Your Post Baby Body

And for my two cents worth, no one warned me that when I went to get in the shower after I had baby that my tummy would feel all spongy and marshmallow like, it freaked me out!

And I didn't realise how HUGE my boobs would get when my milk came in!

I looked like a train wreck straight after the birth, big saggy tummy, swollen from the c/s and then when my milk came in I looked like I had had breast surgery (imagine DD's stuffed where A's normally live) and they leaked everytime my baby or any baby cried, or I moved, or had a shower or thought "oh he might be waking for a feed soon" Plus my whole tummy was numb and bruised (god knows what they were doing in there, I had bruising from hip to hip and from belly button to vjj).

I think breastfeeding really did help, I could definately feel everything contracting when I was feeding in that first week or so, I also wore my elasticated preggy jeans for the first few weeks as they held everything in. I found after 6 weeks I didn't feel to bad about the way I looked and by 3 months I was back in my pre preggy clothes. I was lucky enough to not get stretch marks so can't help there, but have found that the c/s scar has faded a lot, was red then purple and is now just pink/white line. (I swear by bio oil for that)

I tell first timers to expect to feel like an empty saggy bag of crap that leaks from every hole!!!

Edited by cuppatea

I felt great!! I didnt particularly like being pregnant and I could sleep comfortably once again. What surprised me was that my body didnt change much at all. I was lucky enough not to get stretchies and my tummy was back to pre preg really fast(BF helped too). My boobs however got huge and still are bigger than they were.

I was not expecting to pass huge clots though! I passed one in the shower and didnt know what to do with it- I ended up pushing it down the plug hole with my feet, ewwww!!! sorry if TMI

Everyone told me that Lochia was like a heavy period so when it dwindled away for a week I thought 'sweet it's all over'. So I was not prepared (using pantyliners) when it came back with a vengeance a week later!

Also great fun getting out of the shower clean and then having boobs leak milk all over you and lochia start as well. It was a race to see how quickly I could dry off and get underwear on.

Still got the Linea Nigra (sp?)- Hope that fades soon.

Saggy tum!!! I hated it, have always liked my tummy as it has always been relatively flat - not anymore!!

I could hardly sit or walk for a good week without a bit of discomfort (had 4th degree tear), and the toilet trips were interesting as well.

I missed being pregnant as well! But it was so great being able to finally hold my wee girl!

I think I actually put weight on breastfeeding as I was sooo hungry all the time, and thirsty. People tell you - oh you'll lose weight breastfeeding, but not me!

With my first Baby I didn't really get the squishy tummy I bounced back to just fat not preggers looking. But I still couldn't sleep on my tummy as my bloody boobs hurt too much.
The next two I got the squishy belly

And breastfeeding did NOT help me either. I stay fat until I stop feeding, then I seem to be able to lose weight easier.
And the bleeding no one told me about that eeewwww.

I hate my saggy tummy...I mean really hate it...(not enough apparently to not give into chocolate cravings mind you! )... but seriously...I had abs before and now there is nothing but flab. It makes me miserable. It's the one type of surgery I would consider!! I loath the way there is a little "apron" Ugh!

Inspite of not breastfeeding my boobs are saggy but at least a good bra can fix that and they're not as bad as they could be.

On the upside...again inspite of not breastfeeding...I lost about 14kg of the 16kg that I put on within around 2-3 weeks of the birth...woot!

The marshmellow tummy immediately after birth was the biggest thing. Oh and the after pains when feeding.

I found that the weight really started to just fall off me after I had been bfing for 6 months. Before that it was just coming off slowly, but then it came quickly - about the same time the boobs started to shrink with the bfing!!

And how your boobs seem to be so saggy and empty after bfing for a while

Edited by aimeejoy

I had fun playing with my jelly tummy afterwards I did find it felt weird though specially after being rock hard my tummy went down about 3 days after I had James as I went to the gym and was still toned while I was pregnant after having I stopped going to the gym so muscle tone turned to fat so I ended up getting bigger and loved my boobs when the milk came in not that the were small before hand they were engorged for about a day so maybe if it was longer I probably would of gotten over it.

Maya wrote: Hi ladies, Time for some more advice from our lovely message board members: what things surprised you about your post baby body? What was it like adjusting to no longer sharing your body with a baby? Did breastfeeding REALLY help you get your shape back faster? Do stretchmarks improve with time? Any other changes you didn't expect? Ta very much! Emma

I stood for the longest time looking in the full length mirror in the bathroom while the shower was running when I went for my post birth shower, staring in disbelief at my belly, it felt so...."weird" I think I cried and said a quiet thank you for the job it had done over the past 10 months. I did that both times. It took a while to get used to not having a baby in there and learning to move like a normal person again.

I missed my hard, fat belly for a long long time, and feeling my baby moving inside me, I missed that as well, although truth be told, I hated, absolutely hated being pregnant. That "missing" feeling surprised me.

My belly went down really quickly and when I left the hospital both times, it had pretty much gone and I just looked like my normal cuddly self.

I still have a sqidgy mummy tummy, the "apron" lol. Yuck, I hae it, but it is there for a reason, I guess.

I never got stretch marks.

I am lighter now than I have been in about 10 years, so being very sick with all day sickness and breastfeeding have definately helped that.

Wow yeah, breastfeeding really helped me lose weight BIG time!

I was surprised how much I wanted to breastfeed, I was surprised how hard it was and I was very surprised that I would be one of the very very small minorty that actually physically couldn't, so I took medication to get milk, and continued to do so for the 10 months I fed Jacob and perservering all that time meant that I had made my body lay down the works to enable me to feed Charlotte all on my own with no drugs !! I am now a mad rabid pro brestfeeder who helps run a support group!!

My boobs nevr changed size, although they have gone from a DD to a C but that is form weight loss, I am now about 25 kgs lighter than my pre preg weight. I don't know what the damge will e, as I am still feeding and intend doing so for a while yet. I'm not expecting them to be too bad, though, as like I said, they haven't grown, lol.

The hormones that make you crazy not dissapearing along withthe lochia and baby belly were a surprise as well, as was the ability to run on so few hours sleep a night and still be semi functional. "you just get used to it" is my mantra.

I didn't expect to feel so utterly in love with my kids and everything else just seen irrelevant at times.. like your single friends latest men drama, etc.