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I've never had kids, but I do know my mom's experience! She had 3 kids (I'm the last) and I was the only one delivered by C-Section. She told me 6 weeks after delivering me she was on the beach in a bikini and no one knew she had just had a kid! She never got stretch marks either. However, she had me when she was 29 so her body was still relitively young and probably helped her bounce back faster. Now that she is 51 she does have a pouch but I think that is more from her weight shifting around as she gets older.
One of my best friends had a kid when she was 20 and she tells me her stomach is covered in stretch marks and she still has a little bit of a belly a year and a half later.
My mom also had 3 kids and she said she was totally flat afterwards. She's got a pouch now in that area, but she's also 63! I have fears of this as well, even though it's years away! The ones I see on TV are usually after having multiples. But I'll see how my sister does - she's due in November and plans on losing it all by my wedding rolls around in March!
Oh I wanted to mention, I think it is pretty genetic how your belly will look after kids. If your mom didn't really get stretch marks and went back to a "normal" belly it is likely you will too.
My sister has 2 kids. (I hope I follow suit when I have kids!)
sis.jpg (42.1 KB, 176 downloads) 1 year old 
That woman had triplets. Mothers of multiples often have much more extra skin than mothers of singletons.
FWIW my belly doesn't look like that. But I'm only on baby#1, so maybe it's coming. I guess I don't really care about "mommy battle scars." Stretchmarks, linea negra, extra skin, C-section scars...they're all just badges that show you were strong enough to accomplish the toughest thing a woman can go through. I'm all about wearing it proudly!!
I posted pics of my belly at the height of my pregnancy and then a year later. I actually posted it at the time because while I was proud of what my belly looked like...I hadn't actually done anything to make it any less flabby than it would have been had I actually tried to tone it. Here's the link for your reference: [Link Removed]
I have extra skin and stretch marks, but they aren't too bad. I definitely looked better before, but my little brookie is worth wearing a one piece for =)
I think if you're in good shape with a somewhat toned belly then post-pregnancy you're still going to look pretty good. I had rolls before.....and they're still here, just a little flabbier and larger. Luckily, my stretch marks have faded and they're not as noticeable as they once were. Sometimes I'm even proud of my battle scars, lol. 
I saw this poor girl on YouTube the other day, and my jaw dropped. This has to be a worse-case scenario.
Just to compare.. this was me at 35 weeks, right before I gave birth (she was early)
And this is 6 months later...
I had a 160 pound weight change that year... 80 on and 80 off. Took about 7 moths to lose all the weight on a serious diet and cardio plan.
Well...there is always the option of a little nip/tuck.
I think that would be my route if 6 months after baby my belly wasn't back to normal. Yes, it's vain, but I can't imagine not having a "bikini stomach".
I have no stretch marks. Lucky, right? Well, I'm still struggling with the pooch, though. This last 10 lbs has been the most stubborn. I swear I drop two, pick up one, drop 0.5... It's painful. My stomach is not beautiful or bikini ready. I had to finally admit I needed a few new clothes for my in between size :(
By next summer I'll be bathing suit ready. But for now I've got to cut myself some slack. On a good day I've got 8 to go...
I have stretch marks, but they don't bother me like I thought they would. I've always had a little pooch, as my FI was so kind to remind me of. I haven't lost all the weight either, need to lose about 10 more.
My mom had 4 of us and had some flab, that she had removed, and struggled with her weight but now her tummy is better looking than mine.
My mom had me when she was in her mid-30s and had a pooch and stretch marks but she had a tummy tuck and breast reduction when I was in middle school.
On the other hand, I had a personal trainer who was in her 40s, had 2 kids and was in better shape than I am!
I didn't get stretch marks until maybe 2 or so days before I gave birth (only 5 days early). They aren't that bad, though. I mean, they are still bright right now, but they do not cover much of my belly. My tummy is definitely pouchy, but I don't think it is that horrible, and I'm only 3.5 weeks out and had an 8.5 pounder! I plan to get back into Pilates, which I did pre-TTC through my last week of pregnancy. Plus, I am already going on short walks and will build up before going back to work @ 12 weeks. I know it will be harder once I am juggling work and loving on the baby, but breastfeeding seems to help so far, and I'm already down ~20/40 (@5'10"...not great but not horrible, and my hubs jokes that a large amount of my weight gain is in my boobs, lol).
PS I saw a new laser treatment on "The Doctors" that really helped tummies post-pregnancy w/o having to go "under" (the knife/anesthesia).
My stomach is not bad; I never had stretch marks, and my pooch is continuing to shrink (3 months out). I still have my linea negra, though, which surprised me because I thought that was supposed to disappear after the baby. Really, though, it's not so bad. It amazes me every day that I fit my daughter into my belly only three months ago!
@Mrs. Spring: I love my linea nigra. It's like a badge of honor... but sadly it's beginning to fade, just as pregnancy is becoming a distant memory. Sigh, what a special time!
