Update

There is Hope, I am Proof (Jessica)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Second Pregnancy, Submissions, Update 5 Comments

Original entries here and here.

This is my 3rd post. I am currently pregnant with #2 (25 weeks) I want to show you that there is hope and I am proof. I am including some previous pictures and some current pictures of my stretchmarks, because so many people tell you “they will fade”, “give it time” and you just don’t want to hear it. Here is the proof! I hope this reaches the right person.

~Age: 24
~Number of pregnancies and births: 2 pregnancies, 1 birth so far due 3/2010
~The age of your children, or how far postpartum you are: 16 months postpartum and 6.5 months pregnant

Update (Victoria)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Submissions, Update 10 Comments

That was my first post 6months ago.

I am now 20

and 28months Postpartum.

I was in such I hate my body mood when I first posted now I’m much better. The past weekend I brought my first swimmers that are full piece but with bits missing and I actually feel so confindent wearing it and walking around at the beach.

I started to workout and actually make time for it each day. I’ve been working out for 2months or even less but so far I love looking at myself in the mirror. I am now proud of myself. =]

Photo Number 1 is full front. Photo Number 2 is the my side.

Worked hard while pregnant to stay fit, postpartum still stinks! (Jill)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Submissions, Update 14 Comments

after almost a year of trying to get pregnant my husband and i were thrilled to see those two lines. it was so fun to finally be on my way to becoming a mother! i was excited to buy maternity clothes and thought the weight gain and changes wouldn’t be bad. i quickly figured out that, although my husband was excited and ready for when the baby actually came, “we” weren’t pregnant. i was the pregnant one. my body was the one that changed so drastically that i couldn’t even stand to look in the mirror before i jumped into the shower. I’m back into my jeans but there’s definitely that roll over the top of them. looking around it seems like other pregnant girls snap right back to their pre-preggo looks or that they get hardly any stretch marks. i feel like I’m one big stretch mark from my chest to my knees. they’ve hardly faded and i feel so ugly. other women talk about how they’re badges of honor but i see them as the downside of pregnancy. i absolutely love my son and feel like we prayed him into our home but i do wish everyday that i looked better. we plan on having more kids someday and i just feel like what’s the point of trying now to look better when I’m just gonna gain pregnancy weight again. I do pilates 5 days a week and try to eat well and i’m nursing full time but i still feel so fat and ugly. my husband is supportive and i wish i could believe him more. i still remember how embarrassing it was to see everyone right after the baby came and the little kids in the family were asking why my belly was still so fat if the baby was not in my tummy anymore. it’s just hard to feel unlike myself all the time. i LOVE being a mom, my husband and i are sooo happy but i wish i looked and felt better. thanks for this site, it does help some of the time! my little bundle of baby boy helps too:)

age:21
number of pregnancies/births:one! all natural delivery:)
postpartum:16 weeks

Updated here, here and here.

An Update (Dolly)

Bonnie (SOAM) Child Loss, Submissions, Update 12 Comments

A while ago I sent this submission.

I want to thank you for allowing me to share, and for all the comments.
This site was just what I needed…
At that time I wanted nothing more than to talk- but t was so awkward. People seem to avoid talking to me about Chelsea. I now (nearly 3 years later) still like to talk of her. She was real to me and to my husband and other two children. She will always be with us and I include her when people ask how many children I have. I usually say two at home and one in Heaven. I encourage Moms to talk or not- do what you NEED. Your baby happened- it was real embrace your own heart and do’ let others tell you how to grieve or how to recover .
Here is her web page.
I update it yearly.

Thanks again- No longer anonymous

Updated here and here.

Stuck at 156 (Kayla)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Submissions, Update 18 Comments

Previous entries here and here.

I am 11 months pp tomorrow and cant see any changes since my last update! I have been running 4-5 times a week and trying to get to the gym on a regular basis and just cant get past my weight – 156lbs. Running after a crazy 11 month old should do something as well, but nothing! I also cant seem to get my strech marks to fade anymore. Anyone have any tricks? I was hoping that by the time my son turned a year, I would be back to the weight I was this time ago in 2007. I know thats a far strech but im only 16 lbs off! I would looove to get back to my 140lbs, when I loved everything about myself! My son makes all the strech marks and sagging skin worth it every day when he smiles at me in the mornings, but sometimes you just have those days where you hate your body! Id like to think that I dont look as bad as I could, and I try to tell myself that everyday. “It could be worse, Kayla.” I love looking at this site, and getting strength from all you other beautiful mama’s out there! We, without a doubt, have the hardest, and best job in the world!

Updated here.

