Submissions

I am 25 and a proud mother of two boys 3-1/2 and 2, I am currently expecting another baby boy. This will be my fourth pregnancy but only my third healthy baby. I am still in the process of getting used to my new body, and this site has helped so much. I have always had body image issues, and have struggled with a silent eating disorder that pregnancy has seemed to intensify. Because no matter how much I eat, or do not eat I can not change the way my body looks to me. With my first pregnancy I weighed about 120-lbs, and had gained 9-lbs. We concieved again about 4 months later and I weighed 129-lbs in the beginning. I told myself I was going to gain as little weight as possible without putting the baby in danger. I ate as healthy as I could and only gained 29 lbs. But I got terrible streatch marks. I gave birth 5 days early to a 9-lb 7-oz healthy baby boy. I was in my regular clothes 3 days after I gave birth. With my third pregnancy it was a completely different story. I had gotten down to 114-lbs after having my son, but I gained weight so much faster with this pregnancy, and had to wear maternity clothes a lot sooner than I had the last time. I ate the same as I had with my second pregnancy, but I gained 37-lbs.I didn’t get any new streatch marks, but it made the ones I had even deeper. My second son was born 2 weeks early and weighed 8-lb, 2-oz. It took me a good month before I could even think about wearing my regular clothes. After that pregnancy my ED became very hard to control. I felt huge, and I got down on myself for putting that much weight on. My breasts lost all of their perkiness, and I went from a 36-C to a 34-A. I had always had small breasts, but I was a normal B. Now I had nothing. We weren’t planning on having any more children, and we had just sorted through all of our baby things, and put them into our garage sale pile. Two weeks later we found out that we were expecting again. We were shocked to say the least, but also very excited. At the beginning of this pregnancy I weighed 123-Lbs, and so far I’ve gained 17-lbs. I am 21 weeks today. My midwife has told me that I’m on course to gain about the same amount of weight that I did with my last pregnancy, and I’m freaking out. I am not in maternity clothes yet, because they are still to big. So I don’t know where I’m gaining the weight at. Probably my Butt!! I am however trying to focus on growing a healthy baby and eating right, not on the weight. But it’s getting to be extremely hard. I just want to add that I am so thanful to all of the brave women who have shared their stories and pictures. It really has helped me see that I am not alone and I am more normal than what the media portrays.

I am now 8 months post partum, but I took these pics back a few months ago and I am 1 size smaller than I was before I got pregnant. Have been since a month after I had my son. I love my son and wouldn’t trade anything for him. I look back and can’t remember a time when I didn’t have him in my husband and my life. We love him very much.

In the summer of 2004, I was happier than I had ever been with my body. I’d gained just over 40 lbs. a few years earlier when I went on Depo Provera. Now, almost 2 years after coming off of it, the extra weight seemed to be melting away before my very eyes. I went from a size 11 to a size 8 in only a few months, and I was STILL shrinking! I could wear ANYTHING I wanted, and I loved to show off my flat tummy and nice legs. On November 7, 2004, I found out that I was pregnant. It was completely unplanned pregnancy, and I was single. About a week later, my size 8 jeans, that had been getting big on me, were suddenly too tight. I took my first pregnancy photo at about 10 weeks, and kept on growing! By the end of my pregnancy, I looked like I was having twins, and I had gained close to 90 lbs. At 220 lbs., I could not believe I’d gotten so big. I’d been eating very healthily all throughout my pregnancy, and while I wasn’t on an exercise routine, I was reasonably active, including working TWO jobs for 6 months of my pregnancy! A week after my beautiful son was born, I’d lost about 20 lbs. I didn’t lose another pound until he was almost 6 months old, and started eating solids. Then, I lost 10 lbs. in less than a week. The next time I lost weight was when I went back to work, when he was 11 months old. Again, I lost 10 lbs. in a week. I did some research, and found a link between Depo, pregnancy, and breastfeeding. That link is Progesterone. It seems that it completely slows down my body’s metabolism, so that nearly every calorie I eat gets turned into fat. My son weaned at 14.5 months, and just this week, my milk supply finally stopped. So now, nearly 2 years after my son was born, I am hoping that my body will start to shrink again. However, there is not much that can be done about the extra skin and stretch marks. Being single, it is hard to feel good about my body right now, and I am lacking in self-confidence. Thankfully, this site is making a HUGE difference to me, as are my bellydancing classes! I hope to one day see my postpartum body as a badge of honour for bringing my perfect little boy into the world. No matter what, he was DEFINITELY worth it!

