It has a name..... Diastasis Recti

I am still researching my stomach and the tummy tuck. I remembered the plastic surgeon mentioned a medical term but I could not remember what it was! Figures after all of the information I got that day but this is it! Diastasis Recti....it is basically a separation of your abdominal muscles, very common with a multiple pregnancy. I also now understand better why I would need a full tummy tuck instead of a mini tummy tuck (yep there are two types :-P) The full tummy tuck would included repairing my muscles which is also the most painful part of the recovery process. A mini tuck only include repairing of the muscles from your belly
button and down. You can see in the picture below that the muscle separation runs higher than the belly button.

Here is a more specific definition if you are interested,

It is a medical condition caused by the separation of the abdominal muscles. Normally, the two sides of the rectus abdominus are joined at the linea alba at the body midline. You can see in the picture at left that the muscles which form the “six pack” are tightly held together in the middle.

The defect is caused by the stretching of the rectus abdominis by the growing uterus. It is more common in women with more than one child due to the repeated episodes of stretching. When the defect occurs during pregnancy, the uterus can sometimes be seen bulging through the abdominal wall beneath the skin.

And here is nice little picture for you too!

Interesting, right? You can also check to see how many 'fingers width' your abdominal wall is separated by,



An easy way to test yourself to see if you have it, is to lie down on your back and place one hand on your belly near the belly button and the other hand behind your neck. Lift your head about an inch or two off the floor and feel the middle of your belly. If you can place more than two or three fingers horizontally between the right and left halves of your abdominus rectus, then you have separated abdominal muscles.

I did this and there is a 'three finger' separation of my abdomen muscles, you can actually feel the separation....weird but cool at the same time.

With a singleton pregnancy, this condition is just temporary and normally repairs itself after a few months. It is a little different with a twin/triplet/quad etc. pregnancy. The separation begins earlier and more permanent damage is done that is not 'temporary'. Considering I was measuring 47 weeks when J&K were born at 37 weeks.....this would explain itself lol

From what I am learning there are many 'theories' on how to repair this, the first most successful being a tummy tuck. There are some exercises but from the research these are not suggested because they may the opposite effect of making the bulge larger since the stomach muscles are not where they need to be. Because of this, the muscles will develop differently causing the bulge to be larger *Sigh* This can also lead to back problems, which I certainly don't need since I already have mild scoliosis.

I have really been trying to find someone to share their tummy tuck surgery experience with me...the recovery freaks me out a bit. I usually expect the worse with situations so I am either prepared for the worst or pleasantly surprised if it's not as bad :-P So on my Multiples message board, someone recently had a tummy tuck and she made me feel much better about it!

So I had my tummy tuck + muscle and hernia repair + lipo to my hips August 4th. Honestly, my recovery has been a breeze. I had some pain immediately post-op where they repaired my abs but it hasn't been unbearable ever. It's not without pain but it's certainly not the painful, horrible recovery I've read about on blogs/vlogs on the internet. The lipo hurt more than the tummy tuck. I felt super bruised for a long time. That feeling is only subsiding recently and I'm 2 days shy of a month post-op. The tightness and numbness has been the most annoying part. I only needed to take narcotics around the clock for 2 days. After 2 days I only took them at bedtime. The swelling sucks and it takes a long, long time to dissipate. 6-12 months. My swelling gets worse if I go without my binder for a long time or if I've been on my feet for a long time.


My suggestion would be to get help for the first 3 weeks. Take it one day at a time. People get so worked up about their final results. You're not going to see final results for 6-12 months. There is a ton of swelling. The incision is huge. The swelling distorts your results and people get really discouraged and regret having the surgery in the first place. I went into this surgery thinking any result would be better than what I was living with. I couldn't STAND the spare tire in front any longer. I hated wearing even baggy tshirts b/c you could still see my spare tire. I looked 4 or 5 months pg still. Gross. I was embarrased to leave the house. Even with all the swelling, I'm over the moon with my new stomach. It's not perfect but I never expected it to be. I didn't do the surgery to look like a super model or be a size 0 --  I did it to feel better about myself. I can't even put a price on how good I feel in a simple tshirt now. It's awesome. I have no regrets. I feel like my normal self again. Go into the surgery with realistic expectations and you should be fine. It's a long recovery and I think people forget that.

Her thoughts pretty much sum it up for me...I don't want  to be a supermodel or size 0, I just want to feel good in my own skin and about myself.


I am so blessed to have a supportive husband and family that had already said they are willing to help if I get the surgery. The surgeon's schedule coordinator said the cost I was given was good up to a year from my consult and they usually schedule about 2 months out. So no rush but ideally the dreary, boring months of january and february would be a good time for recovery :-P That gives me more time to save money for this because it is not cheap :-P Not to mention, the is a major surgery and I want to learn all I can about it.

If you got this far, thanks! I thought it was interesting stuff!