September 2012 Moms
BillyMollyEmmy
member
Second time moms, tell me how you felt about your body, post baby.
BillyMollyEmmy
member
I'm trying to prepare myself for how I will look after I give birth. I have gained a lot of weight. I have no stretch marks on my belly, yet, but I do on my breasts.
I'm wondering how you all felt the first time you saw yourself after giving birth. Was it what you expected? Did you think you'd feel better about yourself? Worse? And how do you feel now?
Of course, when I got pregnant, I knew that there was a huge chance my body would permanently change, so I'm not trying to sound as if I thought I'd magically pop out a baby and be back to my old self in a week. But I am worried that I'm going to feel as if my body doesn't belong to me, post baby. If that makes sense?
Me: 27 DH: 28
Diagnosis: PCOS, irregular cycles, old lady eggs. DH is fine.
Started TTC in January 2010. BFP December 25, 2011 between IF appts.
DD born August 31, 2012
Began TTC again in Jan. 2013.
Four rounds of Clomid - BFN
Fifth round of Clomid September/Oct - cancelled
HSG scheduled for Oct. 30 - Tubes all clear
December: Round one of Femara - BFN
Round two - ?
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Re: Second time moms, tell me how you felt about your body, post baby.
I felt good about myself after the baby, for the most part, but I went in with realistic expectations. I gained 50 pounds (while on the GD diet, so it wasn't like I oinked out). I wasn't going to be one of those women who walked out of the hospital in my size 26 pre pregnancy jeans. So with realistic expectations, I felt about like I thought I would. My belly was still puffy, my legs and butt were thicker than when I started, but they'd get better. As soon as I was able to exercise, I did, and that *really* helped me to have a more positive view of my body.
Don't expect you'll ever look JUST like you did pre-pregnancy. Some women do, and that's great, but I found that even after doing the 30 Day Shred and losing the last of the baby weight, some things were just different. My hips never got as small as they once were. Meh. It was my "new" body, and it belonged to me just as much as my pre-baby one did - it had worked its ass off to give me a kid!
(read it. you know you want to.)
anderson . september 2008
vivian . february 2010
mabel . august 2012
RIGHT after birth? ha - my stomach was a jello mold - so jiggly, it was so uncomfortable. I was so bloated from the saline solution they pumped into me, I was uncomfortable overall.
It took me about 6 months to fit back in my PP clothes and my hips stayed a bit wider. Your body may change, it may not. But the best way to feel good about what you have is to make sure you're keeping your body in the best shape you can, eat right, exercise...you'll feel great.
Afterwrds i looked like i was 4-5 months pregnant for a good couple of weeks, takes a while for the ute to shrink back down. Other than that, the only killer was that none of my pants fit, even when I lost the weight, because my hips had gotten wider...OH and when i stopped BFing, pretty sure my boobs were smaller than thier orginal tiny size, which sucked. But other than that, eh i knew I would have a lil belly flab, but I also knew if I really wanted to get rid of it I could, but just wasnt as important anymore once I had the lil guy to coo over and take care of.
*side note I still take care of myself, i havent like let myself go, but my attn is centered around him and not me as much anymore, if that makes sense?
POS+April 2009-M/c May 2009, POS+July 2009-M/c Aug 2009, POS+ Novemeber 2009 -Baby Boy Charlie DOB 07/06/2010, POS+July 2011-M/c and D&C Aug 2011, POS+Dec 2011 -Baby Boy Ethan DOB 07/27/2012, POS+Aug 2013-TWIN BOYS! Jack and Miles born March 23rd 2014!!
I wish that I never looked at my stomach after delivering but curiosity got the best of me. I was super grossed out by my loose belly. But that's where the Belly Bandit came in handy. I slapped that thing on and wore it 24/7 for the first six weeks. Out of sight, out of mind
My stomach ended up bouncing back okay but I don't think it will be pretty this time. I need to keep up on the abs.
I was lucky since I only gained 22lbs I walked out of the hospital up only 7lbs which was easy to shed with nursing--I was lucky in that department too as I burned crazy calories the entire time. So overall I ended up with the same body after DD as I did before I got pregnant. ::ducks from all the objects being thrown at me::
I felt the worst about my body when I was done nursing. My boobs shrunk to small, flabby A's and I couldn't stand to look at them. I got KU the month after I weaned DD so the girls filled up again but I'm not looking forward to them deflating again. I have a great referral to a plastic surgeon who will be perking the girls up once I'm done popping out babies. Can't wait.