My name is Erienne and almost 2 years ago I gave birth to my daughter Gentry by C-section. I started my pregnancy at a fit 130lbs and ended it at a heavy 180lbs. Now almost 2 years later I still weight 180lbs. I miss my body, my husband misses my body. It doesnt matter if I eat nothing, I just seem to stay here. I dont want to be a super model but I would like a little tone and definition to myself. I dont have time to really “work out” but I do walk everyday. I work 50-55 hours a week and I have a household to run and a toddler to chase. We are trying to have another baby and the thought of gaining another 50lbs scares the bejesus out of me! I am thankful to know that I am not a freak and that not everyone except me looks like Kelly Ripa after kids. I dont have any pics of my body, but here is a before and after of me.

HI! I am a 21 year old mother of one beautiful baby boy! I love your site so much I come to it everyday to find words of encouragement and to see pictures of REAL women. I got pregnat when I was 19 and It has been one year later since I have had my son. The scariest thing to me was gaining the weight and getting the dreaded stretch marks. I have lost all the baby weight and then some, and it is a great accomplisment for me b/c I have always struggled w/ my weight ( I gained 60 lbs w/ my pregnacy also). These pictures were taken in May 07 on our first family vacation and I am very proud of my marks now and they don’t even bother me now, I thought they would, but they don’t, I finnally feel like a real person b/c my whole life I have struggled w/ REALLY bad self esteem and trying to keep up w/ friends and family who were a size 0. Know I know who I truley am a MOTHER and a WIFE, and a WOMAN and I am so proud of that!!!

I didn’t appreciate how great my body was before I had my baby. The first picture is me aged 22. I am 25 in the second picture, and 38 weeks pregnant, passing the time by decorating my beautiful bump. I felt so feminine and fantastically curvy while I was pregnant, I loved my bump, I didn’t even mind strangers touching it! Now, my baby is 9 weeks old and I am breastfeeding her. I love my full breasts (they increased by 5 cup sizes) and so what if I have a few stretchmarks, they are the signs of the amazing bond I have with my baby as I nourish her with my breastmilk. I didn’t have any stretchmarks on my belly until I went overdue, I just have a few now, but again, I love them and I love the curve of my belly which shows I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl! My husband is amazing, he still thinks I am the sexiest woman on earth, he makes me feel great. I gained 50 pounds in my pregnancy, and 2 months post birth have 14lbs to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. But I;m in no rush, I’m happy if those extra pounds want to stay there while I breastfeed, they are there for a reason.

I submitted photos a few weeks after I had given birth earlier this year, and now here is what I look like now. I was 132lb before I was pregnant, and I gained 30lb with the pregnancy. I now weigh 140, so I only have a few more to go! but let me tell you, I DEFINATELY do not look like I use to. Things are saggier and I now have stretch marks on my hips and thighs. but in the end I think having my little angel was worth all of it!here is me 9mo and a pic of me now 6 months after.

This is my body exactly 3 weeks pp after my second child. Although I have never weighed this much or had this much extra skin, I still feel so privileged to have housed my 2 beautiful children. My husband actually seems to have more respect for my body now than before which makes me feel wonderful and helps me accept my new figure. I am a very lucky woman!

This is how I look just over a year after delivering my twins by c-section. I am still trying to lose all of the weight and the stretch marks are fading, but I have come to accept who I am! My husband still thinks I am as sexy as ever but I don’t see all of that! I love this site…it is such a wonderful place for women to connect and know that there are others out there struggling just like us….