed thrush which remained undiagnosed for three months, and because of the pain, I thought of my nursing relationship more like a punishment. I honestly hated motherhood, hated my relationship, and hated myself. I had wanted this after all the heartache of losing my two daughters, why was I so miserable now?
During the third month, everything changed. I got on medication. I became an avid visitor of this website. I got breastfeeding support. I cannot say I am 100% satisfied with everything about my body (admittingly, I took several pictures for this website, hoping that I could stand or suck in to look better, but I chose to post the first natural pictures that I took) Despite that, I can say that I am truly happy. I am a mother. I LOVE being a mother. I am now nearly 6 months post partem, totally off my medication, and my son is my entire world. It is a shame that it took me this long to stop worrying about every little thing. I am truly saddened that the first two months of my son’s life were wasted while I wallowed in my grief, but I am so thankful that we made it through. I am so much more fulfilled now than I can even express.
One woman commented on another person’s post in this website that this is how we are supposed to look. We aren’t supposed to look like women who haven’t had children. To that woman, I want to say thank you. That single comment changed my entire view. I know that these stretch marks and these curves are a part of me now. For better or worse, they are mine. They ARE my battle scars and battle bumps and battle curves. I still have my days where I am less than thrilled to go walking around in my underwear, but I can say that I am proud to have a mother’s body. I am proud to be a mother.
(The first picture was taken while I was in labor, the next were taken today at 6 months PP)
