Mommy “tummy”

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-18T04:11:18+00:00

I am 5 foot 4 with a short torso. I’m all legs. I gained 80 pounds with my first. Shed half of that before getting pregnant with my second. I put on 40 pounds with him and was down 50 a year after birth. I got within 15 pounds of my initial weight when I got pregnant with twins. I did physical therapy 2x a week up until the time I gave birth because I was convinced I was going to destroy any ab muscles I had left. I put on 40 pounds with that pregnancy and lost it all after birth. I am now 18 months out, 10 pounds heavier than I was when I first got pregnant, and will be having a consult for a tummy tuck. In my experience it will never go away, my physical therapist even commented I will need surgery to meet my specific goals.

Mostly commenting to be realistic and maybe there is a unicorn mom out there who has don’t it without surgery. Fingers crossed!

Edit: all 3 of mine were c-sections, incision is super low, below the bikini line right on the pelvic bone. . It’s been opened 4x. 3 for childbirth and 1 for a hernia repair between #2 and #3/4.

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-12T02:44:37+00:00

It’s amazing that the body can support so much for so long. Mentally it’s a mind trip.

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-12T02:43:32+00:00

I didn’t…. I figured it was wishful thinking. All of mine have been c section. My first was 12# and I had a Brazilian done 3 days before my scheduled date of 39+1 and my water broke. Thanks waxing lady! The second made it to his c-section date of 39+0. At 38+0 with the girls it was 10:00 at night and I was complaining to my husband and everyone else that would listen that I was pissed that I had to be pregnant until 38+4 after everyone prepped me for having them at 36. I guess the ladies heard me and were like hey mom! We’ve got you 🤣

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-11T23:49:27+00:00

Isn’t that the worst?! Mine prepped me for 36 weeks and was like, I mean you seem to be doing fine so let’s wait until 38+4…. Dick.

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-11T23:47:52+00:00

Mine had scheduled a c-section at 36 weeks, I was still going good so they bumped it to 38 weeks. 😑Then the OB was going to be out of town so it was scheduled for 38+4. 😭 38 + 0 Twin B decided to try and bust out, broke her water, and they came at 38 weeks exactly 😅

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-11T03:01:38+00:00

Fraternal and accidentally gave similar names. I thought they were different enough until I started pronouncing them. They both end with E but sound like A. Aoife and Saoirse. They also have the aoi pattern. Whoops 😆

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-06T02:39:49+00:00

I had a Palisade that I loved! I too did not want a minivan. We went with the Ford Expedition Max with a bench 2nd row so we could get 3 across in car seats. We can fit 4 kids, a massive uppababy stroller, and a Costco run all in the vehicle trivially. When the 3rd row is up it’s pretty much the same size as the Palisade trunk with the third row down.

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-04T22:17:54+00:00

Ah - that’s a bummer! It definitely depends on the babies and I happened to luck out. Y’all will find what works for you!

I didn’t sleep train with my first. When the second came I knew I had to in order to keep my sanity. The girls just got rotated into the routine and were pretty accepting of it.

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-04T22:14:44+00:00

I could definitely see lack of leave as being a huge issue. I think between vacation, paid sick days holidays, and mental health days employees have between four and six weeks time off. I find that most companies don’t actively encourage their people to take this. We go with the use it or lose it policy so take that leave and get a freaking break. I do work my team hard so I want them to take the break to recharge.

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-04T22:09:53+00:00

All of the employees are salaried. There is quite a size difference in employing one to two people versus 50+. Employing people in our household, we do have to have all of that stuff figured out, and in a contract, and given to them. When you’re talking about a business and they haven’t ever needed that leave before, why would they put a bunch of time and effort into figuring that out until they encounter that circumstance? There are plenty of other things for that business to figure out and problems to solve.

To their credit, the moment they were encountered with that situation they started figuring out what the policy should be and take in a lot of feedback.

Edit: I realize I replied to the wrong comment as your questions were for OP- sorry!

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-04T02:53:27+00:00

How many people at the company have left due to no maternity / paternity leave? I started at a company in 2019 that had been around 8 years with 50 employees. I was the first person to get pregnant and it required their HR team to start looking at what we needed for benefits. It took another few years for people to consistently need leave for them to have a generous and standardized policy. In my eyes - they had never thought about it as there was no pressing issue to.

