How is my diastasis recti at one year postpartum after baby #2?

by purelytwins

Sharing my diastasis recti update one-year postpartum after baby #2.

I hope my story and journey shows you that you don’t have to be perfect to get results. You just need to be more mindful of things that you do every day, know how to make corrections when needed, be consistent (not perfect but consistent, so even if you missed 1-2 days, you get right back to it, no questions or guilt related to it).

oneyear-postpartum-after-second-child

Realize that every women’s core will heal differently. Try your very best not to compare your post-baby belly to someone else.  I know it’s hard, especially with so many post-baby fitness programs and celebrities make it seem so quick and easy to get your abs and body back after kids.

For most, it doesn’t happen quickly.  Spending all that time comparing ourselves to others just slows us down, right?

It can take a good year. That was me. I embrace it. It is my journey.

I am focusing on just doing better the next day. Making myself stronger each day. Each day is a new day for me to be a little bit better with everything. And forgive and show compassion to me along the way because there will be more difficult days.

As I have improved my current body with not worrying too much about getting back to my pre-baby body (because that mindset and goal will always make me feel not enough). I have greatly improved my mindset around my body image post-baby.  I share my story to help you do the same.

How is my diastasis recti (ab separation) doing one year postpartum after baby #2?

I suffered from ab separation also known as diastasis recti after my first pregnancy,  during my second pregnancy I worked out differently and had a new postpartum recovery plan that helped keep my diastasis to only at belly button after baby #2 at one month postpartum.

I also focused more on my lifestyle habits with how I move, sit, stand, etc with my alignment because that could be a help or hurt diastasis.

1 year postpartum belly update. How is my diastasis recti (ab separation) doing one year later after second baby? Sharing what I focused on to get flatter tummy and how my core strength is to fix mummy tummy.

My core looks it’s BEST when I am in optimal alignment with ribs down. When I do this I have a very small gap.
But honestly, standing this way it isn’t always a priority for me. Which I know is bad to say but life does happen and my old, not very good habits kick in. Again I am not perfect.

I also wanted to mention that my abs look “good” in different lighting and angles.

38weeks-pregnant

I was all belly during pregnancy which put even more stress on my core.

When I wear tight pants I have skin rolls from the extra stretch skin as I was ALL belly with both pregnancies since I am a small framed person.  I try not to wear tight pants, especially around waist often and if I do I try to limit the time in them as I know that pressure isn’t the best for diastasis. I don’t wear heels, mostly flat shoes or no shoes.

Here are some real like moments of what my body looked like after baby #2. I like when I see real-life photos of other moms bodies because so many of us don’t really know what to expect or experience when it comes to our core/bodies after babies. I hope my photos help you.

3 days pp after baby 2-progress

Here I am 3 days postpartum after giving birth to Lyla.

I wore my belly band pretty much 24/7.

5days-postpartum-afterbaby

A few days later at 5 days postpartum my core still doing good.

Doing core work to help diastasis recti after baby.

I did my safe core rehab exercises found inside Retrain Your Core immediately.

After a few days I slowly started to feel my strength coming back. Slow progress. But any progress is progress.

6weeks-postpartum-body-after-baby

At 6 weeks postpartum I started to feel even more strength. I still work my belly band but moving forward it was less often.

I heavily focused on my core work and alignment.

bodyafterbaby2-onemonth-postpartum

THANK you so much for all the support and love you.

Lori

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2 comments

Lisa July 4, 2018 - 10:53 pm

After you closed your gap how close did you get your abs back to? My abs are at about 2 finger widths I’m wondering if that’s as close as they are going to get or if I should continue only doing transverse abdominal exercises before trying regular ab ex agains

purelytwins July 5, 2018 - 8:37 pm

I have just a 2 finger width gap at belly button area and I still do my deep core work and plan to for life. I have my own goal of getting the gap smaller, it just might take longer and I am okay with that. If you have 2 finger width and can hold good engagement during exercises you can slowly start doing more ab exercises, just of course stop if one doesn’t feel good or see coning.

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