Teen Mom

Mommy to Three Boys (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Postpartum, Submissions, Teen Mom, Third Pregnancy 5 Comments

Pregnancies: 3
Age: 20
Months PP: 5 months

I was just barely 16 when I got pregnant with my first son. I was 100 pounds when I got pregnant with him, and gained 50 pounds. My A cups went to C cups and I got stretch marks on my breasts. I had no stretch marks on my belly until a week before my due date. ( I got them on my belly, upper thighs and breasts)I had a wonderful pregnancy and my family was very supportive. Shortly before my graduation from high school I became pregnant with my second son, I was also 100 pounds and gained 35 I believe. He came 5 weeks early and was a tiny guy! He spent only 2 weeks in the NICU. I got married to my wonderful husband in June 2010. I had my third son this past summer at the end of June. I weighed 120 pounds when I became pregnant and gained 32 pounds with him. He is 5 months old, so I am 5 months PP. With my last pregnancy I aquired stretch marks AFTER I had him, down by my knees! This shocked me, because it was like 3 or 4 weeks after I delivered him. All my births were induced with pitocin, and I have never had pain medication with them. I have breastfed all my kids! I have always been able to get back down to my Pre-pregnancy weight within 6 weeks, something I credit to breastfeeding. I always loved to go swimming and loved to buy and wear swimsuits before I got pregnant. After having my kids I am more self consious about it, although my husband says that I cant wear a one-piece until I’m 60! I feel so blessed to have my three boys and my awesome husband I just am trying to accept my body the way it is now.

Feel alone, but trying to stay positive. (Sophia)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Cesarean, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Submissions, Teen Mom 17 Comments

Its been 4 months since i had my baby boy , hes my everything my whole world, But i cant help feeling so upset about my body now and could really use somone to talk to, Im 18 years old and had my boy by c section its left me whole body in a state i feel disgusting, i look at other mothers and see that i look the worst out of any of them and i just wonder if i will ever look okish again, I am no longer with my babys dad and i just wonder if anyone could ever love somone who looks so hideous, I plaster my face in make up and have hair extensions just to make some part of me look decent at all, i used to be so outgoing but now i just think people are staring and i get so worried about it, I just want to feel confident again. I love my little boy and i wouldnt change a thing, just want to feel happy in my own skin and not want to be desprate for surgery. :(

Mother of one

Getting There Finally! (Heidi)

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

Previous post here.

19 years old
1 pregnancy, 1 birth
9.5 months PP

When I first wrote back in May, I was really in a rough spot with my weight and self-esteem issues. I still don’t feel I’m at my “ideal” weight, but I do feel a lot better about myself.

My Stats as of 10/31/11:

Height:
5′ 2″ (hasn’t changed a bit, haha!)

High Weight:
157 lbs.

Weight before pregnancy:
134 lbs.

Current Weight:
129 lbs. (whoa!)

Goal Weight:
110 lbs.

I feel amazing. My self-confidence definitely has boosted a bit, as has my overall mood. I’m still breastfeeding, but mostly pumping, because my son will just NOT sit still long enough to nurse. And he BITES now. Major ouch. Little guy has 4 teeth, has been crawling for awhile, and is cruising and standing very well, but he still isn’t confident enough to walk. I’ll be in trouble when he can though!

Don’t lose hope ladies, it can be done. I finally got off my butt and started exercising and keeping track of what I ate, and the weight started to come off. A couple months ago, I’d down 4 of the huge KitKat bars (the one that is 3 normal KitKats in one) and think nothing of it. That was pretty much the same as eating about 4 Big Macs (calorie-wise) and I didn’t even notice or care! And I ate more on top of that, KitKats were just a snack. Thinking of it now disgusts me, but I can’t say I don’t still crave tons of chocolate. I’m a chocoholic, and it’s made losing weight a challenge, but I use a calorie tracker, and only eat chocolate in moderation, so I’m usually pretty good about it. I also stopped drinking pretty much everything except water. Occasionally, I’ll have a diet soda or some juice, but I’ve noticed nothing really quenches my thirst like water does.

Oh, and I realized in my previous post, it mentioned my wedding date of Nov 12th. Lol, we changed that, we’re not getting married until sometime next year (hopefully!), things have gotten rough financially. He thinks I look great, btw. I still feel I need some work, but I won’t deny I’m looking okay these days.

