Dancing With The Stars’s Peta Murgatroyd and Maksim Chmerkovskiy welcomed their son, Shai Aleksander, on January 4th. (I can only assume that they weren’t that prepared for labor considering that they got kicked out of Lamaze for not paying attention in class.) Peta is making headlines for sharing her post-baby body on social media, and not because she’s bragging about how quickly she snapped back. She’s being honest about the fact that her stomach is still poking out and making her look pregnant. This is only natural considering it’s been less than two weeks since she had a baby. She posted this to Instagram:
I remember this phase so well. The day after I had my son I had to take him to the pediatrician for a checkup. I looked about eight months pregnant, not five like Peta is saying. A twelve year-old boy at the doctor’s office asked me rudely if I was expecting again. I had no idea that my stomach would still be so huge after I had my baby and I was mortified. I wish someone would have warned me about this so I could be prepared mentally at least. When celebrities share these type of stories it does help.
All of that said, she’ll be fit and amazing looking again in no time and I suspect she’ll be posting selfies at that point too. No shade for that and it’s to be expected given her job as a professional dancer. She does deserve props for this. Hilaria Baldwin did something similar, she shared a pic one day after she gave birth, but hers looked more like a glamour shot and it sounded less sincere. That’s just how Hilaria comes across though.
This is Maksim and Peta’s nursery for Shai. It looks so industrial, right? They haven’t shared a photo of the baby yet and Maksim explained why on his Instagram. (That’s below.)
EXCLUSIVE: Inside @DancingABC's @PetaMurgatroyd and @MaksimC's luxe nursery for son Shai! https://t.co/8KAup2m2bF pic.twitter.com/IEQF58jT5P
— People Babies (@PEOPLEbabies) January 11, 2017
photos credit: Getty, Instagram/Peta Murgatroyd, WENN
Love this. So happy for them.
And some tummies never snap back thanks to Diastasis Recti. I’m still side-eyeing her for the Lamaze drama.
Right?! Ugh, I didn’t get it with my first two but I did with my twins and it sucks so hard. I’ve tried the exercises to heal it and I think they’ve helped but I still have this pooch I’ve never had before. And I definitely can’t afford surgery to correct it, sigh.
Me, too, Mel M! Daughter, none. Twin sons- 4″ diastasis. Gah!
Diasistis Recti isn’t a permanent condition for most women.
Yep but it is for some. Especially those of us who were lucky enough to have twins. It’s not easy for everyone to snap back to pre baby body & a lot of times diastisis cant be fixed except with surgery.
But it can be stubbornly difficult to heal. My son is 5 and I just found out that under my pooch I still have over an inch gap. I had no idea – the top part healed years ago.
Actually, I’m a personal trainer specializing in working with pre-postnatal women. It isn’t that it doesn’t go away with most women (even with twins) it’s simply that most women aren’t taught how to properly regain core strength after having a baby. DR simply means that the abs need to be re-strengthened and re-engaged properly, and the issue is that otherwise its easy to worsen it by doing movements that exacerbate the gap. There is a great deal that you can do non-surgically.
Also, it’s totally normal for your rectus abdominus to have a small gap. It’s only when it’s over 3 finger widths is it a diastisis recti.
I mean my stomach looks like this everyday and I’ve never been pregnant…
Too funny…mine too (and I’ve never been pregnant, either)!
So proud of them for keeping their baby to themselves for a while, perfectly understandable. Such sweet messages from Maks…love him…and really like Maks and Peta together. Congrats!!!
They are keeping the baby to themselves because they are still holding out for a payday on the first pictures. Maybe one of the magazines will make an offer but it is not going to be as big as these two want. They have deluded themselves into thinking they deserve A list treatment and money.
