Not A Gully

So I was spending all my waking hours on Pinterest and I stumbled across something that caught my eye. It  was a post about repairing your abdominals and core after giving birth. Well, I thought, not that I had fantastic abs to begin with, I am sure that I still need them repaired anyway... even though I had a C-section rather than natural child birth.

I continue on reading, skimming really, and thank goodness for bold text, because I would have missed a crucial bit of information: that having a c-section may actually be worse for your abs. Hmmm. Okay. I go back and read the whole thing- now I am interested.

Here is the original article I stumbled on from Pinterest.

Basically, after being pregnant and carrying around a baby for 9 months, your ab muscles separate. The baby says "Move, bitch! Get out the way!" and the abs politely step aside. All of this so your little baby can thrust his tiny little feet through your abdominal wall because things get cramped in there.

This condition is called diastasis recti. You can check for this condition by laying on your back, and lifting your neck and shoulders slightly, while using your fingers to press down on your belly button. You have diastasis if you can feel your ab muscles separating under the movement, and it is more than 2 finger-widths wide. It will feel like a little gully. When I tried it, I could practically stuff my whole fist in there! I don't recommend that for your self esteem, by the way. My diastasis is not a gully, its a freakin' valley- nestled right between the twin peaks of the Fat Sisters Mountains. I always wondered why my fat looked worse after having a baby- it kind of separates and sags on either side of my belly button, creating like a mini-butt crack-with old-lady-sag (GREAT visual, I know.) If I were not so disturbed by it myself, I'd post a pic. But you can all be thankful I won't, so you can keep your lunches down.

Anyway- Moms, have you got this diastasis? Have you heard of it? Anyone else able to fist their belly buttons or is it just me?

I'm going to go back to researching this. Thanks for your input, as always.