Hands up if you're a mum with a flat tum

[DeeLite]

Hands down here.

I'm 9 months post partum with DC1 and really struggling to come to terms with my flabby tummy. My flat tummy was one of the best things about me and now it's gone! Will it be back with time, with hard work or never? I'm prepared to put a bit of hard work into it but not crazy celeb-style starvation.

Never recovered I'm afraid. I had catwalk model-esque tum pre kids but two sections fucked that up. I found it really hard to deal with after my first child. My flat tum, as you have said, was one of my best features.

I have managed , through pilates, to get it down to only a bit of a muffin top these days, but nekkid it is a disaster area. Ach well. I console myself with the fact that, at 35, I am really too old to be flashing my tum or wearing skin tight clothing anyway. Can't say it bothers me anymore, but I do remmeber that feeling.

Hands down. dc3 is 4 months old and I lost the weight really quickly but the flabby tum depresses me. I hate the way it looks like a spare tyre when I sit down after dinner. Otherwise I am slim and tall, not sure how to tone it up or if I'm honest I'm too lazy.

Erm. Can I put my hand up tentatively without making anyone sick?

I did sit-ups as soon as my mw gave me the go ahead and I'm sure that helped enormously. DD was about 3 or 4 weeks old by then.

I'm MoFo's twin

No, you don't make me sick, Bunbaker. You give me hope. I hate sit-ups but will make an effort from now on. In theory, you can do sit-ups while minding the baby / watching TV so there's really no excuse.

The only sense in which my tum is 'flat' is that it resembles a balloon one week post party after most of the air has escaped

I have a pretty flat stomach.
49. 3 children

Arse is a disaster though.

Hands down here

Same as you in that I had a lovely flat stomach pre-DC and I loved it but 2 c-sections have ruined it

I go to the gym 5 times a week, do fairly hardcore abs exercises whilst I am there but it is still flabby and horrible - I have lost 3 1/2 stone so it is better than it was but I am still at least a stone overweight so I live in hope that when I eventually shift this stone, it will be super-flat again

I am very self-conscious about it which is no way to live is it??

My stomach was a washboard after I had ds.

After dd it resembles a deflated balloon.

Pagwatch I read that as you having 49.3 children, having any intact stomach after that many would be a miracle of the highest order.

49.3 children would be impressive. But quite hard on the poor .3.

I found out recently that I have a tilted back (retroverted?) uterus. I did wonder if that was the reason I have always had a flat stomach, even after having DS - it was the first bit of my body to go back into shape. It makes sense to me that having your womb further back would allow it to be hidden better, whereas a normally placed uterus might cause a stomach to protrude.

Any uterus experts out there?

My yoga teacher insists you should do the "plank" position, and its variations, as well as lots and lots of those breathing exercises that exercise your stomach - ideally whilst doing your "clenching" exercises too. She promises me that this is the way to a toned middle.

She also suggests practicising the whole "engaged stomach muscles" (strengthening and tightening, and then relaxing) all the way through the day.

Um, me

Worked hard for it though, both whilst pregnant and afterwards.

I don't want to contradict Bunbaker, but are sit-ups meant to be used with caution? There is a school of thought which suggests that you should work on certain other abdominal muscles before you start sit-ups, in order to close your diastasis (?) - the vertical gap in your abs caused by pregnancy (could be that Bunbaker didn't have much of a gap so wasn't an issue). I think I read all that here.

My stomach is not that bad, my thighs and droopy arse are the areas that concern me most.
My waist is now wider, am still hourglass, but less of a curve, more of a little swish.

3xds- it used to be flat but now it's just a really odd shape (one section in there too). I am slim but just a but depressed about my 'kitten underhang'

OH yes, that's me, yes sireeeee, yup, for sure, most definetly, 100% bonafide moi, uh huh.

(well if my hands are up, like you said..I mean really high, like over my head, then everything kinda stretches and looks flat...non?)

2 DCs: a 2.5yo and a 8mo (both c-secs) and my tum isn't bad at all. Pre-children it was one of my best features (had actual abs once) but now it's just fine rather than gorgeous. No overhang, pretty much flat and skin tone is normal - it just doesn't look sexy like it did once but maybe that's age too (39).

My boobs on the other hand have been affected by pg and/or bf non-stop for over 3 years and I'm terrified of what they're going to look like when I stop bf this time.

I think you have a better chance if you had a flat stomach before. I think pearshaped people have flatter stomachs in general. I have a boyish figure with a slight waist and my belly has always been the issue.
I'm doing Jillian Michael's Six Week Six Pack to help.

I agree with Blossoming.

Probably also makes a difference how big the bump is? Just common sense- although I have seen no medical reports!!

I had a gorgeously smooth and flat tum in that effortless way that only the pre-pregnant can manage.

However, mine is now once again flat.....courtesy of a tummy tuck. But, to be fair, my muscles were toned pre-tummy tuck it was just that my skin was loose and saggy. The surgeon who did my op wouldn't have operated on me otherwise - his policy is to ensure women are in the best shape possible by their own making before "performing the final touches".

One of the reasons I had a tuck though was because I still had a 2cm gap between my abs (due to big babies and a small me). Despite hours of working the Tupler method to pull them together I still had some separation. A separation will make the tummy look much bigger than it is because it causes the muscles to sag into a bow shape.