Check my bogus baby bump!

By now, you know my proclivity for wearing fake body parts (booty, padded bra, etc). Well, yesterday I received an email from Miss Charlotte asking about the time I wore an empathy belly in Locker Room Diaries to get a feel for being pregnant and how it affects your body image. That reminded me that I still have pics in my digital camera so below, I present to you, Leslie at 9 months. Note this is very much the "basketball on two sticks" look - I doubt that anyone other than Nicole Kidman would actually gain weight in this pattern (tell me if I'm wrong!)

I'm wearing my husband's mortgage company tee-shirt. HOT.

Anyone out there have any post-baby body image nuggets to share? I actually just wrote a three-part cover series about this for Babytalk Magazine! If you're interested, here's part one, part two and part three, from this month.

Comments

Hmmmm, post-baby body. The good news, my boobs stayed bigger and the stretch mark fairy was kind to me.

The bad news...my stomach still looks like elephant skin...5+ years after the last baby. No more bikinis.

The old gray mare ain't never going to be what she used to be (my OBGYN seriously sang that to me;)

I can't really complain about my post-baby body - I mean I could, but I haven't actually had time to look at it in a mirror or step on a scale in about a year. I like to think that the dozens of squat-thrusts I do each day retrieving sippie cups or stuffed animals while cradling a squirming toddler in one arm are magically creating sculpted glutes and quads, but I'm pretty sure it's just giving me lower back problems...

Its not uncommon to have just a belly. im nowhere near skinny but at 8.5 months preggo i looke almost exactly like you do in the picture. During my whole pregnancy i had "morning" sickness, said in quotes because it was an allday/everyday event, so i gained very little during my pregnancy. But i had a healthy 7lbs. 13 oz baby so no harm no foul. but afterwards was when i gained the weight. yuck. now 5 years later still trying to regulate my eating habits.

Its not uncommon to have just a belly. im nowhere near skinny but at 8.5 months preggo i looke almost exactly like you do in the picture. During my whole pregnancy i had "morning" sickness, said in quotes because it was an allday/everyday event, so i gained very little during my pregnancy. But i had a healthy 7lbs. 13 oz baby so no harm no foul. but afterwards was when i gained the weight. yuck. now 5 years later still trying to regulate my eating habits.

Yeah! I had been wanting to read your articles for Babytalk Magazine but had only been able to find part 1. Thanks for posting them. I don't know if it's true for anyone else but the link for part 3 isn't working for me it just takes me to a general page. Is the third part called "Eat Your Way Slim?"

Hi Elle - yup! it's the main feature on the home page. If you click on it, the stiry should come up. Thanks for reading!

I was with (not hanging out with, but in the same room as) Nicole Kidman last month and you couldn't even tell she was preggers.

Martina McBride looked like you did in her 8-9th month...only shorter. :) I'll probably topple over when I get pregnant.

Palmtreechick, was Keith Urban there? Just curious.

I lost the baby weight after both of my pregnancies, but gained 12 pounds when we moved a couple years later. Grrrr. And I have my stretch marks, but I kinda like them. Also, my pregnancies were the only time I was not self-conscious about my stomach.

There's a great website called "The Shape of a Mother" which has pictures of real women after giving birth. (Instead of pix of celebrities who are wearing their skinny jeans 3 hours post-partum.)

Yes Alyssa, Keith was there. He's a hottie, but he's very tiny. Boy, can that man play some mean guitar too!!!

Palmtree- that's too funny that you called him tiny! Alyssa, I NEED to check out that website!!

Not to step in for Alyssa but I LOVE that Shape of a Mother site: here it is http://theshapeofamother.com/

It made me feel sooo much better about myself! Babies were not kind to me - I went from a small B to a small A (and still shrinking) up top while I've got stretchmarks from my knees to my ribs on the bottom.

PS> You look adorable! And that really was one of my fave parts of your book. I just giggled and giggled until my husband finally came over to see what on earth I was doing. It made him laugh too:)

Hey IS tiny, Leslie, but Kenny Chesney is even smaller. His ass, no joke, is about the size of a 10 year olds. Besides, you've never seen me to know whether or not I'm tiny, Miss Leslie. :) I mean, I can be a very Amazon like 5 ft. HA!

