It was no surprise that I’d gained close to 70 pounds while I was pregnant with my first son. I ate like eating was the new black, figuring that I’d simply breastfeed those pesky pounds away after I popped him out. When, unrelated to my weight issues, he didn’t nurse, the weight didn’t fall off, I was stuck losing it the old fashioned way. And I did. Every single pound.
I got pregnant with my second child determined that I wouldn’t repeat the mistakes of my first pregnancy. When I was hungry, I didn’t reach for a candy bar, I grabbed a bag of green beans and ate them steamed—no butter. I was shocked when I still gained 70 pounds. Certainly, I could breastfeed those pounds off…right?
Not so much. I dieted, I exercised, I nursed and the scale barely budged until my son turned a year old. Then, the weight began to really come off. My friends begged me for dieting advice and all I could say was, “This is finally the baby weight coming off.”
I got pregnant pretty quickly after my son turned a year which meant that I hadn’t finished losing the baby weight before my body decided that I probably needed to hold onto every single calorie I ingested…just in case my developing fetus needed it. (I was shocked that none of my babies weighed 70 pounds) This time, I’d resigned myself to the weight gain and stopped worrying about it. When the nurse weighed me in, I simply turned my back to the scale. No use in being upset about numbers I couldn’t control.
After my daughter was born, my thyroid crapped out on me, adding insult to injury. I wanted to wear a shirt that said, “I have a glandular problem,” but ultimately decided against it. Instead, month after month, I got my hormones tested and finally fixed my thyroid.
Diet, exercise and (most importantly) time have allowed me to finally lose the baby weight and I’m finally within five pounds of my first goal weight, the weight I was when I was first pregnant with my sons. It’s a good, healthy weight for me and although I’d like to lose more, I’ll be happy to be there awhile.
While I’m happy that I’m nearing my goal, I’m sorry that I let those numbers rule my life for so long. I should have spent that time knitting sweaters for the poor (I don’t knit) or breastfeeding baby alpacas. I didn’t need to obsess over something that really didn’t matter to anyone but me. And believe me, those numbers could make or break my day.
I forgot something important along the way: I was beautiful as I was. That’s not something any scale can measure.
Wait. The baby doesn’t account for 98% of pregnancy weight gain? Who made that rule up? A man, obviously.
Steamed greeen beans and you still put on 70lbs.? Man, life is so not fair!!
I’m with you on not losing weight until they’re over a year!! All i heard before was, lose the weight in the first year or you won’t. Well, i got pregnant with #2 3 months/2 months….whatever, they’re 11 months apart… After, so needless to say, my daughter just turned one and i’m finally starting to lose the weight. Maybe it’s all the time I have to myself (hahahaha).
Ha! My youngest is now 3, and I’m just started to lose the weight. Darn low metabolism!
It took me 3 years to lose the 60lbs I gained with my first. Everyone told me that the weight would come off when I breast fed. They were liars! I think my problem was lack of sleep, I could not get my daughter to sleep through the night until she was almost 3. Then suddenly, like magic, when she (we) started sleeping, the weight starting coming off. I have since read somewhere that lack of sleep screws up your metabolism.
Ummm…. I bet if you HAD been breastfeeding baby alpacas the weight would’ve come off… just sayin’…
You are and always have been beautiful, Aunt Becky!
On no…my daughter is 30 Still have not lost the weight, it got worse when the 2 grankids arrived. Where you you wonderful ladies when I was a young MUM?
*giggle* The image of breastfeeding baby alpacas is priceless.
Yes, you are beautiful! Great post.
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