Guest Post: “Loving The Body That Gave Life” by Nicky Schmaderer of Vida Noel
[READ HER FULL ARTICLE HERE]
Pregnancy & Postpartum Realities
I became pregnant when I was 22 years old. I was happily married for only 3 months and this little miracle inside my womb decided to surprise us. I was not ready to be a mother and I struggled with this new role for months…
Noelia was born that October and my life changed forever. She was everything I never knew I needed...Although I was obsessed with my new baby, I was less than impressed with the body I was left with Postpartum. It was raw, bruised, stretched, sore, and tired. At 23 I wanted to feel confident…and I felt low.
As a new mother I had no clue of all the things I would experience in postpartum, especially those first couple months. I knew my body would have a healing process but the battle was so much more mental than physical for me. My baby was beautiful but my body was not. My own voice saying that line over and over in my head for months…
Flash forward to one year postpartum, and I LOVED my body. It was not an easy process but with proper nutrition and time I was able to feel like “me” again…but a better version. I loved my body MORE after Noelia. Sure, there were some things that were different but I grew to love the signs that I have a body that gave life…
Baby Number Two
I welcomed our second Angel baby this past July, our perfect Reina Ruby. To be expected, the same feelings came pouring back in. Evil thoughts of body shame flooded my mind constantly and it was like I was back to square one. I was…but this time it was different. It was worse. The marks on my stomach only increased in size and my body was even more tired…
My pregnancy with Noelia left me with some stretched skin and marks under my belly button, but nothing too noticeable. With Reina, it was completely different. My pregnancy with her caused more damage to my stomach and it was clear no diet or exercise would fix it…
Working With Imagen
I posted THIS POST on my Instagram early this year to show my audience the changes my body went through after having Reina. The team at Imagen in Omaha, NE happened to see the post and later contacted me for a possible collaboration…
You guys…I literally wanted to cry when I found out there was a treatment for my loose skin. As you can see below, I was damaged…a beautiful type of damage, but a definite change in my appearance. After seeing results of other women’s bodies after Profound, I knew it was a great fit for me.
The Healing Process
I am about 1.5 months post-procedure and I am already seeing amazing results. There are some days I feel like not much as changed but as soon as I see my before images I am shocked. I am so excited to see the full results! The procedure itself took about 2 hours. I documented the journey in my latest YouTube video which I will link below. There was a lot of tenderness those first few weeks and I had to wear a compression garment with a firm board to ensure I was healing properly. I had to wear it everyday for the first month. It was very annoying at first to wear but I did get used to it…
Please know, this is in no way “cheating the system”. This is in no way a weight loss procedure. This is a procedure that betters the appearance of your skin. The damage on my skin and belly button was skin; no amount of diet and exercise can heal that.
If you are a woman who has gone through pregnancy, I am sure you have had similar feelings of sadness and loss of self confidence. You deserve things like this, Mama’s! You worked for those babies!
Nicky Schmaderer, Vida Noel
