At five weeks, I hit a standstill in my journey to heal my diastasis.  I was discouraged.  I started a support forum.  And I kept going.

But it has been hard work.

There has been no progress, but I’ve also not gotten in all my reps and I’ve realized I am straining my belly too much getting up out of our furniture.  So much thought has to go into this, so I’m thankful I’ve only had a “standstill” rather than a “setback!” 

This week I am refocusing and starting over at Week 6.  {yes, that is allowed!}

I’m ready to get going!

The last time I spoke with Julie, she gave me some great little tidbits of wisdom that I would like to share here as well as encourage you to visit the forum (page 4 in particular) and glean wisdom from one of Julie Tupler’s certified trainers, Bonnie from Beautiful After Belly, who has been popping in on the forum to encourage everyone there!

*The first 6 weeks are just to strengthen your muscles. This is why you are not to exercise during that time.  You strengthen the muscles, then you heal them.  In fact, you need 3 good weeks before you ever start week 4.  If you’ve had a setback prior to week 4, don’t go on until you’ve had 3 good weeks in a row under your belt.  And don’t be afraid to redo the week you messed up.  {like me!}

*This is a marathon, not a sprint. I have a long way to go and my exciting nearly overnight success in the first several weeks was because I was finally healing connective tissue that had been damaged for a long time.  However, when my progress slowed, I became discouraged.  I saw this as a sprint even though I knew it would take more than 18 weeks to heal my DR, I still thought I would see the breakneck healing I was seeing in the beginning.  This past week I’ve realized this is a process, not a quick fix and I have to quit seeing this as something I just hurry up and get off my plate.  Thus, it is ok to go back and redo weeks and even go back and start over.  Just because I am blogging the journey does not mean I’m going to have a perfect 18 weeks.  I’m okay with that now.

*Everything you do is a workout! That’s right…every time you pull a cookie sheet out of the oven, pick up a crying baby, or hand a platter of meat to the child next to you, you are doing work and your muscles must be engaged or you are straining.

*Contractions are more important that headlifts. If you only have time for one exercise during a particularly busy day, do the contractions rather than the headlifts.  And you can do these contractions just about anywhere.

*Watch how you pick up baby! If you can, pull baby close to your belly to keep your DR from popping out and always, always engage those muscles when you are doing the “work” of picking up baby!

*It’s never too late. I’ve had many moms ask me if it is too late for them because their baby is 10 years old or more.  Well, guess what?!  Even men have this condition and they NEVER had a baby!  So, it is never too late.  Jump in where you are and heal the damage!

*It’s more about the connective tissue than the gap. If you have only a 1 or 2 DR yet have very deep connective tissue damage, you will actually have a harder time healing than someone who has a much larger gap with shallow connective tissue damage.  This is one reason I am thrilled about the connective tissue healing I’ve seen!

*Wear the splint, wear the splint, wear the splint until your DR is a shallow 1 or 2. Yes, I know that feels like forever, but I’m right here with you.

*Closure of you DR is NOT permanent. That is tough for me to write.  This is not the end.  There is no end.  Hopefully, though, you will have trained your muscles to hold themselves in at all times and you will not undo the healing you have done.  Be aware of your tummy and remember that everything you do is work!

So, I keep moving forward from here.  No longer will I be chronicling using the weeks as a label because I realize now I can’t do that and be true to the needs of my body.  If I have a bad week, I have to go back, blog or not.  And I promised you all the nitty-gritty details no matter how ugly they were.  Well, this is one of those lessons I’ve learned through this journey.

I also found out Julie is hoping to put together a FREE conference call where you can sit in on a Q&A session with her.  She’ll compile all the questions she gets and work her way through them.  Julie is also working on a 6 week online support program that will hopefully launch in January.  Visit her site: DiastasisRehab.com or her facebook page to stay up to date on what Julie is working on.

This week something amazing happened!

Now brace yourself (or splint yourself!) because what I am about say is probably going to make you laugh, but…

I actually DO have a belly button!

For YEARS (and I am not exaggerating here), my belly button has either been pushed out from pregnancy or pushed out from my diastasis.  In fact, not too long ago I jokingly told my children I didn’t have one!

But I do now!

That’s right!  My connective tissue is strong enough now that my organs are not pushing on my belly as much and my belly button is actually visible.  Not that my little ole belly button is something I plan on showing off, but it is one more proof that the Tupler Technique™ is working!

And here are the pictures…

The total inches off my waist from Day 1 to Day 14 is 4 inches!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and also check out my Diastasis Recti from a Mom’s Perspective page.  Next week I’ll try to answer some of your questions with Julie’s help.

If you are looking for the products you need to follow along with me, click on the banner below:

Disclosure: I received some of Julie’s products and services for free; however, I do not benefit in any way from the sales of these products.  You get my honest opinion and honest results.

I’ve never had strong stomach muscles, so I guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise that I ended up with this condition.  I was a cheerleader and did a lot of jumps and back bends and such that put a lot of stress on those muscles.  To try to tighten them, I did crunches.  Pregnancy and large babies only made the problem more obvious.