8 Months PP and love my new body! (Elissa)

Bonnie (SOAM) Before Pregnancy, Belly, Cesarean, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions, Update 30 Comments

My story starts off with trying for 3 years to have a child with my husband and when I finally gave up I had concieved, YAY! I started my weight at 5’6″ 136 pounds. I was a 36-C and had a beautiful body… I had morning sickness until I was 7 months pregnant, EVERY SINGLE DAY! I had very good weight gain until I hit 6 months and and all the sudden I exploded. I can tell you how depressing that can be when people constantly tell you how beautiful you are and how amazing your body is. The attention just wasn’t there anymore and I think all of us can agree that when we took our clothes off and saw our hips, legs, tummy, arms, chins, cheeks and even our toes get bigger it was just depressing! I mostly want to tell you my story because I want everyone to know that it can be done, it’s hard but it can be done…

I had a hard pregnancy being sick for 7 months and then after that was all over I had horrible contractions that kept me from being very active by the time I was finished with my morning sickness. I started having pains in my lower stomach and come to find out I was going into preterm labor. That is a very scary thing to have to go through and they suggested I stay in bed for 5 weeks, untill I hit the 37 week point. They did an ultrasound and told me that either I hid my baby well or she was very small…I had a thought in my head even though no one told me to do so but figured if they were telling me earlier in my pregnancy that the more I gained the bigger the baby would be. So I ATE AND ATE AND ATE AND ATE hoping that if my baby arrived early she would have some extra weight on her. My daughter was born at 38 weeks and 3 days via emergency c-section. She was an extremely healthy, beautiful, alert 7 pound 10.8 oz baby girl…before we went in I had weighed an amazing 196 pounds I lost 17 pounds at her birth and I stayed at 178 pounds for about 6 weeks. I decided this wasn’t working for me and I WAS going to lose the weight because I had a bunch of skinny sisters joking around with me calling me fatty because that’s just the kind of family we are. I wanted to prove to them I could do it and I started to eat healthy, I cut out all liquids other than water. Juice was my big problem, I never realized how many calories were in a cup of juice and I had literally been drinking 92 oz a day. Breastfeeding was making me thirsty!!! If I couldn’t eat and I forgot to eat due to hacing to feed the baby, change the baby, give the baby my full attention I stopped losing weight…You have to eat in order to lose your baby weight. I use to forget to eat before I had her and I would drop weight like crazy but now I have to make an effort to eat 3 small healthy meals a day with two healthy snacks in order to lose anything. My daughter loves to go on walks, it’s her “alone time” and that doesn’t bother me because I get some what of a workout doing it. I am not a fanatic about working out and I do it now to get my muscle tone back, but it’s about 10-15 minutes a day lifting 5 pounds weights and strapping the 5 pounds to my legs and doing leg lifts.

I want to tell you that I have lost 56 pounds and my daughter will be 8 months tomorrow. My breast due to breastfeeding are still bigger than they would have been but that will go away when I am done. I encourage those of you that can to breastfeed because not only is it the best thing for your child but it burns 500 calories a day. I don’t care what people say it does or it doesn’t…When my daughter would go through her growth spurts I would lose a ton of weight and my uterus would shrink a lot. Every month I made an extra effort not to give into my period cravings and every month during that time I dropped 5 pounds. I have not lost weight like other women do, a pound a week, no…It takes me a whole month of eating well and waiting for my period to come and go to drop the 5 pounds and within that week, every day I will drop a pound a day. I also can tell you I had a horrible csection scar and it is fading drastically with the cream I cover it in over night…It’s from bath and body works it is called, “Lay it on thick” I did not get a ton of stretch marks but I did get some and the ones I got I put this cream on and it took them away, you can barely see them. I also used it while I was pregnant and I believe that is the reason I didn’t get any of them. I hope this story helps others who are sturggling because I was there. It’s taken me 8 long months of eating right to come this close. I still have 5 pounds left and while I realize my body will never be as tight as it was I love every minute of what I’ve got. My body carried a life and was able to create a life that has made mine so much better. For all you mothers who don’t know what you’ve done, you are amazing and you’re beautiful no matter what! Good luck to everyone and congrats on the lives that you’ve created!!

I hope you all enjoy the pictures, as you can see through them I got to be quite big and now I’m back to the old me, so don’t get down, it will come off, for some of you easily for others like me, it will take a little bit of work but you can do it!

Updated here and here.

Baby got bigger, I got smaller -update from previous entry (Anonymous)

Bonnie (SOAM) Belly, Breasts, Cesarean, Postpartum, Submissions, Third Pregnancy, Update 16 Comments

Facts: 3 pregnancies, 2 children, 1 cesarean. 2 1/2 years postpartum. Age 27.

Story: I first posted to The Shape of a Mother in an entry in April 2008 entitled “Never Been More Proud“.

I wanted to update because I talked about in that entry how proud I was of my body for the 2 miracles it created, and while that was true and still is true today, back then I really did not like my reflection in the mirror too much. It wasn’t long after that submission that I started working on my outward appearance…not for anyone else, but for MYSELF. To feel better about MYSELF.