I am fairly thin and lanky, but when i get bloated and eat a lot, it all acumulates in my belly and i can therefore look preggers. I've been asked a few times after big lunches if i am expecting, its pretty embarassing when your NOT! But once a guy was so embarassed i wasn't pregnant, (he was working at a movie theater) he gave me a coupon for free popcorn! And Leslie, your belly looks actually really cute on you, i think all expactant mothers look cute with their little spheres of life under them.

You look so cute!

Leslie, you look adorable fake-pregnant! OK, I'm five feet tall and I gained 40 pounds with each pregnancy. I knew it was bad when my mother told me I looked like I was going to give birth to a pony and when other people would say things like, "You look so uncomfortable." I didn't overdo it on eating and I exercised throughout both pregnancies, but I had big babies. My son was a few ounces shy of 10 pounds. When you're five feet tall, there's not a lot of places it can go but out.

The good news is that all 40 pounds came off each time, but I'd be lying if I said my body was the same. I like to tell people that I used to have six-pack abs, but now I have a three-pack because my lower abs are shot from two c-sections. I've also got a few souvenir stretch marks.

Some days I look in the mirror and sigh, but I wouldn't trade my kids for a flatter tummy or stretch mark-free skin. It's a trade-off I'm happy to have made.

Off to check out the Shape of a Mother site.

That's such a cute photo! And it looks like quite a bit of fun to wear one of those (for a short period of time:)).

Yeah, Keith is tiny in stature but huge in talent! I think that's what drew me to him. (My husband is 5'5" and I'm 5'9". We've been together now for a lucky 13 years.

(P.S., Charlotte, thanks for posting the link! And Leslie, you look adorable!)

i lovingly referred to my children as my ass-babies, because that is where i carried all of my weight. my bump was in reverse....where it sadly still sits!

I have no baby :(

but some people still consider me a baby.

i have nothing to contribute.

Aww, you look cute.

(I think you're carrying a boy in this pseudo-pregnant photo.) ;)

I missed out on the whole kid thing, so an empathy belly would be as close as I'd ever get to being pregnant. Looks great on you, but I think I'll pass. Probably not too easy to come by a cheap empathy belly either, even if there was a nearby retailer, which there isn't.

Wait, I think the grocery store was having a sale on watermelons this week...

Hi Leslie!
Fellow Chicagoan here and I read your blog all the time but am always shy to comment. This time I've actually got something to share! I've battled with an ED for the last 15 years but have been in recovery as a result of an intensive outpatient program for over a year. In addition to all of this, I'm now 5 months pregnant. When I first found out I was preggo, I was so worried about what my changing body was going to do to my body image and worried about sabotaging all of the good work I'd done with the therapy over the last year. But to my surprise, pregnancy has actually HELPED my ED and body image issues! For the first time in my life, I'm proud of my body because it's growing a little life in there. And my eating and control issues have virtually disappeared because in order to grow a health baby I have to practice moderation with everything I do. And hopefully these 9 months of practice of being good to myself and my body will help me continue on the road to full recovery post-partem.

Leslie, you look Baby-Bellylicious! :o) My sister, a new mom, showed me your article in Babytalk...Fantistico, but I would expect nothing less! Does this mean babies are on the horizon....?

oooooh andrea asked it :)
I always didnt love that query BUT that was prolly because it was usually followed by "youre not young you know."

as always your writing is laughoutloud and informative.

now, inquiring minds and all:

youve done the butt.
the bebe.
now shall we (the royal or we could do it simultaneously :)) do the BOOBS?

M.

Um, MizFit, I have news for you: My boobs were padded in both the booty shot as well as above (the Empathy Belly has giant knockers attached to it.) But I suppose I'd be up for a D-cup adventure downtown...

Emily - Thanks so much for sharing your experience with us. First of all, congratulations on coming so far!! You should feel so good about yourself. And I think it's interesting that pregnancy is having such a positive effect on your body mage - I've heard this from other women recovered from EDs and it makes me feel very hopeful. You go girl, grow that baby! PS, how gorgeous is it outside in Chi-town today?!

And no, Andrea, no babies right now. And my eggs feel nice and fresh.

That's funny! I've always wondered what it would feel like to wear one of those. I guess instead of asking you, I should go out and get your book! I can't BELIEVE I haven't read it yet...