Body after baby...5 years later

To my male readers, I apologize in advance for my rant.

Weight gain and body changes during pregnancy are expected. There is even a suggested amount of weight a woman is supposed to gain while pregnant. When I became pregnant I understood that things would change, but I had NO idea how hard it would be to try to get back to my pre-baby body. Heck, I just wanted a tiny resemblance of my former self! The day I got my first stretch mark, I bawled in the bathroom and demanded that my husband go to Walmart to buy cocoa butter lotion. Sadly, the lotion was useless.

Throughout my pregnancy, I gained approximately 25 lbs. Though that is the norm, the extra weight was something that I couldn't quite get use to. After Lane was born, I was excited for those extra pounds to melt away. Little did I know that the battle wouldn't take months, but years. My belly had turned into a mushy, squishy mess. I felt like the Muffin-top Queen as I tried to slip back in to normal clothes. Even as the weight began to shed, the jiggly bits remained.

Throughout the years, I have succeeded in losing the weight that I gained during pregnancy, as well as the extra pounds I gained after. At my heaviest, I was pushing the scales at 150 lbs. To some, this might not seem like a lot of weight, but on my 5'3" frame, it was too much to handle. To date, I have lost about 35 lbs. Though I am over the moon by my weight loss, I still can't help but be disgusted with my messy midsection. No matter how many sit ups, planks, crunches, etc that I do, I can't seem to firm up. Some say it is the battle scars of pregnancy. I guess I just have to try to look past it and be happy. Please tell me that some other moms out there have the same feelings of helplessness in their quest for tight, flab free abs.