And since then I have lost about 60 lbs! There are still some things I would like to work on and my body still definitely looks like a mother’s body, saggy stomach and all. But, I feel better about myself and my body now at this moment in my life than I have in years. No, it’s not perfect, but perfection is an illusion. All I want is to feel the best I can physically and mentally and have good self esteem so that I can raise my children to be happy with their bodies and feel good about themselves. And that is what I have accomplished since my last submission. I feel so good about myself now and am finally, for the first time in a long time, happy with what I see in the mirror. It’s still a work in progress, but as of right now, I feel great. :)

I tried to re-create the same image as in my last submission for comparison.

120109-anon-1

Engaged, Lost and Saggy… (Autumn)

Bonnie (SOAM) Before Pregnancy, Belly, Cesarean, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions, Teen Mom, Update 21 Comments

Hi My name is autumn I am 19 and a mom of a 8 month old son, I also among those of you is a teen mom, I found out I was 2 months Pregnant on my 18th birthday and Had my son a couple months shy of my 19th birthday, I am engaged to my sons father but I still HATE my stomach I feel like he dont want me anymore and im just there because of my strechmarks and my stomach and other areas, I had to have a emergency c-section so I have a scar thats Ugly, I Hate the way I feel and I wanted to post this and see what your comments on my stomach, is it like yours? am I the only one that stomach looks like mine? My strechmarks have faded some they were bad, I gained 75 pounds when I was pregnant, and he weighted 9.5, I went from a size 1 to a size 7 can someone help me? How can I loose it? Is there any hope for me?

I am 19 yr of age
1st pregnancy and 1st child
and my son is 8 months old as of now.

The first picture is before I had My son
The second is when I was 9 months pregnant
and the Last ones are 8 months after haveing him

Updated here.

Missing my darling daughter, 15.5 weeks postpartum (Jillyn)

Bonnie (SOAM) Before Pregnancy, Belly, Breasts, Breech Baby, Child Loss, Complications in Pregnancy, First Pregnancy, Postpartum, Pregnant, Submissions, Update 35 Comments

I have been meaning to take pictures and post on here for quite a while now, but with so much going on, i just haven’t found the inner strength or time.

When i was 20 weeks pregnant with our first child we had our first ultrasound and they found that i didn’t have any amniotic fluid. So a week later i finally had another ultrasound and the specialist fount that our baby had cysts in both their kidneys. He then told us our baby would not live. My husband and i were both devastated, but we decided to continue with the pregnancy and cherish every moment we had left with our child.

When i was about 28.5 weeks pregnant i ended up going to the ER for sever pain in my back. It turned out my kidney was inflamed and my growing uterus was causing it. They told me the only way to solve the problem would be to have our baby. The next day was my husbands college graduation and 2 days after that we were moving so we didn’t induce right away. After we were moved we set up an induction date for 2 weeks later because our 2 year wedding anniversary was going to be a week after we had moved.

They started the induction May 25th 2009 at 8pm when i was 32 weeks pregnant. On May 27th, 2009 at 5:17pm we gave birth to our daughter, Grace Carpi. She was so tiny, so perfect and angelic. The had been a frank breech so her little bum was all bruised, but other than that, she was just amazing. She weighed 2 lbs 14 oz and was 16 inches long. After she was born she tried to take a breath, she tried 6-8 times in the 10 minutes after she was born. But sadly, her lungs were not developed at all, so 10-15 minutes after she was born, she slipped away from us. She never let out a cry, never opened her eyes. The doctor has tried to tell us that she was a stillbirth, but after talking to other professionals and reading medical journals, we feel that our daughter indeed was alive and we will continue to fight for our right of a birth certificate.

I am 5’5″ and was 178 lbs before i was pregnant. I weighed 210-215 at the end of my pregnancy and now, 15.5 weeks postpartum i weigh 204-207 lbs. Because of my depression i feel it will take me a while go get down to my pre-pregnancy weight and even longer to get to my healthy weight (about 130-140 lbs). I got my first stretch mark at either 7w or 11w (i can’t remember) on my inner thigh. I got the ones on my stomach when i was 25 weeks pregnant. I also got more stretch marks on my hips and on my breasts. I went up a cup size during pregnancy, from a B to a C.

The last 15 and 1/2 weeks have been quite an emotional time for my husband and i. Not only did he just graduate from college, we moved, had our wedding adversary, gave birth to our daughter, buried our daughter, had my 22nd birthday, my husband left for orientation for a new job, we had a memorial for our daughter, went to talk to a panel of people at the hospital about receiving a birth certificate, and my husband left for 4 weeks of training for work. And during all of that we were and are still grieving the loss of our little girl. Some say we shouldn’t be a sad because we knew that she was going to die, but that doesn’t matter to us. We still lost our daughter, she still is not with us and we will miss her forever.

I am posting pictures of me before my pregnancy, at 28w 3d, at 32w (with Henna Tattoo from blessing way), pictures of Grace, and then pictures of me 15.5w postpartum and a picture of my first and worst stretch mark on my leg.

Updated here.