This Mom’s Abs Are out in Full Force in Controversial 5-Month Baby Bump Photo

Do you remember Sarah Stage, better known as the six-pack mom? The 33-year-old lingerie model magically maintained her incredible abs all the way through her pregnancy in 2015, attracting both positive and negative attention along the way.

She announced this week to her Instagram followers that she’s pregnant again with her and her husband’s second child. At five months pregnant, Stage says she’s due in October — and just like with her first pregnancy, there seem to be little to no signs of a baby bump, and all the signs of killer abs.

Check out the insane photos of her abs throughout both of her pregnancies (plus her diet and workout secrets!), along with some of the social media reactions to her tiny tummy.

Her First Pregnancy

When Stage’s six-pack remained intact and well-defined throughout her entire first pregnancy, she says it was a result of being super fit before getting pregnant.

After posting her first pregnancy photo, her Instagram following quickly grew to over one million, but Stage told Cosmopolitan that she didn’t see what set her apart from all the other pregnant women on Instagram.

“I didn’t think anything of the way I looked, I just thought, This is me,” she said. “I think women are beautiful, and we’re all different shapes and sizes. Some women don’t show a lot when they’re pregnant and my mom carried this way when she was pregnant. She didn’t show until around six months, so I didn’t think anything of it.”

Stage even said that she was able to continue modeling lingerie and swimsuits up until the seven-month mark of her pregnancy, which is when she announced it to the ‘Gram. Here she is at seven months pregnant:

At nine months, Stage was attracting even more attention on Insta. After posting a photo with the caption “Still waiting…” she received comments from “Wow! You look amazing!” to “My stomach gets like that when I smell chocolate.” Here she is at nine months in her final pregnancy photo before giving birth to her son:

The Quick Weight Loss

On April 16, 2015, baby James was born at 8.7 pounds and 22 inches — a very healthy baby born with no complications.

“I was most surprised at how big James was!” Stage told Cosmo. “[Childbirth is] a different experience for everybody, but with me, it wasn’t traumatic at all. There were no complications, so we were lucky.”

In the two weeks that followed, Stage said she lost nearly all the 28 pounds of baby weight she had put on during her pregnancy. In a photo posted to Instagram just four days postpartum, there’s not a single sign of her baby bump.

“James was a big baby,” she told PEOPLE. “He was almost 9 pounds — so with that plus all the fluid, you lose a lot, so it took me a week or two to get down to [my pre-baby] weight,” she said.

Stage said she waited five weeks to start exercising again per her doctor’s orders, but she did go right back to her healthy diet (small, frequent meals). While she was in the hospital her mother-in-law even brought her fruit, veggies and chicken soup.

 

After having James and going back to posting skin-baring photos on Instagram, she received a fair amount of criticism from commenters, accusing her of using Photoshop or even questioning her parenting skills. 

“I’m not sure why people attack me, especially as a new mom,” she told PEOPLE. “I wish people wouldn’t be so quick to make judgments, especially when they don’t know me. I think as women, we should stick together, we should encourage, each other. We shouldn’t bash each other, we shouldn’t tear each other down.”

She doesn’t let the negative comments get her down, though. 

“I try to not to read negative comments,” she says. “I try to focus on my followers that have been so supportive. Those are the ones that really motivate me.”

Her Second Pregnancy

Just like with her first pregnancy, Stage says she’s received flak for the size of her baby bump. “I could eat a taco and look more pregnant than that!” one person commented on her Instagram birth announcement. Someone else wrote, “Is the child underdeveloped or a damn jelly bean, cause her stomach makes no sense?”

But Stage isn’t letting the hate make her nervous or anxious about her baby’s health. “The majority [of comments] are very supportive and positive, so I focus on that,” she told Cosmo. “The entire [first] pregnancy, I felt reassured from the feedback from my doctor, which was always that the baby was measuring normal and healthy. The same goes for this pregnancy.”

She credits her own ebook for her current state of fitness, since most of her workouts these days are done at home while James, now a toddler, is napping.

“Having a toddler makes it tricky to have the time [to work out],” she said.

She works out three to five times per week, mostly weight training — just with lighter weights. She’s a big fan of exercises that get her heart rate up, like squats, lunges and ab work.

At five months pregnant, Stage’s six-pack is already blowing our minds once again. Here’s to another fit, fabulous and healthy pregnancy!