Dayna Devon opens up about her tummy tuck
As anyone who ever had ‘two kids under two’ knows, back-to-back pregnancies take a huge toll on your body, and — as mom to Emmi Reese, who just turned 2 last Sunday, and 8-month-old Cole Brent — Dayna Devon knows the consequences well. Although she was able to shed the 24 lbs she gained with each pregnancy by 6-months postpartum, EXTRA host Dayna tells the Sept. 17 issue of People, on newsstands now, that she was left with belly flab that simply wouldn’t budge.
Click below to read all about Dayna’s tummy tuck and to see her results!
When I lay down in bed, my loose skin would pool next to me. I have to stand next to Halle and Angelinaon the red carpet…I did a zillion crunches, ran, lifted weights. Igot the baby weight off — but I couldn’t get rid of the stomach! Itreally bothered me.
When Dayna contemplated having a tummy tuck, she needed to look no further than her own husband, plastic surgeon Dr. Brent Moelleken. Dayna says that she ‘really trusts him,’ however, she added a special touch — ‘I [heart] U, Brent’ on her stomach — to remind him that she wasn’t just any patient.
Brentbecomes very clinical — almost distant — when he’s about to dosurgery. I wanted to relate to him on a different level — not as apatient but as a wife.
Entering Dayna’sabdominal wall via a small incision through her C-section scar — rather than going hip-to-hip — andusing the opening to perform liposuction and tighten her abdominalmuscles, Brent, 47, performed the two-hour surgery — his own ‘hybrid tummy tuck‘ — himself, ‘pulling everything closed like a corset.’ Giving his wife a smooch after surgery, Brent joked,
I don’t usually kiss patients in the recovery room.
The recovery for the $15,000 surgery was tough — leaving Dayna a "little bit sore" — but not in as much discomfort as she was following her C-sections. In fact, Dayna said that "not being able to pick up my children for two weeks — and that made me really upset" was the biggest drawback of having the procedure.
In so doing, Dayna, 37, joins the small list of celebrities — including Patricia Heaton and Shar Jackson — who admit undergoing plastic surgery to reclaim their pre-baby bodies; She is skeptical of new celeb moms who credit only "vegetables and walking" for their svelte shape, saying "that’s just not possible." Now that she is healed, Dayna says she has no regrets about her own decision to go under the knife.
Whenyou get pregnant, so many different things happen to your body, andmost of them you can’t really fix. You know, I had a flat stomachbefore I had kids and I had a lot of battle scars that can’t be fixed, but this is the one thing that can be, and I had theopportunity to do that. Plenty of women are having whatever they needdone. Why not talk about it?
One of the reasons I wanted to be so open about the fact that Idid this is more and more we see these celebrities and think they snapright back after pregnancy — but this is what they’re doing too.
All I have to do is look at my new waistline and I realize it was worth it! I’m so happy I did it.
You can watch videos of Dayna’s Pre-Op consultation and Surgery day and recovery on People.com. EXTRA is launching its 14th season and 4000th episode next week!
Source: People, September 17th issue, p. 92-94
Tags: Brent Moelleken, Cole Moelleken, Dayna Devon, Emmi Moelleken, Patricia Heaton, Shar Jackson
- Posted on Sep 7, 07 at 6:50PM
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- 20 Comments
September 7th, 2007 at 6:59 pm
Gosh, I wish I was married to a plastic surgeon….I need a lot of work!
September 7th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
OK..I watched the videos and I have to say that I would LOVE to have her stomach pre-surgery. You don’t want to see my stomach after my 2 children back to back. If I had her stomach pre-surgery, I would wear a bikini to the grocery store and ask to see the manager!
September 7th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
I kind of think it was too soon for surgery her youngest is only 8 months. What does Dayna mean by her stomach ‘pooling?’ It was probably minuscule! Some people can get into good shape after pregnancy without a scalpel!
Sarah’s note: Can you send me an email? I can add it to the list of questions that way. Thanks!
September 7th, 2007 at 7:19 pm
I would love my flab gone and my strechmarks too!! She is lucky, if you can do it, go ahead!
Financially I cannot afford it so I’m stuck with this body.
I’m working on those crunches/the plank too, it may reduce a bit but I don’t think that much.
Dayna your pre-surgery photo looks super compared to my flab!
You are beautiful.
September 7th, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Danielle? I wish youd interview Angie!
September 7th, 2007 at 8:40 pm
Boy I should’ve married a plastic surgeon. I had twins three years ago, and my twinskin is much worse than Dayna’s from two back-to-back. No matter how you lose the weight, you can’t force skin to snap back to what it was before it got stretched out. If you don’t know what she means by the skin pooling, well, lucky you!
September 7th, 2007 at 8:59 pm
I don’t really think the back to back pregnancies and 24 pounds was the problem. My guess is the c-section caused the loose skin. I’ve heard a lot of this from other people. I’ve had 4 children and gained 22 with 2 and 33 with 2. I’ve been lucky enough to have all vaginal births. I don’t have stretch marks or loose skin. My only complaint are my boobs aren’t full anymore. Pregnancy really affects them especially if they were small to begin with and grew and then got small again. I wish I could get a breast augmentation and lift.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:19 pm
I have no kids yet but I’ve had stretch marks, loose skin, and saggy boobs since my early teens because due to a cycle of gaining & losing weight…so I truly hate to see what I will look like after a baby! Hopefully by then they will have invented full-body transplants
September 7th, 2007 at 9:34 pm
If you have to squeeze your skin together to show off how bad it is, you don’t need a tummy tuck.