Time for pictures! I know a lot of ladies are interested in tummies, I know I am lol. I’m striving for as slim as I can get my tummy, but still tons of work to do there!

1st pic: Full body 9.5 months PP (kinda standing on the toilet lol)
2nd pic: Laying down tummy tum tum 9.5 months PP
3rd pic: Standing up tummy tum tum
4th pic: My fiance and I at a Halloween party
5th pic: My (little) big guy Ruskin
6th pic: What I look like clothed (standing on the toilet again, I’m short!)
7th pic: My little panda dude
8th pic: My happy family (well, I look happy, haha)

Happy Halloween everyone! Stay Strong, you’re all beautiful! xoxo

Three Boys (Ashley)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions, Teen Mom, Third Pregnancy 5 Comments

I’m a 26 yr old mother too soon to be three boys. I weighted 96lbs before I got pregnant at 19 and I’m 4’11. I gained 55lbs with my first son Corbyn who is 6 now and he weighted 7lbs 9 oz and was 20 3/4 in long. After him it took a year but I lost down to 92lbs I didn’t work out it just came off from working and from stress and yes I had skin hanging and stretch marks that stayed from the middle of my calf’s to the top of my breasts and yes everywhere in between there even to my crotch. I had my second son Jake at 24 who now is 2 I weighted 102lbs when I got pregnant with him and gained 44lbs with him he weighted 6lbs 11oz and was 21 3/4 in long. I only lost 20 pounds from his pregnancy and everything was still left from the first pregnancy meaning stretch marks and skin. They both were vaginal deliveries and I have noticed the damage it has made too my body but you know what I wouldn’t change any of it and really the only thing that bothers me every now and again is the extra skin only because its hard to find jeans. I love my boys and its all worth it even the sagging breast :) I’m now 34 weeks pregnant with my third boy and I have gained 20lbs so far due to GD I probably would have gained more but I’m on the GD diet and don’t want to take insulin so I’m sticking too it :) Ladies there is no shame in the way our bodies look we are mothers and that is a beautiful gift some women would give anything to look like us just to have the beautiful baby that comes with it remember that !!!

My Story (Anonymous)

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

Pregnancies : 1
Age:19.

I had a beautiful baby girl almost three months ago and I am so happy with my life besides one thing…my body. P re-pregnancy I weighed 130 pounds but it looked more like 120 and I am 5’3 I had very toned abs smaller hips and a 34 C bra size. I gained 30 pounds during my pregnancy so that put me at 160 and I was perfectly fine with that. My baby weighed 8lbs 4.4 oz so I was glad that she was healthy. When I said I was perfectly fine with that I mean that I felt good about it except for when it came to my husband. He hardly looked at me once my belly started getting big and if he did look at me it was only at my chest. After my baby I lost all of the weight I gained within 2 weeks and I think that was because of breast feeding. So, I am back down to actually 128 pounds and left with a bra size of in between a D and a DD and stretchmarks on my belly, boobs, butt, and upper thighs. I am so dissatisfied with my stretchmarks and I think it is because my husband doesn’t look at me the same…or is it all in my head? My hips also got wider throughout my pregnancy and haven’t gone down any. I know that some women say stretchmarks are your mommy badge but that’s not the way I feel which is weird because when I see other women with them I think nothing of it. I just hope that I can someday love my body again. Even if I don’t my daughter will always be worth it no matter what.

Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful (Sia)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Submissions, Teen Mom, Update 6 Comments

Most recent post here.

age: 18
months pp: 15 months (WOW time sure does fly!)
weight: 96 pounds

Hello again lovely ladies! This is my last update on SOAM, again I would like to say how much this website has helped me through my struggles with my pp body! All of you woman are amazing and wonderful in your own way!

I have finally reached my pre pregnacy weight! Even though my scale says the same weight, my body is still never going to be the same. And I would not have it any other way. My daughter and I have both grown tremendously. I love the life I live and love my body just as much. Being a single mother isnt always easy, but being a mother in general is the greatest gift god has ever given me. Every day is a blessing with my beautiful little girl. I have lost all my baby weight, but I still sag non the less. haha and to my miss fortune, losing the baby weight has made me lose my breasts. I have always had a flat chest but after having Kennedy, I had the boobs I had never had before. Annndddd now they are gone once more :( oh well I guess boobs were never supposed to be in my cards. At least I save 10 bucks on bras by being able to buy them in the little girls section instead of the juniors/womans. Always a bright side to everything!! I am not going to go on a rant, as I have in my past posts. The only message I have from this post is to love your body, not matter what size and shape.I realized how much time I wasted on wishing I was thinner. Because when I look back, I dont think about how much I hated the way I looked, I think about how my daughter has grown and how smart she has become and how beautiful she is growing up to be. Be your own kind of beautiful, because we are all beautiful! Every woman is, wheather they have bared a child or not. Our bodies dont define how beautiful we are. Nor does our weight. WE ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL. Ok so I went on a little rant ;) thanks for reading!!

