If the nine months to August 10 were a tenancy, Abbie would not be getting her bond back.
It was one of the weirdest things about the whole birth experience looking in the mirror the day after at this stranger.
It was my face (with what looked suspiciously like the beginning of an extra chin) but the rest was entirely unfamiliar.
My belly looked as though I was still pregnant, except floppy, my breasts were massive and my legs were so swollen the looked broken.
Thankfully the situation has eased since then - my cankles went down the day I came home, my belly has shrunk and I no longer look as though I have shoplifted a pair of soccer balls.
Between the birth and the week after I had lost 10kg, and thankfully the double chin was a fluid thing, so it went with it.
If only that was all I had to lose...
A couple of weeks ago I went shopping for some clothes.
I couldn't fit back into my pre-pregnancy clothes and my maternity stuff is all fitted, which is no good for nursing unless you want to disrobe each time baby is hungry.
I walked straight past the stores I used to frequent to those aimed at slightly older women. Sigh.
I picked out a couple of things I might have worn in my pre-pregnancy days and they all looked rubbish.
A new approach was called for.
I took another look at my figure in the notoriously unflattering store mirror.
It wasn't just that I was a little bigger (okay a lot bigger), I had changed shape entirely.
Before my hip measurement was bigger than my bust, but I still had a reasonable waist.
Now if anything my bust measurement would be bigger than my hip measurement and my waist has thickened considerably.
I did manage to find a few suitable items, but not without a considerable effort.
I will endeavour to get something approaching my old figure back, but I'm not in too much of a hurry.
One thing the cesarean is good for is it gives me the convenient excuse of major abdominal surgery to stop me feeling guilty for not pounding the pavement just yet (or any time soon).
In fact, I've been told that heavy exercise in the first six months postpartum puts a woman at risk of injury because her body is still full of relaxin, which allows her muscles and joints to stretch to accommodate a growing bub and facilitate its exit.
But my child health care nurse said it best - it took you nine months to put it on, so give yourself at least nine months to get it off.