However, it wasn’t until my last pregnancy that I became hopeless that these muscles would ever heal. During my pregnancy with Garin (who would turn out to be an overdue 11 pounder), I noticed I could actually see my internal organs moving below the surface of my skin and I could feel the muscles pulling on either side of my belly.  In addition to that, I carried bigger than ever and my OB said my uterus had actually flipped over, putting me at risk for yet another C-section.

2 months after I had Garin, this is what I looked like:

All through the years I had only made half-hearted attempts at The Tupler Technique™.  I had done fairly well despite the fact I was not consistent; however, in the back of my head I figured I would eventually have to resort to surgery and I sort of leaned on that option.  In many ways, it seemed easier.

But after the plastic surgeon told me he couldn’t do anything for me until after I was done having children and even then didn’t think it would be the fix I would need, I resigned myself to finding a way to conceal my tummy and just live life fielding comments about when the next baby was due.

That’s when I found the Donjoy brace.  It covered my belly, pulled the muscles together and concealed fairly well.  But once the brace was off, nothing had changed.  The brace didn’t fix anything…it just made it less noticeable.

I also decided losing weight would help some as well.  I dropped 20 pounds and looked like this:

The bulge was definitely less protruding…

But, it was nowhere near being gone.

For those of you who do not suffer from this and do not realize the depth of the issue, let me just give you a run down of what it has meant for me (and if you really want to get a good grasp of diastasis recti, read the comments on some of these posts…they will make you cry).

• Clothes that don’t fit right – You either buy a size larger so it will go OVER your belly, or you wear something that goes UNDER your belly and deal with the “potbelly” look.  Wearing skirts has made this a little easier as there are some great looks out there with elastic in the waist.

• Maternity clothes that are never big enough – My belly gets so big and hangs down so low because I have no muscles to hold my uterus in place (more on that later).  That makes finding tops and bottoms to fit is nearly impossible in later pregnancy.

• A uterus held up by nothing but skin – As I mentioned above, my uterus nearly flipped over.  No feet in the ribs here…baby’s feet stick straight out!  To turn over in bed, I had to hold my belly or else what little muscle I had left (which were now completely off to each side of my belly) would feel like they were tearing and burning.  No support garment was enough to hold the uterus in place, so my OB told me when I went into labor, I would need to pull back on my uterus so baby could engage.

• Lack of labor pattern – Since the DR has gotten really bad, I have struggled to pull together a decent labor pattern.  With the uterus out of position, it is very difficult to get labor going.

• Internal organs just below the skin – My muscles are separated and my connective tissues are nearly non-existent.  When I first began this program, as I checked for the size of my DR, my fingers could go quite deep into my belly.  Sometimes eating would make me nauseous and sometimes sleeping in a certain position would make my insides cramp for hours afterward.

So, as you can see it isn’t simply vanity or pride that drives my desire to heal.  This condition isn’t just about how you look.

So, because I know you are all on the edge of your seat wondering how my first week went, let me give you a quick rundown…

This was my profile picture from Day 1:

{I was shocked to see how swayed my back was!}

I watched the DVD and practiced putting on the splints (remember, I have to wear 2).

Here’s what those look like on me:

My diastasis was 10+ finger-widths with deeply damaged connective tissue. When putting on the brace, I had to really move those muscles into place before strapping the velcro.  I wear the brace 24 hours a day except for very rare occasions.

The exercises didn’t seem too difficult to start with, but as I kept doing them and made sure I was doing them slowly enough, they were definitely a workout!  I did them whenever I could sneak them in (even though Julie recommends you take time out to get away from everything).

A couple of days into it I felt a little nauseous from my insides being held in a position they had not been in in years!  Thankfully, Julie warns of this on the video!

One thing happened I was not prepared for, though…
I got grouchy!

I felt bound up.  I felt restricted.  I felt like I might explode!  I got very grouchy with the children and with the splint and the exercises themselves.  It was a moment of…

I don’t want to do this!
This is too hard!
(and it was only Day 2!)

And then I got the flu.

So, for about 36 hours, something around my belly was out of the question.  Perhaps that was enough time to collect my thoughts and emotions or perhaps I was reminded of morning sickness and WHY I am doing this, but no matter what it was, I put the splint back on as soon as I was well and never looked back!

And one week later, the difference is UNDENIABLE…

Take a look at the side by side from Day 1 to Day 7 (remember, BOTH of these picture are WITHOUT the splint on):

I was shocked and THRILLED!  I even think my posture looks a little better without so much out in front to hold up.  By the way, I have not lost any more weight (hoping to come off a plateau I’ve been on!) and I am not doing any exercises except for The Tupler Technique™ (as required by the program).  So, the 2¾” I’ve lost have been ALL because of strengthening my tummy muscles!

As for the diastsis itself, I did not feel any change in finger-width, but did feel a difference in the depth, so that means my connective tissue is healing!

If you are doing this with me, please let me know how you are doing!  And I hope this is as encouraging to you as it has been for me!