The beauty of my twin shaped body. (Stephanie M)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions, Teen Mom, Twins 7 Comments

This was my first pregnancy and I was 19. I had complication after complication. First I ended up in the hospital at 8 weeks because they thought I was miscarrying, only to find out I had been blessed with not one baby, but two! Now before 19, I was a runner and in shape. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect body if I tried (sorry if that sounds like bragging..), and when I found out I was pregnant, I was terrified. In my mind I was going to be the size of a house with one baby growing in my belly, so what would two do to me?! But then I just started to grow, normally. I didn’t get too big too fast, or so I thought (looking back at the pictures I really did.. haha). But I was so sick throughout the entire pregnancy that because I would step on the scale and have lost weight, I didn’t really notice. As time went by, at around 20 weeks, I started to notice that my normal clothes didn’t fit anymore, but hey – that was normal. Then by 25 weeks, my maternity clothes didn’t fit anymore. By the time I was 30+ weeks, I wasn’t going outside much because I was so big it was hard to move around, so I just stayed in and wore PJ pants and night gowns all the time. My strangest memory was going out at Christmas time, which was 12 weeks before I had my boys, and buying a shirt that was sized 2X, and two weeks later, I didn’t have a hope or prayer that it would fit me. So, skipping the last few weeks until I was 36 weeks pregnant. It was about 2am and I was in the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t breathe, I was pretty well not functioning. So off to the hospital we went. After a few hours of testing, I found out that I was severely anemic, and if I didn’t get a blood transfusion right away, I could die during my c-section. (For those of you who don’t know much about anemia, your blood iron levels [hemoglobin] are supposed to be around 140-150, mine was at 68. When you go into a surgery it drops down 20-30 more, and around the 40 mark is where you drop into a coma. Oh yea, super fun hey?) So that was 3 days spent in the hospital, but then I was good, I was ready to go. And I felt great! So two and a half weeks later, on March 16th, 2011 (just 3 days after my 20th birthday), I went in at 6am to be prepped and have my boys. At this point I was still super disappointed I had to do the c-section and didn’t get to do it natural, because I was told I could have gotten back to a workout routine sooner with a natural birth.. but oh well, it had to happen for their safety and hey, I still had breast feeding to help me lose weight! Well, that didn’t work out either.Come to find out that because of my anemia and a few complications with the surgery, I was left unable to breast feed. So there went that idea. But I made it through all of that, and I had two gorgeous little men to show for it. Dominic Gerald Michael Peddle-McLeod born at 8:40am at 6pounds 9ounces, and James Ronald Alexander Peddle-McLeod born at 8:41am at 7pounds 14ounces.

Now, I am 6 1/2 months PP, and still working on getting this body back to normal. Some days are a sad struggle, wishing I was what I used to be, but then I remember what came out of it, and I’m alright again.

picture order.
1 – 12 weeks pregnant.
2 – 18 weeks pregnant.
3 – 26 weeks pregnant.
4 – 37 weeks pregnant.
5 – 38 weeks pregnant.
6 – about 8 hours after birth, my two boys.
7 – my boys now, at 6 months.
8 – me now at 6 months PP.

Obsessed with this jelly belly (B.J.)

Bonnie (SOAM) African American, Belly, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Submissions, Teen Mom 13 Comments

I’ve struggled with my weight since I was 9.At one point in time I even became anorexic. I’ve always been one to exercise and diet to stay in shape. In high school I had a really nice body, and for once I was kind of proud of it. But at the age of 16 I got pregnant and gave birth to my son in June of 2009. I lost all of the weight really fast but my stomach is saggy and stretched with stretch marks. I can’t wear a bikini and though with clothes on my body looks fine, I try not to look at myself in the mirror with clothes off. I’m getting married in December and my fiance’ has never seen me with my clothes off. I’ve told him about this dilemma and he assures me its not that big of a deal but he hasn’t seen it yet so I’m like how can he say its not a big deal? I don’t even wanna take my shirt off around him. I’ve been dieting and exercising and though the rest of my body is in shape my stomach is so ugly. I’ve been using creams and everything but the results are limited. I emailed pictures to doctors and they tell me only a tummy tuck will fix my tummy and no amount of dieting or exercise will give me significant results. I just want my husband to think of me as beautiful when he finally sees whats underneath but I doubt he can if I can”t even look myself in the mirror.