I think they keep the baby to themselves because we’ve all seen a fresh-out-the-oven baby….they aren’t chubby and cute. They are little, wrinkly, old, potato people and it doesn’t make for a good photo op. Plus…I don’t have kids but when did this whole me me me thing start with pregnancy? I’ve noticed a lot of crap coming from new moms who seems to think they are the first woman to ever have the realizations about pregnancy they are experiencing. You aren’t special or different. You had a baby, stop trying to get points and likes for doing what parents are supposed to do and taking care of your baby. It’s hard, it’s beautiful, it’s nasty, it’s amazing and it is life. You don’t need to post and advertise its every nook and cranny like your some baby birthing martyr, he first to ever have her pregnancy battered body looked at. You shared it on the Internet? Want a treat?
I don’t know which new parent is tormenting you right now, but, um, maybe avoid them until this phase is over. It won’t be all me, me, me when that kid is recovered from the birth. Every generation does this I think (and precious few people warn you about the body thing).
I get it, that babies have been born a schlazillion times since the dawn of humans….
but it’s THEIR first time, and it is g*damn amazing, humbling, terrifying, hard, beautiful, and larger than life for each person, each and every time.
is a fantastic symphony or fireworks display less amazing when more people experience it? nah.
He claimed in another instagram that the paparazzi are camped out in front of their house trying to get a picture. Please.
Wow, he has gotten full of himself. Not enough people know who they are for the paps to bother camping out. If there are paps for these two, then they were called by Peta and Maks.
I remember being disconcerted at how pregnant I still looked after having my first son and bummed that I couldn’t ditch my awful 90s maternity wear immediately. With all the info available about what to expect when you’re pregnant, that was one thing that was definitely left out. That and the after cramps, which I found out after my second son are worse with each successive birth!
They still leave this out!
All of my friends were basically shocked and sad at being ‘pregnant’ post pregnancy.
That and how difficult breast feeding can be seem to be the biggest shocks.
She looks pretty amazing considering the fact that she just gave birth, stomach or no stomach.
I actually like this – women shouldn’t have to hide their bodies after having given birth, and many celebrities do just that – hide for four weeks, starve themselves to death in the meantime – and then walk out as if being thin again that fast were completely normal.
I think this is really good of her.
She’s obviously very fit and slim, and it normalizes how a woman’s body will look after pregnancy.
Best thing I’ve ever seen from Peta.
They worked hard getting that nursery exactly as they wanted, obviously. But babies need contrast, color. It’ll be like the poor babe is blind in that sanitarium white room!
I wonder how soon will they remove that white carpet. A few splashes of spit-up milk…
Eh, I had a mostly white nursery for my first as we were waiting till he was born to find out what was he was and I figured that it would get very busy visually very quickly. And it did! Toys, books, a few wall hangings as we got to know him better….
Of course mine had the pre-existing beige carpet and we didn’t paint the ceiling so we had mis-matched whites.
It does take some time for your uterus to shrink and everything shift back to normal. And it’s OK! Hey, I love my children immensely but let’s be honest. Childbirth is a trauma for your body. No matter how the baby comes out.
Yes, ma’am.
Still waiting to ‘snap back’ in to shape 6 years later… Unfortunately ‘running around’ after my kids and breastfeeding didn’t make me skinny like most celebrity moms (I am one of those lucky ones who gained weight during BF – it made me so hungry) claim it does! Glad to see some honesty for once!
I gained 38 pounds during my first pregnancy. My son weighed in at 7 lbs. I hopped on the scale when I got home anticipating that I’d probably lost a lot of weight already. And I lost…7 lbs. That’s it. And I remember my dad asking me if there was a baby still in there. Funny guy!
I remember leaving the hospital after my third, and a nurse congratulating me in the elevator that I didn’t still look pregnant like most of the moms she sees. She was rolling her eyes about them, and I couldn’t believe someone in medicine would be so ignorant.
I think it’s great she’s posting too. If a professional dancer with great abdominal muscles, who eats well and exercises still has a belly, the regular mom shouldn’t be beating up themselves.
