Belly Photos! - Page 4

[MarineWife]

Originally Posted by RollerCoasterMama 

Does anyone know what's up with getting round on the top half of the belly before the baby is anywhere near?

I don't know. It happens to me, too. My belly is huge and round and hard at the top but looks like nothing below the waist. I can feel my fundus just below my belly button so I know there's something there but it's not poking out. I can still wear my regular low rise pants. I wear a size 8 and had to go down to a size 4 in Old Navy to get a pair of low rise maternity pants that would stay up on me. They are still too big.

When I'm laying on my back first thing in the morning with a full bladder, I can feel the bump just below my belly button.

[~Katie~]

18 weeks 

I'm not sure about belly sticking out more on top but the top of my belly button always sticks out before the rest, so I have a half innie-outie. My fundus is an inch or two above my belly button. 

[MarineWife]

When I saw my MW yesterday, she said my fundus is higher than she had expected. It's at or just above my belly button and I'm only 14w. She thinks the reason my belly sticks out at top because I'm short waisted. There's nowhere else for everything to go but out.

[Gismobabe]

As far as I know the uterus grows upwards and moves the organs out of place. They move up and out and this causes the round belly on top. This sounds about right, I think!

[MarineWife]

Originally Posted by Gismobabe 

As far as I know the uterus grows upwards and moves the organs out of place. They move up and out and this causes the round belly on top. This sounds about right, I think!

Yeah, that's how it works, later on. The question was, though, why do some of us have that cute little baby bump just below the belly button and some of us have just a big, round belly above the belly button without the baby bump so early. It doesn't appear to be a difference between first babies and more. Maybe it's a difference in whether or not one is overweight at all before getting pg. All the thin mamas appear to have the little baby bump. I started out about 20 lbs overweight so maybe all my belly fat got pushed up and out fast.

On that note, I was doing really well with the weight gain. I had gained a total of maybe 4 lbs the entire first trimester. I weighed myself this morning and it appears I've gained 4 lbs just in the last week! I haven't been eating excessively or eating lots of junk. I don't know what the deal is. I hope it doesn't continue or I'll be huge before this baby is born.

[tourist.]

My belly is pretty round from top to bottom and I started out on the verge of underweight.  In one of my pregnancy books, I believe Mayo Clinic's Guide to Pregnancy, it mentions that the high level of progesterone is responsible for a lot of the abdominal bloat.  The way it was described in the book made it sound like the progesterone could make the belly, top to bottom, bloated. 

I love all the belly pics!  I hope to have a chance to get in here and post some as well soon.

[artekah]

Originally Posted by MarineWife 

A

Yeah, that's how it works, later on. The question was, though, why do some of us have that cute little baby bump just below the belly button and some of us have just a big, round belly above the belly button without the baby bump so early. It doesn't appear to be a difference between first babies and more. Maybe it's a difference in whether or not one is overweight at all before getting pg. All the thin mamas appear to have the little baby bump. I started out about 20 lbs overweight so maybe all my belly fat got pushed up and out fast. On that note, I was doing really well with the weight gain. I had gained a total of maybe 4 lbs the entire first trimester. I weighed myself this morning and it appears I've gained 4 lbs just in the last week! I haven't been eating excessively or eating lots of junk. I don't know what the deal is. I hope it doesn't continue or I'll be huge before this baby is born.

This is just a theory, but I think it probably has more to do with abdominal separation than weight. Your whole abdomen is going to bulge out sooner if your rectus abdominus muscles separate sooner--which could be caused by them never fully going back together after a previous pregnancy, or just by having weak abs.

I say this because I am thin but I also have the round belly thing going on (I really need to get my act together and take a pic!) I'm 16 weeks and have only gained like 2 pounds so far, started off very skinny, but yup, big round belly. I know I had a small separation left over from my first pregnancy. This is part of why most women tend to show sooner each time.

I think you all look beautiful in your different shapes and sizes!

[MarineWife]

Oh, so both of those apply to me. I was on progesterone supplements until 13 weeks and I'm pretty certain my abs have been separated ever since having my 2nd child. I was in pretty good shape and strong when I got pg with ds3. I was exercising and lifting weights a lot. I still got the high, rounded belly early. I've been very slack about exercising since having him. No strong abs this time around. My stomach has always stuck out, though, even when I was kid and not the least bit overweight. I've never had a flat belly.

I keep telling myself this time that I'm going to do yoga and walk on my treadmill every day but I've only done it once. All I really want to do is sit and knit.

[artekah]

Well if it's any consolation, you can have very strong muscles and still have an abdominal separation. Strengthening the transverse abdominus specifically, while avoiding movements that increase the separation, is the only thing that will close the gap. Reading about the Tupler Technique really opened my eyes (unfortunately, I got pregnant again before I managed to totally close my separation from preg #1.)

[mamahen2coop]

I guess I have a super long torso (my sister has been known to call it freakishly long :) thank you sis) because I'm 14.4 and you'd never be able to tell even looking at me naked unless you were specifically looking for a little bulge above the symphasis.  My fundus is about 5 below my U still.  I'm only 5'7" but I think how you show has lots to do with your torso.