I brought regular clothes with me to the hospital. Don't be an idiot like me. LOL! It's not like it magically goes down! It takes time. For the first few months I was so tried, delirious and focused on baby I didn't care. But, for me... I breastfed which helped with weight loss. After baby, I actually got down to my lowest weight in probably over 10 years... and I felt better about my body than I had in a long time. Needless to say, I was not a size 2 before getting pregnant... so everyone is going to be different on how their body changes and adjusts.
I felt awful pp. But, my experiece was different from most since I had pp pre-e and severe pitted edema. i gained 32 pounds the last 4 weeks of pregnancy and kept gaining after she was born b/c of the edema. 10 days aftr she was born I was back in the hospital on diarectics to take care of the edema and on bp meds b/c my bp was up to 220/160. It was nasty.
However, a week after that I had lost all of my pregnancy weight thanks to the diaretics and felt great! My belly was still jiggly but it had always been so. lol.
I felt pretty good actually. I left the hospital still looking 6 months pregnant [normal] and my stomach slowly shrank in the following weeks. When I went back to work at 6 weeks postpartum I still looked around 4 months pregnant. Without working out [at all, because I'm lazy lol] It took my stomach around 8-10 months to gradually shrink back to what it mostly was, minus the stretch marks and a little bit of extra squish. The stretch marks faded from red to white fairly quickly. Overall I was fairly happy with how my body looked after DD2. The only thing I have issues with are my breasts..right now they are marvelous haha but when I'm not pregnant they are a little uhm..I dunno, saggy? Gaining and losing 40lbs in the span of 9 months really did something to the elasticity of them and I'm not crazy about them. That doesn't happen to everyone though, but it was my experience. I am 25 and not ready for breasts that look like this..they bother me enough that I might consider a boob job when I am done having children.
DD2 October 2010
DS September 2012
Actually, these responses are making me feel 100% better!!! I can handle a little extra thigh/hip fat for a few months after. As long as I know there's some hope to getting the semi-old me back, I'm happy. I always had wide hips anyway, I just rock them. If they're wider after, I'll just rock them even more haha.
(Also, I have a HUGE j-lo booty right now. I was feeling down about it but my DH slaps it constantly, so he must like it.)
Right after birth? Saggy bag of jello. I even took a picture so I can look back and cherish that scariness forever. *shivers*
It took 9 months but I did get back to my pre-pregnancy weight, and everything pretty much looked the same as it did before I got pregnant. Hoping that will be the case again.
Carina 12.28.2010 | Aurelia 9.23.12 | Chart - Round 3
I was back to prepregnancy weight in 7 months (gained 50 lbs). I didn't stress too much about my body before I lost the weight because I expected it to take some time.
Then, I dropped an additional 5+ lbs without trying. I actually looked skinny minus a small belly pooch. The biggest change was in how the weight was distributed. My hips shrunk from prepregnancy so I needed a smaller size pants. And my belly still looked flabby/stretched out even after I lost the belly fat. When I stopped nursing, my boobs were so deflated (and I had great boobs prepregnancy-sigh).
It's hard to tell how everything will look after having more babies because I hope to spend more time at the gym firming up (I only had 11 months between pregnancies this time).
It took me forever to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight, but I also didn't do much to help it along. At first, I was irritated at how much my body changed [I went up a size because my hips got too big, and my boobs never shrank back to their original size, which was a cup smaller]. But I got used to it and finally got my butt in gear a year after DS was born.
I will never look like I did in college again, but I'm OK with that. I liked my body after I lost the weight, and things distributed pretty well once I got back down to a comfortable size. This time around, I'll definitely hit the gym sooner instead of being lazy though.
I was surprised that I still looked about 5 months pregnant right after birth - that definitely caught me off guard!
It was pretty depressing struggling to fit into old clothes. I also had a hard time shopping for new clothes b/c while I did lose most of the weight, things just shifted! My hips were wider, my boobs were bigger from BFing, etc. So, I had to re-train my eye to shop for clothes that flattered my new body. For a while, I'd pick out stuff that I liked for the "old" me, then would get into the dressing room & be like, WTF??? It was definitely an adjustment.
However, by a year later, I was more back to the old me & feeling better about myself. THEN I got PG again, lol. Ah well.
I didn't gain a lot of weight, so for me, it was getting used to having a weird deflated looking belly. It still stuck out like I was 3-4m pg, but I didn't have the excuse of growing a baby to explain it.
Yeah, just oddly deflated looking.
BFP #3 via cancelled IUI ~ C (2lb 3oz; HELLP) 5/16/11
BFP #4 via the natural (free!) way ~ E (8lb 11oz) 9/13/12