Uncategorized

I’ve got the webspace secured for the move to a better site but I’m hung up on one little detail…

I have done VERY basic web design before, but what with blogging software and etc now I just don’t have the time or energy to put into learning how to design the new site.

I am hoping that someone here could possibly help me. I imagine it will be pretty basic.

At this point I’m not sure what I can pay. I have some limited funds, but nowhere near what I’d pay if I hired someone out of the book.

Please send me an email if you think you could possibly help me!

Thanks!

When I was pregnant with my son I was 19 years old and weighed about 120 pounds. I ended up loosing weight with him in the beginning and gaining it plus some. At the end of the pregnancy I weighed 190 pounds. I lost the weight within days of having him and was back down to my pre pregnancy weight.

With my daughter at 32 years old. I weighed 135 pounds before becoming pregnant with her. At the end of pregnancy I weighed 200 pounds.

This is what I looked like when I was just 4 weeks pregnant with her.

This is what I looked like at 20 weeks. Most of the stretch marks you see are from my son. However, as the pregnancy went on I got tons of new ones and scar tissue from my daugther

Here I am at 29 weeks +

5 days before due date. You can’t see the stetch marks under the painting but they are there. Deep red ones.

This is what my belly looks like now at almost one month PP.

For the first few weeks I could not feel any muscle in my belly area. It was all squishy and weird feeling. However, now 3 weeks out I can flex and move muscle in my belly area again. My belly button is still really far out.

2 days after having my daughter I was out on a walk with my husband and daughter. A woman saw me and asked how old my little girl was. I said two days… She then got a very strange look and said what’s with your belly? I replied.. My daugher is 2 days old. It hasn’t been that long. She then said Oh did you have a C-section or something!? My reply.. “Ahh no… I guess it’s just how my body is now”. She thought I was pregnant and my daughter was older! She’s not the only one who tells me I look like I’m still pregnant! I’ve heard these comments a few times in the last few weeks. These comment started to make me feel bad about my body. Like it was yucky and something was wrong with it.

However, After stopping by the site The Shape of a Mother I felt better about my body and did not feel alone. It’s nice to have a site like this out there to show what real women are like…and hopefully those who made comments to me will see it too someday!

I’ve come to realize in just a few short days that my body is nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed of. This body created two beautiful healthy children and continues to nourish one of them. And that is beautiful!

Lisa (Mama to a beautiful boy and a newborn baby girl!)

I love looking at all the photos and reading the stories from other moms. I feel like its a “home” for me. I have always loved being a mother, but have not always been proud of what it did to my body. I had my first baby when I was 18 and 10 years later I was giving birth to my 4th. I have been pregnant 7 times, 4 live births and 3 miscarriages. My last baby was born May of 2005, and I have had two miscarriages since then. The last occuring this past week. You can still see my linea nigra in the pictures. I have tried to hide my stomach and stretch marks from everyone, now Im putting it out there for everyone to see. Ive carried 7 babies in this belly, some for only a short time, but Im proud of what my body has done.

If you are around, can you drop me an e-mail, please?

Thank you for this website. What a fantastic idea and confidence booster! I’m 25 and my first daughter is now 7 months old. I had hoped to lose the pregnancy weight by now, but I am having a hard time sticking to a healthful diet. I weighed 135 when I got pregnant, and I was happy with my body for the first time in a long time. I weighed 175 when I went into labor, but a lot of it was water weight. I got down to 150 pretty quick, but I’ve just teetered between 145 and 150 ever since. I HATE the way my butt has changed, but I’m thankful that my stretch marks stayed below my belly button, and that my skin isn’t too saggy. I just really want to get rid of those love handles! I wonder how my body will continue to change as I have more babies. But it’s all worth it. I ABSOLUTELY LOVED being pregnant. It was probably the happiest time of my life, and I can’t wait to have another one. I love my daughter with my whole heart, my husband loves my body, and I love my life. In the end, it’s just skin.

These are pictures of me 7 months postpartum.

Just 6 weeks pregnant, obviously not showing

30 weeks pregnant and loving it!

I was happy to discover this site showing what real mommy bodies look like. I am a first time mother to a beautiful daughter. During my pregnancy, I gained 30 pounds (my pre-pregnancy weight was 135 lbs.). I started with just a couple of strech marks around 25 weeks of pregnancy and by the end my belly was covered in “zebra stripes.” I had a normal vaginal delivery. I did no exercises or anything special to lose weight or tone my tummy up after the birth, and you can see the results below. I managed to lose all of my pregnancy weight within a fairly short time – probably through breastfeeding almost exclusively, which burns a lot of calories! But I am left with a soft and wrinkly tummy, still marked, though some of the “stripes” are fading. My belly button is all brown and dark inside thanks to strech marks that crossed it while it was nearly protruding during the pregnancy, and which sank into it when it receded back in. My body will never be the same again, but I am blessed with a healthy, beautiful, and bright baby girl, so I have no complaints. I never was really into wearing bikinis anyway :) Really, it is all well worth it!

37 weeks pregnant:

22 weeks postpartum:

I have always had a poor body image. I hated my body prior to getting pregnant. I had a huge scar on my stomach and always felt like I needed to lose weight and was never happy with my body.

While I was pregnant I had never been happier with my body. I LOVED my body pregnant. I felt so good about myself and I loved the way I looked. I feel like I never looked better than when I was pregnant.

I figured after I delivered my baby I would go back to hating my body and my body would never return to the way it was. I have been lucky and it did go back somewhat to the way it was before (although my C cup breasts are now A’s).

I have to say I think my body is better now that it was prior to my pregnacy I think a large part of that is due to the fact that I learned to acutally love my body while I was pregnant.

Here are 3 photos of me 38 weeks pregnant:

Here I am 12 months post partum

My twins are 4 years old now … I’ll be 24 in September, and after 4 years I STILL can’t stand the look of my stretch marks and sagging breasts. :(

Feeeeeeeet
Originally uploaded by Bhalash.

“Even pregnant women have feet.”

Mariah’s quote cracked me up and I love the angle of the photo. This is from a friend of mine and I wanted to say CONGRATS to her on the birth of her daughter!

These pics are of me just this morning after my shower.

I have two daughters, the first was born very violently in a hospital and the second was born here at home, unassisted.

Before my first I weighed 125 and had sagging breasts due to their size, but they were firm and young and had a bit of perk to them. With my first daughter I weighed 210 the day I had her. It took me over a year to take hte weight off due to many terrible factors. When I got pregnant with daughter 2, I weighed around 145 and had recently ran a marathon. I am not sure how much I weighed when I had her. I am now losing the weight, but the thing I am most embarrassed about is the little pooch in my pubic hairline. THat v-shaped icky fat, but I am working at it and it is less than it was. I am young yet (26) so my skin is still relatively taut. I didn’t get any new stretchmarks from baby2, just a whole lot of new fat in new places. I’ll be down to what I want to be again, of that I am certain. :)

Thanks for doing this site! It’s wonderful!