You have to be careful with the ab work, because like you realized, some of it can cause your stomach to stick out, and if you build a lot of muscle there, well, it may be more firm than fat but it can still stick out. For me running and ballet type exercise where I hold my abs in have worked the best.
Also, you can lose weight, but your body and genetics will play a major role in where it comes off first. For you, the belly may be the last thing to go. You said you still had 10 pounds or so left so maybe that will largely come from the stomach since everywhere else doesn't have anything left to lose.
One last thing: You may need to give yourself some more time. I know eight months seems like a lot, but for me it's now a year since I had my second, and my stomach has recently gotten even smaller (I haven't lost weight recently, apparently it was still just rebounding from pregnancy). At around 7 months after I had my baby I was reconciling myself to the fact that I would just have to be content with a slightly larger stomach even though I was the same weight as before but guess what? 5 months later and now I think my stomach is back to about what it was before on its own. And I didn't even have a C-section so it might take your body a little longer.
Good luck to you, and it sounds like you are very determined so I have no doubt you will get your body back the way you want it.