I was prepared to go off on her if I opened this and saw her already bounced back figure, but yay honest pictures!! Love it. This isn’t really talked about and it should be. We get bombarded with celebs who lose the belly in weeks and want us to think it’s not hard work. I’ll never forget how skinny I felt the first time I got up and walked around after I gave birth, I could breathe again and didn’t feel that pulling in my tummy, but when I made it to a mirror I was shocked, it didn’t match how I felt and it was truly jarring. I wasn’t cute and pregnant, I suddenly felt overweight and disgusted by my body, and it makes me sad I felt that way. It’s hard to admit that, but I quickly got over it and focused on my baby and the weight was off by the end of her first year.
I like when celebrity women show off the after bump, Kate Middleton and Pink are the only two I can think of who did!
I felt the same way, and Just like you said, I was sad and disappointed on top of that that I fgot sad bc of that, you knew w? I felt like a bad feminist, a bad mother, a bad person. Especially bc it wasn’t about sexy, it was about my own body that is just….having a life of it’s own, without any input from me. About not feeling like yourself anymore.
My weight was back to normal after 9months-just breastfeeding and reentering normal life while taking care of the baby. And if I knew (I wish I did!) that during the first few months, I’d be more relaxed and less anxious about it.
I’m glad she’s posting about this. My sisters bounced right back immediately after giving birth, and I didn’t at all. It’s something they don’t tell you because not all women go through it. It should be in the books and online that it can happen and is normal. It’s much appreciated I’m sure.
They also don’t tell you that your daughter may have a mini-period because of your hormones when you birthed her so when my niece started menstruating and all my sister and brother-in-law saw was BLOOD!!!! they flipped and the doctors didn’t even tell them over the phone so they spent the whole night crying (this was before smart phones and ipads). So if you’re pregnant with a girl just be aware that might happen! 🙂
Conversely I’m a rare breed in that my metabolism went thru the roof during pregancy and I dropped the weight in a week and couldn’t believe the overt bitchiness and side eyes I received . For the most part I was busy thinking about my gorgeous daughter but when my MIL came over I asked my beastie if I was imagining it because she gave me once over and actually sneered , she said no and was shocked. We had always had a very warm relationship so this can create a weird dynamic amoung women….
Then quickly you become exhausted and unable to shower frequently and/or get a haircut and the world balances out again….
I dropped the weight quickly because I was so sick with both deliveries, but I remember still looking pregnant the first couple of months and being depressed. I was lucky that my cousins had warned me, but I thought it wouldn’t be that bad! My ass hole brother in law had to make the comment that i still looked pregnant and that he didn’t know why. Of course this was after his “I hate that you had a c section and didn’t get to experience the joy of childbirth.” And this is why he is single and has no kids at 38.
Mad props to her!
“I had no idea that my stomach would still be so huge after I had my baby and I was mortified. I wish someone would have warned me about this so I could be prepared mentally at least.”
This! Nobody told me! Not my sis, not my mom(each had three kids), no one! I was shocked and tbh it sent me into a tailspin of insecurity and vulnerability: the combination of hormones going wild and still not recognising your body as yours, without anyone preparing you for it, pretty brutal.
So whoever you are, Peta, you can count me as your enthusiastic supporter!
They seem surprisingly classy
I love that she did this!! I work with postpartum women, and living in LA, I work with a LOT of high profile clients. Actresses, models, dancers, fitness people, lifestyle brand reality stars etc. They aren’t immune to the normalness of having a baby, what happens to your body afterwards etc. Most women, given they are active and fit prior to the birth, have their uterus shrink back to shape at 6 weeks. Meaning their uterus is back to prebaby size. Some women carry an extra ten pounds or so until they stop nursing. But most of my clients, famous or not, are ALWAYS shell shocked at their post pregnancy belly with their first kid. They might see it on their friends but think, mine will go down.
The more we normalize pregnancy and the postpartum period, the less shocking the reality of those things will be. I mean, I just had to tell one of my HP clients that she was going to have tons of super, duper big pads for postpartum and she looked at me totally surprised. She didn’t even think of that.