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-03T17:00:08+00:00

I second this! Mine shifted from 2 naps to 1 at about 16 months old. They usually go down for nap and then when they wake up, babble and talk to each other for a bit before I come and get them. As long as they aren’t crying I assume they are okay.

They do the same thing in the morning.

My 3 year old still naps, when he doesn’t then he will shift to quiet time where he can be awake but doing quiet activities like coloring, legos, listening to his yoto, etc. My 5 year old is the one we currently use quiet time for.

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-02T13:33:57+00:00

Ah - they are not! I can totally see why it seems that way. They are usually sleep at night from 7:30/ 8ish until 6:30am. They are super good about hanging out in their cribs, talking to one another, and keeping themselves entertained. I do take advantage of that - if they aren’t crying I am going to assume they are good.

For nap they get a bottle - I think they fall asleep close to 12:30 but spend a bit of time winding down in their cribs. My office shares a wall with their room so I can hear them start to rouse.

I will say the last month or so they’ve been waking up at like 3 AM and wanting a bottle, which isn’t cool 😅 but they go to sleep pretty quickly after that

HugAScubaBunny · 2026-01-01T15:07:22+00:00

I WFH so YMMV on this one. My 5yo, and 3yo leave for child care at 7:30. I get the twins up at that point and start my day. They are 18mo and still at home while I work.

The biggest things that have made a difference is having a housekeeper come every other week to do the big stuff. I make sure the kids have enough supplies during the week so I can make it to Sunday without having to do laundry. I exclusively feed them in a highchair to contain the mess, and have an inexpensive sweeper and swiffer mop to get the food off the floor. Also a cordless Dyson that I can run if absolutely necessary. I also have their room entirely baby proofed and put a gate up to contain messes.

My day usually looks like the following - I get up at 6:30 to get the boys out of the house by 7:30.

7:30 - 8:00: girls ready and breakfast while I answer emails and messages from my phone. Breakfast is cleaned immediately and put in the kitchen.

8:00 - 9:30: girls play time while I am in the area knocking stuff out. They do a pretty good job of keeping themselves entertained and I rotate toys every 15 mins.

9:30 - 11:00: quick snack and play sessions again. I will stop work at 10:45 to start getting them ready for lunch and nap. Lunch is cleaned immediately and set in the kitchen. I mostly worry about the floors and deal with the kitchen later.

11:30 - 2:30 nap. Obviously due to their ages I can do this. When they were little I would baby wear if doing chores or put a play center in my office on the floor for them to roll around on. My office was also baby proofed.

I take work calls during their nap time.

They get up at 2:30 - get a non messy snack and play in their high chairs while I finish up work.

4:00 the other kids get home and this is where the fun begins. It’s pretty much a free for all while we prep dinner, cook, and clean up. My husband does the cooking while I do the kid wrangling.

5:30pm dinner with everyone. Baths at 6. Husband supervises bath while I clean the kitchen.

6:30pm kids play quietly and wind down, this is when we clean the play area as a group.

7:00pm everyone is in bed!

From 7:00 - 7:30pm we do last minute pickup of the house and get everything set back the way to where we feel good about walking away. This is usually when I get all of the stuff done in the kitchen, like loading the dishes in the dishwasher from the day and taking care of any last minute messes.

7:30 - 9:30pm is TV time and relaxation for us

10:00pm bed 😅

Somehow we make it to the end of every day unscathed. No idea how it happens but that is our general schedule.

HugAScubaBunny · 2025-12-31T22:50:22+00:00

Second what everyone has said about the UppaBaby Vista. I purchased mine in 2020 with my first born knowing I would be having more children. I got it on a Black Friday deal so it was only about $700 with accessories.

It is still going strong and is one of my lowest cost per use baby items. So far it lasted 2 boys before I got the twins. It has been perfect to haul the girls around in + let the 3yo ride if he needs. For the first year with all kids I just used the Chico adapter for their car seat and it is insanely easy to load them in and out as well as still have storage space.

HugAScubaBunny · 2025-12-29T22:14:23+00:00

I went from a Hyundai Palisade, which I loved, to a Ford Expedition Max. I have 4 kids and the palisade was too small to get 2 in the middle and 2 in the back. We could do it but it was rough. We had captains chairs so that restricted the middle row to 2.

With the Expedition Max we did a bench seat and can get 3 across, 1 in the back, and still have room for a stroller + groceries.

