The Belly After Baby

Everyone prepares you for the birth of your baby with stories of excruciating contractions and ugly stretch marks that don't seem to want to go away. But what I learned that no one prepared me for is that after having a baby your belly looks like, well, like you didn't have a baby.

Yes, that's right. For all of you who are pregnant with your first child I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but after I delivered one baby I noticed later that day that they apparently left a baby in there. A week later I was still wondering if there was a baby in there.

Now I wasn't crazy enough to believe that after a baby I'd have a six pack and want to flaunt my belly around. However I just didn't really think that I'd still look pregnant after having a baby. I specifically remember the first time I saw my belly after having my baby. It was about eight or so hours after when I went to shower for the first time (remember I went natural so I was able to move a lot after) and it was then that I noticed I was still huge. I remember taking a shower and thinking "wow, I still look like I'm pregnant. Like I'm about five months pregnant."

I had just assumed that once that big ball of baby came out along with a ton of fluid and that big ole' placenta, that I'd just look kinda-sorta chubby and swollen. I didn't think that there would still be a defined "bump." I even found out later that my younger cousin asked my aunt why I still looked pregnant after she came visit me in the hospital.

But you know what -- when you got, you flaunt it.

I eventually realized I didn't care. I wore my skimpy little nursing tops since they were so convenient and I just put a cardigan on for company. I mean, I had just had a baby; I wasn't supposed to look like I was ready for bikini weather.

So yes, it was devastating to realize how large I still was. And it sucked that no one had really prepared me for it, but that's why I'm writing this. To go ahead and warn you now...that it may happen to you too.

It's worth it though, it really is.