Why is my belly growing already?! And weirdly!

[Heinleinesque]

OK, I'm a big girl (and I come by it honestly, I'm the most petite woman in my family at 5'6" and ~200lbs) and I have a belly to begin with - bisected by my waist, you know, like two rolls of fat, one around my hips and one around my ribcage under my breasts - but last year I worked really really hard and I lost 45lbs - went from size 24 to size 16 in ten months and then maintained it until this pregnancy. I'm 8w2d today.

Suddenly my belly is getting weird. It's not getting bigger around the uterus, where I would expect, it's getting bigger on top, above my belly button. Wth??

Is it my organs moving up or something? Or could the few pounds I've put on since I got pregnant ALL be pooching up in that one spot? I knew that my changing body would be challenging for me to accept as the pregnancy progresses after all the work I put into weight loss, but I didn't expect to end up with an upside-down baby-belly. Any ideas?

[feminist~mama]

That seems to be a fairly typical way to gain when you start out overweight. Don't worry, it'll even out eventually. I had very funny moments in the beginning of pregnancy with the "oh, you're actually rubbing my dinner, not the baby"- but now at 29 weeks it's all just one big baby belly!

I do think it might be your expanding uterus pushing fat and other organs out of the way...

[Heinleinesque]

Originally Posted by feminist~mama

That seems to be a fairly typical way to gain when you start out overweight. Don't worry, it'll even out eventually. I had very funny moments in the beginning of pregnancy with the "oh, you're actually rubbing my dinner, not the baby"- but now at 29 weeks it's all just one big baby belly!

I do think it might be your expanding uterus pushing fat and other organs out of the way...

I guess that makes sense. Is it OK for me to wear slimming garments under my clothes or could that hurt my baby?

[FtMPapa]

I'm taller than you, but also bigger - 5'10", 260 lbs. I don't have the same belly shape, but I do have this hard part just above my pubic bone, even though my uterus is still under the bone, so it's not my uterus. My theory is that it's my uterus pushing everything else like guts and intestines up.

I would check with your midwife/doc, but I don't think it would hurt the baby at this point, but I imagine it would be really uncomfortable for you!

Before pregnancy, I wore a 44 or 46 pant and now I'm wearing 50 that I got as hand-me-downs from a friend who lost weight, and they're still quite loose and roomy, but I can't imagine wearing anything tight on my belly at all. In fact, last week, before I got the hand me downs, I was wearing another friend's maternity pants handmedowns because they were the comfiest thing on my belly.

I'm not as bloated as I was, but I've replaced bloat with guts moving up or whatever is going on in there.

[mcimom]

I have the same belly. I'm about 5'4" and 180ish. This is my sixth.

The last three times I've had the same belly and yes, I believe it is all my organs moving up and out of the way

So I have that weird belly until about 4mos when things kinda round out...

[Heinleinesque]

Thank you both. I feel better that I'm not just some kind of body-fat mutant. But I do feel really conspicuous with my "upper" belly being bigger than my "lower" belly. Not sure how I'm going to deal with this until things even out... lots of baggy clothing, I guess? It would be so much easier if I didn't have to dress business professional for work!

[mcimom]

It helps that a-line tops are usually always in, you can kinda hide it that way if your shirt is big enough (or in my case it just shows it off more...LOL)

another idea might be one of those "flyaway" cardigans I think they call them. They are kind of "flowy" on the bottom, that might mask things too and since they aren't button up type cardigans, you could keep wearing it as your belly rounds out too...

[CherryBomb]

I'm pretty much the same way (5'7" and 224) and it sounds like we have similar body shapes. I generally attribute it to bloating. I know I've been eating half the calories I usually do, but I haven't lost any weight, but I feel bloated.

I empathize with the frustration, too. I was 250 the day I had dd2, worked my ass off (literally!) and lost over 80 pounds...now I'm nearly as heavy as I was