Age:19
Number of pregnancies and childbirths:1
Age of child: 2 years
Postpartum: 2 years

How can I love my new body? (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Before Pregnancy, First Pregnancy, Legs, Postpartum, Submissions, Teen Mom, Update 11 Comments

~Age:17
~Number of pregnancies and births:1
~The age of your children, or how far postpartum you are: 4 monnths PP

I got pregnant at 16 with a beautiful baby boy. hes my world.. before getting pregnant I weighed 115 pounds and I am 5″6. wasnt fat looking just normal size. After i had my son i was breastfeeding for about 2 months. I liked it but i was so busy taking care of him and everything and he was very colicy i had to stop at 2 months. I never ate hardly anything due to always cleaning and stuff when he slept which was a bad idea.. now i currently weigh 98 pounds. i had some stretch marks before pregnancy on my upper legs and outter lower legs around my knees.. due to growth spurt and gaining alittle weight when my dad died. now i have them on my butt,boobs,stomach,behind my knees,calfs,and lots on my inner legs.. if i didnt have these stretch marks i would be so happy… i try bio oil,cocoa butter, bio lotions, baby oil, vitamin e oil , etc… i will continue using bio oil to say i atleast tried hard… but i really wish they would go away!! i look at them all the time… they make me really upset and cry sometimes. i also use a dermaroller on them… it hurts but its worth it.. i find it made them look alittle better. my boyfriend and i always argue he says they “arent that bad” but they are!! they are ALL over my inner legs.. and i really want to wear shorts.. *sigh*

Updated here.

(Misty)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Cesarean, Cesarean Scar and/or Incision, Postpartum, Preemie, Submissions, Teen Mom, Third Pregnancy 4 Comments

Age: 29
# of pregnancies: 3
Age of children: 10, 6, 4

There are a few things I have learned these past 10 years about motherhood:
#1. Creating life is the one experience that brings us the closest to God yet can make a women feel the most disconnected from herself.
#2. Things don’t always go the way we hope or plan.
#3. What bothers you at 20 will change when your 25.
#4. There is attraction in flaws and beauty from ashes, intrigue in scars.

I have 3 wonderful children, my 1st pregnancy 10 years ago was EASY! I was 18 going on 19 and felt great, my birth went quick and smooth, it was a vaginal birth, 7 hours of labor and done, lost the weight fast and absolutely no signs on my body (other than being bustier) that I had given birth… I have always been a scrawny girl, small hips and breasts and super thin waist. After my 1st I went back to exactly that. My 2nd pregnancy was tougher, it was 4 years later… I had my little girl 9 weeks early by csection and felt like a failure! Not only did I feel like I let her down for having her early, but I had to have her cut out surgically- needless to say my birth plan went out the window…this pregnancy I got some stretch marks on my hips and breasts and one on my right abdomen… But again I bounced back quick, the marks faded, you couldn’t even hardly see my c/s scar… Then came #3, he was not planned, but perfect! And he was such a great pregnancy, I went to term without any intervention, 2nd c section… I did not breast feed my 3rd, gained the most with him… Took me about a year to get down to my goal weight, but I managed to hang onto bigger breasts :) which was a plus, I have some loose skin on my abdomen, my abs are no longer “defined”, I have a small hernia in my belly button, previous stretch marks etched a little deeper, my nipples are more oval than circles, I have a “Lip” above my c/s scar which I HATE but it won’t go away no matter what I try, I am still petite but I have some curvier breasts and hips (which I happen to like and my husband says my curves drive him crazy)… Some days I feel super confident and sexy and others I feel insecure and wish I could change some things… But no matter what, those three little people were worth it… Every line, every soft spot, every dimple, every sag connects to a place in my heart :) each day I love myself more and more, I am in better shape than before I ever had kids, I eat healthy, workout 5 days a week and love how my body feels womanly :) bring on my 30s I am ready!!