Then again if your dh is a plastic surgeon, why not?
I just don’t agree with how bad she said she looked. Why sugar coat it? If you can afford it and/or you have access to a plastic surgeon you don’t really have to explain yourself.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Even before her surgery, her stomach didn’t look bad at all for having 2 kids back to back and by c-section. But good for her, for doing what makes her happy and to top it off she is being honest about it. I’m sure plenty of celebrities with or without kids have had surgeries like this, and say they got back into shape just by say running after the kids lol. I’m not saying all celebrities get surgery, because I work in a gym and I know ladies that have had 2-3 kids and bodies look good because they were in shape before pregnancy and work-out reguarly, but it’s no secret many rich people get tummy tucks, boob jobs, etc. Anyway good for dayna if you have the money and it makes you happy, I say go for it. She already said she isn’t having anymore kids, so now she has a nice flat tummy.
September 7th, 2007 at 10:09 pm
wait wait wait! She went thru MAJOR surgery to lose 2 measly inches?? Im sure it has a lot to do with the fact that her hubby is a plastic surgeon. I know elective procedures are common nowadays but really she looked AMAZING before. I would honestly be embarrased to admit that i was vain enough to put myself thru anesthesia and hospital time away from my baby for 2 little inches.
September 7th, 2007 at 11:26 pm
Well, I think she didn’t really need it – and I think it was really too early after she gave birth to have that kind of surgery — BUT!! — I really respect her honesty and think it’s great she’s opening up about it. I guess Hollywood has different standards of perfect, and it can’t be easy being married to a plastic surgeon. He must see all your flaws all the time and how he could fix them!
I personally plan to have a tuck after my last child, but if my second baby weighs anything near to what my first baby did, I am going to need it big time. Unlike Dana, I didn’t gain 24 lbs, I gained more like 40lbs and my child was almost 9lbs.
I would love to hear all about her procedure and especially about the recovery pain and the scar–how does the scar compare to a c-section scar?
September 7th, 2007 at 11:30 pm
My gut skin is so bad, its frightening. I have lost 40 of the total of 80 from my back to back pregnancies… baby #2 is almost 10 months. I get asked all the time about my baby’s due date, and I want to ask people “Hm, does a normal pregnant belly sag down to your knees?” or “Can you stick a finger in one of YOUR stretchmarks?”
Whatever. I’m happy shes happy. I’m jealous, fat, and poor.
No hard feelings though!!
September 8th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
I think it’s sad that celebrities don’t give themselves time to recover from a pregnancy and a birth.
Her second is only 8months old for heavens sake!!!
I had my first 2 pregnancies back to back and didn’t loose all the weight until I weaned my 2nd son at 1 year. And I got back to a great body when my second was around 2.
When he was 4 I my third baby and I am giving my self until next summer to get back into fighting shape (she’ll be 18mos old and I’ll be done nursing)
My question is this (OT): Does anybody in Hollywood delver vaginally anymore?
Sarah’s note: Yeah! Off the top of my head, Naomi Watts, Jen Garner, Heidi Klum (who went off at a magazine who reported she had a c-section with Johan), Nancy O’Dell, Tammy Etheridge (twins), Amanda Peet, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Cindy Crawford, Penny Lancaster Stewart, Pam Anderson, Brooke Burke, Geena Davis (who wrote a letter to People for reporting her twins were delivered via c-section when they weren’t), Katie Holmes…
September 8th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
Dayna,
Is your dad still a dentist in Texas? He was mine! And I grew up with your cousin Caitlin! It’s great you are doing so well.
September 8th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Thank you Sarah!!
I do remember the Heidi Klum & Geena Davis reports.
Seems we only hear about mode of delivery when its a c section…
September 9th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
I guess when you are in show business you have to live by different standarts. Her pre-surgery belly is not bad at all.
I’ve been cursed with non-elastic skin and after having twins I ended up having a wrinkled flap of skin. When twins were 4 I had a tummy tuck which despite having a kelloid scar from hip to hip (bad skin, I am tellyng ya) I don’t regret.
September 9th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I delivered my first daughter c-section and my second daughter was born naturally. My stomach went flat about 9 months after my c-section. But after my natural delivery, I swear my stomach went flat in two weeks. A c-section is such major surgery. You can’t even feel your stomach enough to even try to suck it in for months after the surgery. I think her stomach would have eventually gone flatter for her. It just takes a long time after a c-section. And the more c-sections you have, it gets even harder and longer to recover. Just my opinion.
September 10th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
gawd i have more flab in my stomach than her pre surgery …and i’ve never even had a baby!!!! lol
September 10th, 2007 at 10:57 pm
For her to say that women who claim to to have gotten their shape back form exercise and vegetables alone “isn’t possible” is just ludicrous. I was back in a bikini five months after my daughter was born. I dropped all the baby weight in like 2 1/2 months. I walked every other day, ate normal meals and nursed my baby. I didn’t do a sit up either. I didn’t have any pooling skin either. Everyone’s skin elasticity and metablolism is different. Some of us are just made this way and excersise does work, but apparently so does plastic surgery.