Diastasis Recti

Weird post title eh? Well, I've finally figured out why I hate my belly, and diastatis recti is culprit. About three months after giving birth to my second child, I was back down to my prepregnancy weight, but not my pre pregnancy body. My belly just looked so huge, like I was still 20 weeks pregnant you could even say. I got back into climbing, worked out quite often, and still, the belly would not go away. Now it is two years later and I still have not been to a doctor for any form of a check up, but decided to do a little googling last night about my abs.

 A year ago, a fried of mine mentioned he thought I had the condition after seeing me in a bikini and hearing me complain, but I didn't check it out. Well, now I have. When I lay down on my back and tighten my abs, I have a huge crater that is about three fingertips wide. My belly button sticks out like a point, and when I eat or am bloated, I look like I am pregnant all over again (seriously, check out the photo below). I have to constantly suck in and my core strength is still not what it used to be. Why? Diastasis recti.

Seriously, I'm not pregnant. My posture doesn't help, but still! AHHH!

Basically, my abdominal muscles are now separated farther than they should be and that means I don't have the muscle to cover my belly anymore!  The worst part is, all the crunches and sit ups and exercises I was doing to strengthen my core actually were not helping and could have been worsening the gap. There are very specific exercises I'm finding out that can help, and now that I know, I plan on working on closing the gap. Any other moms out there that had this happen? If so, I'd love to hear your thoughts on exercises and dealing with it.