Ah yes, the huge diaper pads and mesh panties to hold them! The massive amounts of bleeding for months was another shock nobody talks about, guess we’re supposed to be ladylike and not talk about such vile things😉
Um, this is a new scary thing you are telling me.
I thought I could get on board with the holes through the nipples from breast feeding, the uterus that sometimes comes to play outside, the stitches, scarring and stretch marks.
Now there is more?!?
Ha! Sorry there is much more😉 Mother Nature sure makes up for those 9 blissful months without a period by making you bleed for 6 weeks after delivery. The hospital gave me some sexy mesh panties to hold the diaper sizes maxi pads I needed, and you get this thing called a sitz bath to help calm your burning vagine that’s been blown out and stitched back up, it hurts so bad to use the restroom but they give you a numbing spray which is helpful, lol.
I could go on and on, lots of disgusting things no one ever tells you to expect!
Hey detritus…well, it seems like you have a great headstart.
Shall I mention padsicles made with witchhazel and olive oil to put into your underwear for the first few days? Literally a frozen maxi pad because your poor vagina and bum hurt so much. In the same vein, what about sitz baths for the possible hemmorhoids and vaginal tears? Ohhhhh, the fun.
Regarding the holes in the nipples, silverette cups are your best friend. <3
ladies, I hate to say it, but next life I’m signing up to be a dude, or a scientist that figures out how to make guys carry pregnancies, a la Junior, because this is just straight up balls. Anyone who survives that is basically a war veteran.
I thought tearing, pooping, and nipple holes were the worst of it, no wonder no one says anything about this or ladies would never sign up.
NO ONE TELLS YOU THIS STUFF UNTIL IT’S TOO LATE!
Yeah, it sucks, but honestly it’s worse hearing about it, for the most part. You feel pretty gross for like the first week, but the rest isn’t as bad.
Jess – you were lucky if you didn’t have a period for 9 months. I breastfed my daughter till she was almost 3 and i got mine back at 7 months… and i was pissed.
But i took it easy after the birth I only bled for 3 weeks not six. When the placenta detaches it leaves a wound about the size of a dinner plate inside you that needs to heal. The more active you are the longer it will take to heal. All these women rushing to exercise are not healing as fast as the could.
Two thumbs up for her. It is a good education for men.
Each gossip and entertainment story written that focuses on “body after baby” and how quickly a woman loses her baby weight or how much baby weight a woman gains directly contributes to a culture that doesn’t talk about the reality of pregnancy and postpartum life. Gossip is an extension of our values and views.
As a mama to a neuro-atypical son with impulse control issues who is learning additional social skills through special ed at school, I want to address the “rude boy” who asked if you were pregnant. If your body still looked eight months pregnant (like mine did at that point too!), his question could be considered curiosity and a learning opportunity rather than impolite. I’ve apologized relentlessly for questions my son asks and it eventually affected his self-esteem. Now I try to address his question so he learns about differences and bodies (“All the healthy things mamas’ bodies make to grow the baby take time to disappear”). Later in private I talk to him about politeness. He’s learning, but he’s a child and it will take time. You wouldn’t know he has these cognitive differences by looking at him.
Thank you for reading our story.
Sure hope no one snags a picture of their baby and makes it a cruel meme. Hopefully Maks has learned what compassion is.
With my first pregnancy, I snapped back pretty quickly. I was a complete devotee of What To Expect When Your Expecting, strictly followed the diet and the results showed for themselves.
The second pregnancy, however, oh Lordy! I threw caution to the wind, ate whatever I felt like eating (but still no alcohol & smoking), and ended up growing out of my maternity clothes. We’re talking what would be one wee 6.3 oz baby. After delivery and for several weeks thereafter, I still looked 9 months pregnant. I wasn’t aware this could be, but it be, it be! Very embarrassing, but EVENTUALLY my stomach returned to normal. Breastfeeding helped.
I like how he says “Thank you for your patience..” like we’re all sitting around DYING to see this kid. Puh leaze.