Mum-tums + stretch marks ..

I'm lucky in that I've always been pretty slim. I've always been able to eat what I wanted when I wanted and not have to worry - I'd never gain weight. Which was good, because boy have I always loved junk food. Never one to choose a salad over a pizza, I suppose I didn't set the best example of a particularly 'heathy vegetarian' but a happy vegetarian I was, and still am. 

The difference is, I've now had a baby and a pretty large baby at that!.. Ethan was born weighing 9 lbs 9 ozs and by the end of my pregnancy my stomach resembled a dinosaur egg. I'd gone pretty much most of the way through with no stretch marks on my stomach, but as you can imagine, going from such a tiny frame with no ounce of fat in sight to having this very large baby bump my skin had to do an epic amount of stretching and the stretch marks came out in force. Not only that, but my muscles separated to make room for my growing baby and sadly they have decided that they no longer want to be joined as one and remain apart. That in itself is fine, however after every evening meal, no matter how small a meal it is, I bloat naturally and the stubborn separated muscles now serve to make me look about 20 weeks pregnant. Which, well, sucks. 

I'm not going to lie and tell you that I've been to physio to help correct the problem, because I haven't. I know that I'd go to be told I need to exercise and then be handed a sheet full of exercises that I could have printed myself from the Internet and then never find the time to do said exercises and the whole thing would be a waste of every bodies time. So, the muscles I shall tackle another time (or so I keep telling myself).

The stretch marks have now faded, no longer angry just a largely visible reminder that I grew a very large baby inside of me. But the belly button, oh the belly button.. well what can I say.. it's got a mind of it's own.. definitely no longer classed as an 'innie', no definitely not.. quite the opposite! Lets just say I won't be putting my belly bar back in for quite some time. 

And do I feel sexy? Well, I'm not overweight but I'm no longer as confident. My Husband makes me feel like a million dollars still but I want to feel it myself. No longer do I choose bikinis in the pool, it's now swimsuits all the way I'm afraid. And sexy lingerie? Well, yes I still like to make the effort, though anything that's a bit longer and covers the stomach is much more favourable these days. And with Valentines in a few days I shall be hitting Blossom Lingerie's valentines collection to find something to hopefully make me feel a little bit more special.

And though I know that my body is just a shell and that what is the most important is that I have my healthy little boy. I can't lie - I'm not happy with my stomach, I've put on weight and it's gone straight onto my belly. But it's true, I'm not actively trying to lose weight. I just can't seem to turn down the chocolate and glass of wine after a stressful day. I want to go to the gym, but I'd like to go with my Husband and that's pretty impossible since one of us needs to be home to take care of Ethan. I'm thinking that I might take a look at some exercise blu-rays and perhaps some pilates/yoga videos, but I've never done it or thought about it before in my life so god knows how it'll pan out. Please, if you've ever tried at home videos/dvd's do let me know how it worked out for you.