Halifax Tummy Tuck

In my first blog post here, I talked about the journey starting in July 2024. The truth is it started a long time ago – in 2009 to be exact.

When you’re in your early twenties, especially when you were of my generation, there is no horror greater than the reality that you might gain a bunch of weight, have a bunch of stretch marks, and never “get your body back”. Of course, this isn’t limited to just the early twenties crowd, but it was most certainly the experience for me when, at 21, I realised my stomach was stretched beyond belief and angry, red stretch marks were etched across my tummy.

At a routine prenatal appointment, I asked my doctor about treatments for my stomach postpartum and I remember her vividly telling me not to do anything until I was absolutely sure I was done having babies but that a tummy tuck would be the best option if I had loose skin.

I did.

Even after just one baby, the skin on my stomach was never the same. Over time, I got used to the stretch marks and I eventually went back to wearing bikinis. Ten years later, I was the fittest I’d ever been. I actually had visible abs, despite pregnancy! But, my loose skin made me uneasy. I joked from time to time that one day, ONE DAY, I’d get a tuck.

Then I got pregnant, after months of trying, and I was over the moon. I gained minimal weight, I worked out almost daily, and I actually did jump squats and burpees before S was born in 2022. And just as I was beginning to feel like myself again, SURPRISE! We were pregnant again.

While I “bounced back” (I hate that term) from S, my body definitely went through the ringer after E. Two back-to-back pregnancies meant my abs were stretched beyond belief, and being fourteen years postpartum from my first trip to labour & delivery meant that my skin wasn’t nearly as young as it used to be!

For most of my third pregnancy, I thought seriously about how I would get back to feeling good in my skin. I did what I could during pregnancy but it was rough. I felt self conscious and out of my element in a way I’d not done with my previous pregnancies. From the time E was born, I’ve been focused on rediscovering me and learning to love this new, thrice postpartum bod.

It’s been hard.

And, honestly? It’s affected me in a big way.

I threw out a lot of my favourite clothes because I was literally tucking my belly skin into them. I got into the habit of wearing compressive undergarments to hold my tummy in. I have a drawer of shape wear. I consider how my belly skin will look in virtually every item of clothing in my closet.

And that’s just the mental part, really.

While I hadn’t known it before, the agony of back and hip pain every night makes a lot of sense given the diastasis recti. I get pain when I exercise and have many signs of intolerance due to the weakened core which impacts my pelvic floor, too.

It definitely looked like a split second decision for me to sign on the dotted line and fork over my money the day of my consult. And, maybe that part of the story was a little rushed. But it all started 15 years ago.

And I kinda can’t believe I’m going it!