@Mrs. Spring: it took my linea nigra about 6 months to go away! I was under the impression it went away fast and was like wtf why is it still here haha
clearly EVERYONESSSS bodies are different. I went back to my pre-pregnancy weight 3 days after having my daughter and it took about a month for my belly to go back to normal, Breastfeeding helps your stomach get smaller faster!
This is good to know, ladies! I'm holding out hope that my linea negra will be fading soon. :)
Well everyone is different. I am 22 and Below my pre pregnancy weight. However, I got stretchmarks like you wouldn;t believe, and my tummy just isn;t the same. I went for walks, used all the oils, and did everything I could to prevent them. My mom got them and so geneteically, I did too! But once you have your baby, you don;t worry about the small stuff. All you have to do is look at your baby in his/her eyes and know that all the stuff just doesn;t matter anymore.
My mom had(has! lol) 4 kids, I am the oldest. She said she was able to wear her pre pregnancy jeans the day she got back from the hospital and had zero stretch marks. Same thing for my brother but she said after my sister (the third baby) It was harder to get into shape and by the time she had the 4th baby there was a "pouch" she was never able to get rid off she was around 29 by that time.
Also thank you for sharing that website! It's crazy how different all the bodies are.
A friend of mine gave birth at 21-22, and she has a picture of herself holding him while at a beach, and her kid can't be more than a few weeks old. Maybe one month at the absolute oldest. And she was completely bikini ready. In fact, she told me she had no stretch marks, and in fact pretty much lost her belly at the hospital after giving birth. I didn't know her then, so I can't confirm that, but if the picture of them a few weeks later is any indication, she wasn't really exaggerating much. Also (and get ready to really hate her here) she wore her size 2 jeans her entire pregnancy. She had a big belly, but carried high enough she could get away with wearing regular jeans and maternity shirts.
However, her sister, who had a baby at 18, got tons of stretch marks, although I think her body shape was mostly back to normal no more than a few months after her baby was born.
My FSIL had a baby last year and it took her about 6 months to lose the baby weight. She still insists her boobs and stomach are not what they used to be, but she looks great to me.
I think it changes based on how many kids you have too. A woman who I used to nanny for was a size 0 after three kids, yet, with her fourth kid went up to a size 4 (several years after 4th kid was born) and never did get rid of her belly.
Seems like a total crapshoot what will happen. I agree genetics can play a big role, but like I wrote in the beginning, two sisters had way different experiences with pregnancy. I think the above poster had it right- they're not stretch marks, they're battle scars! (And they could always be surgically fixed!).
After watching both of those youtube videos again, I'd like to say that how much weight you gain during your pregnancy plays an enormous role in how your body will respond to the pregnancy. If you gain 4 stone (55lbs-ish) then you will get lots of stretchmarks and extra skin. Pregnancy or not, radical weight gain has consequences. So eat well during pregnancy, exercise if you can, and try not to down the entire package of oreo cookies.
After 4 months, my belly is looking toned again, although the stretchmarks are still there, just faded to skin color. I have a small pooch, but it was there pre-pregnancy and is actually smaller now. BFing is really helping, I haven't worked out at all and it's just melting off me. And thank goodness, because I didn't follow any of the above advice at all when I was pregnant and I gained quite a bit!
@Tatum: Just because two sisters were different doesn;t make them not genetic factors. It just means one sister inherited the gene while the other did not.
@MightySapphire: I followed it all, excerised, ate well, drank a ton of water, and used the cocoa butter, bio oil, and vitamin e oil. I gained 43 lbs, but that was just water weight, and I could not for the life of me help it. I had stretch marks in my pre teen years, and thats a good indication of whether or not you will get them. Every doctor will tell you that it is genetics. And I still got stretch marks on my tummy.
Okay, Christina, my point was you can't entirely guess on how you will fare based on how your mother or sister fared.
Again, a sidenote, but cocoa butter is actually to help reduce the appearance of stretchmarks after you get them. So many products are underhandedly advertised to prevent stretchmarks, but it has been shown time and time again that NOTHING will stop the stretchmarks except not gaining the weight in the first place. And since there is a growing baby in there, you can't help that. So just try to treat yourself right as best you can, and much of the trauma your body goes through will either fade or go away. Only in extreme cases do you have to worry about crazy tummy.
(PS-Did y'all see Kate Gosselin on the cover of People this week? My only thoughts were: "Airbrushed/photoshopped, and SURGERY!")
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Ok, I know this might sound totally vain, but I'm worried about what my stomach will be like after having a baby (not pregnant or TTC yet, though). There's a website where women can post their stories and photos called www.theshapeofamother.com. One of the women who posted also posted a video. It has me wondering how typical these women are, and whether the belly ever gets better! So... how was it for those of you who've had babies?