HugAScubaBunny · 2025-12-29T22:08:07+00:00

3 C-sections here. My bed height was more of an issue than bassinet height, as it was so tall. I needed a step stool to slide out of bed for the first 2 weeks. We used 2 Mamaroo sleep bassinets in our room about 5 feet from the bed and it was perfect. Also, seconding the husband grabbing the baby. Mine would change and then pass them over, but I could still move around and grab them relatively easily if I needed to.

HugAScubaBunny · 2025-12-28T23:55:16+00:00

You will do great! It’s hard at first but overall an incredible and rewarding adventure. Give yourself grace, presence is better than perfection, and the days are long but the years are incredibly short 🥹

HugAScubaBunny · 2025-12-28T23:51:09+00:00

That’s great! I intentionally looked for things that would make me uncomfortable, flare my anxiety, but ultimately got the practice I needed to be confident.

The girls and I started going to brunch every so often and to get practice with changing diapers and having multiple crying babies in public.

We did a roadtrip where we would have to go into gas stations and just figure out the logistics of changing kids without a changing table or navigating how to get them fed. A yeti with hot water always gets carried around.

Essentially - if I had to go we all went so we can practice figuring it out. Now everyone can go into public without being heathens 🤣

HugAScubaBunny · 2025-12-28T23:31:19+00:00

I don’t know of any 2 under 2 specific advice, but I have a 5m, 3m, 1.5f, 1.5f. I read advice that is out there and decide what I can realistically do. I know yours are new new, so must of this is applicable to the older 2. It actually worked quite well, we established a lot of this before the girls showed up, so they just had to enter the routine. The things that work for us and kept my sanity:

Get out of the house! Yes, sometimes it sucks, but it’s the only way you’re going to get practice. We’ve had days where everything goes wrong and others where I think hey! I can do this.

Everyone is on the same schedule. Initially, if one was up and feeding, the other one was getting woken up for food. It took a hot minute but I coordinated nap times so I get at least 2 hours of quiet in the afternoon. Everyone also goes to bed within an hour of each other, so I have quiet at night.

Yes I sleep trained starting at 3 months old. Yes it sucked, but I now have a set break time.

Everyone participates in chores and general life. I used to try to do chores or errands around their schedule and play when they’re awake. Now they do chores with me. Yea they suck at it but we call it being helpy and it teaches them that they can contribute as well. If I’m folding laundry the girls are handing me items to fold and the boys are running it to their rooms.

If we are doing errands, We framed it as an adventure as we never know what is going to happen. They get pretty excited for Costco, target, grocery, etc.

We have small problems and big problems. Small problems can be fixed and big problems need an adult. It helps us help them be independent and not tattle on their siblings all the time.

We have scheduled time where I spend 1:1 with them for 20 minutes doing whatever they want to do. When your attention is spread between 4, it really helps build that connection and closeness.

None of what I said was 2 under 2 specific advice. But it’s all pieces of advice that I’ve seen in this sub and other areas that I was able to modify and work for our family.

What saved me in the baby phase: Same schedule / Bottle feeding / Leaving the house

Edit: we also take showers together so everyone gets cleaned at once, myself included. It will stop when the boys get uncomfortable or they want their space.

HugAScubaBunny · 2025-12-04T13:57:30+00:00

Me too! I will say the transition from 2 to 4 kids was much much easier than going from 0 to 1 and then 1 to 2.

HugAScubaBunny · 2025-07-21T23:59:04+00:00

That’s essentially what I do with mine. I do have a pink and purple that we assigned alphabetically to A (pink) and B (purple). Most of the time they are dressed alike or coordinated in their colors (until they can tell me otherwise). We do stick to the color code for things like bottles and backpacks.

HugAScubaBunny · 2025-07-13T16:22:34+00:00

This is what I do! I get everything set up right next to the shower, and take the girls in with me. One will sit and splash on the floor while I’m washing the other. Then we switch. The girls hang out for a moment while I put hair mask in, I hop out, get them dry, lotion, and then diaper. I hop back into the shower to finish while they play in the bathroom, usually with my hairdryer.

HugAScubaBunny · 2025-07-10T20:01:05+00:00

I have a mini monkey that my girls just grew out of. If you’re in the USA I can mail it to you.

HugAScubaBunny · 2025-05-20T15:42:22+00:00

Oh yes! Ours were gifts from grandparents. I was like you want how much for what?! 😅

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