[MarineWife]

I'll look that up, radicaleel.

I'm only 5 feet so even if I had a long torso, which I don't, I think I'd still get the belly bulge early. I have a short waist on top of being very short.

I stopped trying to hide my pregnancy about 2 weeks ago. I've only had one person so far ask me if I was pregnant. I guess I'm still in that in-between stage where people can't tell if I'm pregnant or just putting on weight. I sure think I look pregnant.

[~Katie~]

I'm 5 feet also. I think I have a long torso compared to the rest of my body proportions. I also have diastasis recti so my muscles cannot support the weight of my torpedo belly, so I tend to carry low and way out there. I feel massive over the last couple of days and it's all baby, I have a feeling this belly is going to be pretty magnificent. 

[MarineWife]

Originally Posted by ~Katie~ 

I'm 5 feet also. I think I have a long torso compared to the rest of my body proportions. I also have diastasis recti so my muscles cannot support the weight of my torpedo belly, so I tend to carry low and way out there. I feel massive over the last couple of days and it's all baby, I have a feeling this belly is going to be pretty magnificent. 

Your belly looks like a preggo belly to me. It does seem a bigger than I would expect for how far along you are.

[tourist.]

Funny...Now that I've said my belly is round, in the photos it totally doesn't look like it.  It looks like it in person though, at least to me (and to the people at work). 

Picture @ 6 weeks for comparison - sorry for the bra shot.

Picture @ 16 weeks

[LivingSky]

The high up elly thing sure confuses me too. Now I was definitely overweight to start this pregnancy, which is my first, but I've actually LOST a total of 4 lbs since I got pregnant. Completely unintentionally, I might add! I have had no morning sickness but my eating habits are about the same as they were before, so apparently baby is just eating me. I've got lots to spare so baby is welcome to whatever it wants

And yet even with the weight loss, my regular jeans haven't fit since about 8 weeks due to belly bloat. I feel like I look pregnant (except for the belly button divot) but I'm just 15w2d and the uterus is only just barely up above the pelvic bone, so whats with this big high belly?? It's just wierd. Once the belly button divot goes away though I won't mind so much.

I'll do pictures at 16 wk I think

[MarineWife]

It definitely looks rounder at 16 weeks than 6 weeks but I wouldn't say it looks preggo yet.

If I get dressed today, I'll take a new pic. I've somehow forgotten how to take a pic of myself. I did it just fine the first few times but haven't been able to get it right recently. The camera and flash keep getting in the way. LOL

[MarineWife]

Originally Posted by LivingSky 

I'm just 15w2d and the uterus is only just barely up above the pelvic bone

I want to know what's up with my uterus then. My fundus was at or just above my belly button at 14w2d. That's really high compared to what others have said. I'm beginning to worry. Could that indicate a problem?

[tourist.]

Originally Posted by MarineWife 

It definitely looks rounder at 16 weeks than 6 weeks but I wouldn't say it looks preggo yet.
 

  I know!  Looking at these pictures, I would totally say the same thing.  I'm obviously showing though because everyone is commenting on my belly.  Many people that didn't know I'm pregnant have figured it out based on belly alone.  I took the picture at about 5am on an empty stomach, so I'm sure that plays a part too.  I swear by the end of the day I look *huge,* relatively speaking of course.

I'm not sure about the fundal height thing.  At my 14w appt I was measuring 18w and my midwife said it's because my uterus was still tipped back and to not worry about it.  When do you see your care provider again?  I'd be curious to know their thoughts on it. 

[~Katie~]

I measured a week ahead at my last two appointments, I wonder if it has to do with torso length. Maybe if you have a short torso you naturally measure larger because there's less room to grow upward. I'd guess that numerous pregnancies has something to do with it as well. 

tourist - You look like you have a pregnant belly to me 

[MarineWife]

I don't see my MW again for another month. She didn't seem concerned about my fundal height. She just made a note that it was higher than she expected. It's all got me wondering because I've consistently measured a week ahead from the beginning. I had weekly ultrasounds from 5 weeks to 9 weeks because I've had recurrent pregnancy losses. Every week, the doc said the baby measured a week further than my dates say. I thought maybe it was just that one doc but the same thing happened at my NT scan at 12 weeks. A completely different person in a different medical practice measured the baby a week ahead again.

All of those measurements line up with dating this pregnancy by my lmp. The problem is that I chart so I know that I did not ovulate until a week later than expected, cd21 as opposed to cd14. I have to coordinate when my mother will come so that I can have this baby. My dh will be deployed. If this baby really is a week older than I think, we may all miss the boat and I don't have anyone locally to help me with my other 2 LOs while I'm in labor.

I also sort of vaguely remember excess amniotic fluid being associated with a chromosomal abnormality. I'm not sure, though. I may just be making that up in my own head. The baby looked so good at my NT scan that the doc recommended against any of the blood tests (that I would have declined, anyway).