I follow the fashion blog of a petite woman to get ideas for new work outfits and while the woman behind the blog is a small-boned woman, she’s about my height. At my ideal weight (pre-kids), I probably weighed about ten pounds more than she does at her ideal weight (ten pounds for a petite women can mean a dress size or two). She is small-framed while I am more of a small/medium frame.

I was impressed–after two children, she returned to her ideal weight and shape. However, while looking for something else on her blog, I ran across a post she where wrote about her tummy-tuck (!) to fix her diastasis recti, a common condition that women experience during pregnancy. As the baby grows, the abdominal muscles can and often do split down the center. They are attached to each other but the muscle fibers run up and down in your abdomen meaning that it’s easy for them to split lengthwise during pregnancy. When you are short and pregnant, the chances of having this happen are high because, well, the baby has to go somewhere and that’s going to be out front because there is not much room up and down.

I’ve been researching diet and exercise programs that are most effective for petite women and was excited to discover that the fashion blogger I follow had successfully lost the weight and got back her shape.

And then I ran across the tummy-tuck post.

I was a little disappointed because I have had this same condition, diastasis recti, for a longer time–and including all of the issues that come with it. I have also had a horrible time losing weight because of it. Fat likes to lodge in the area and doing things like sit-ups can actually make it worse.

But after reading her post–and getting over the slightly shocking and disappointing revelation that she had surgery to correct it– I started looking up how much repairs like this cost (they are considered elective and not covered by insurance) and I thought maybe, just maybe, I could ask for one in a year or two for a birthday present…