Well, the title says it all. I had my baby nearly a year ago but my belly is still so huge that people presume I'm pg virtually every time I leave the house. At full-term, my waist measured 45" and it's now 40-41", so it's hardly gone down. I am currently a dress size 14 (and hoping to get back to my usual 10-12), but my stomach is a size 22, which means I can only fit in pg clothes, as the clothes that can fit around my huge belly are ridiculously oversized on the rest of me. I can't even wear spanx because of the same problem (too loose everywhere else to stay on!).
I have been checked several times and it's not a diastasis recti; HCPs just all agree that I'm 'very unlucky', because my muscles and skin have stretched so badly that they're buggered, basically. I can't make my stomach muscles contract any more, so I can't suck it in or do exercises. No-one can explain why they won't obey signals from my brain! The top half of my tum, up to my bust feels hard and domed, but the lower half is just a mass of sagging muscle and skin, which folds over like a huge thick apron. Sometimes when I wear dresses, the fabric gets caught up under the fold of my belly, which is so humiliating. I did put a lot of weight on during my pg, as was very ill and either in hospital or bed bound/house bound for the last 4-5 months, but I only have 2 stone left to lose and my GP agrees that my tum is vastly disproportionate to the rest of me and doesn't really understand why it's not gone down.
It's making me really depressed and self-conscious. Last week, I went to a new baby group and every single person I spoke to, without exception, commented on my 'bump'. I actually started crying after about the tenth person asked me when it was due. But I really do look heavily pg. Even my own friends and family who I only see infrequently, forget and do stuff like grab hold of my tum and ask me if I have a secret to tell them, etc. I have always been very into fashion and did have a decent figure and looking so disgusting is making me cry every day. I don't wear a single item I would wear if I had a choice and I look like Humpty Dumpty in everything too.
The worst thing of all about people presuming I'm pg is that I had a terrible pg with such drastic problems that I cannot have another child, so it is like a knife in my heart when people ask me how far gone I am, etc.
I'm still Bfing so can't diet and still have terrible SPD (which was the least of my pg problems, believe it or not), so exercising is also v difficult, although I go for a walk with baby every day,and eat sensibly. I don't drink and don't have a sweet tooth. As it's barely reduced so far, Dr doesn't think it will go down if I lose more weight anyway. I tried binding my belly but it did nothing. Am just wondering if anyone knows of any exercises or specialists or anything that helped them or others? Am getting desperately unhappy. Can't bear the thought of looking 6 months pg forever.
Sorry it's such an essay. I really needed a moan, sorry.