Your Post Baby Body

aimeejoy wrote: I found that the weight really started to just fall off me after I had been bfing for 6 months. Before that it was just coming off slowly, but then it came quickly - about the same time the boobs started to shrink with the bfing!!

I was exactly the same, slowly lost weight for the first six months (while bfing and eating enough for four!) then it just fell off and I ended up nearly 10kg lighter than my pre-preggy weight. Didn't feel healthy in the end, but got pregnant again before I stopped breast feeding so havne't tested what happens once you stop.

Blood clots were unexpected after the birth and really freaked me out. My stretch marks are there still but I expect them to fade a bit more over time. I don't mind them too much actually (got heaps when I was a teenager and grew too fast).

I have to admit to taking a wee while to get used to my 'mummy' body. I feel less sexy sometimes, especially out and about with my non-mummy mates. I don't feel like I can rark it up in the same way and my dress sense has changed to more practical than pretty. Am trying to work on that. I have extra aches and pains now, although talking at 27 weeks pregnant I can't tell the difference between preggy aches and pains and normal ones!

I don't know about being disappointed/sad about my body post-baby...it is different, but I see those differences as kind of acheivements - they wouldn't be there if I didn't have DD so I try to celebrate them. Sounds corny, but kind of like that commercial for So Good a while back that had a mum with stretch marks on her tummy and the phrase 'so rewarding' as she held her toddler in her arms. I get really annoyed with the perception that women's bodies shouldn't change (not at people individually, more at the societal pressures). There was an article a few weeks ago in the Herald I think, about women having plastic surgery 3 months after giving birth (boob jobs etc.)
I wasn't a model before I had DD and so don't expect to be afterwards!

what things surprised you about your post baby body?
My tummy! Like everyone else said - A marshmallow tum . . Where did all the tone go?! Just how much I did actually weigh without bubs.

What was it like adjusting to no longer sharing your body with a baby?
It was wierd. . I missed the closeness it was something special. . It was such a hock even if I really did want her out. I still hold my tummy like I did when I was pregnant and have to sleep with a pillow infront of me to cuddle

Did breastfeeding REALLY help you get your shape back faster?
I'm not sure. I don't think it really helps unless you eat right as well. You can't just eat crap all day long and expect to loose weight, breast feeding or not.
Do stretchmarks improve with time?

NO not so far! Hopefully though. . Mine are still so big and fragile. . Had a few tears

Any other changes you didn't expect?
Didn't expect that much pain when I pee'd or haemorrhoids (sp?) . . No one told me about how bad cluster feeding was!!

I HATE the marshmellow tum and the stretch marks!! DH says they aren't so bad and he loves all of me anyway - but I still can't make myself feel better about it...

Also the pain after - felt like my insides were going to fall out - couldn't stand for longer than 2 minutes without tears and that lasted for 6 weeks...

I didn't miss being pregnant one bit, and I'd been warned that I might, but nope - glad to have baby on the outside and the whole birth over and done with and no more rib-kickings.  What I wasn't prepared for was how much pain I'd be in for those few days after the birth - It took me about 10 minutes to get from reclining to standing each time, and far out did I have to do that a lot!  I also hadn't known that just because they call it a 'graze' doesn't mean it's anything like skinning your knee, and that that'll give you more grief than what's been stitched up does.  I was suprised that my boobs didn't change size at all (apart from engorgement but that's so very temporary), and that I was in my pre-preg clothes a week later.  I think the trick to that one is not to be too toned before you get preggers, ha ha! 

Yeah, I miss being pregnant. Not having the bub in there. Lovely to have her in my arms but do miss that time.

Also just how different this labour was from last time and also how different Ava's personality is from my last!

As for b/f, can't say that it has made a huge difference to my body, I am big busted anyway so having larger boobs didn't make any difference to me. But I did drop weight very quickly after the birth and then my weight has crept up again!

DD#1:~ In heaven 13/08/97 to 08/01/98
DD#2:~ Reflux baby

Definately the marshmellow tummy, I found that sooo weird. That and for me, the first time i went to have a shower after having Paris, i actually physically was standing there and felt all my insides kinda drop back down to where they were supposed to be and it felt like someone had grabbed the inside of my stomach and tried to pull it down through the inside. Was enough to make me have to sit down for a few minutes in teh shower then cut the shower short cos i felt icky.

DJ I found the same thing you did concerning leakage - a bit of a mood killer, not to mention kinda messy and embarassing.

I also found the same as you Catrad - My hair, omg 1 hair wash is enough to seriously clog our drain in the shower, befor ei had my hair cut i had to clean out our shower drain after each hair wash as i loose so much each time... it's only been this way since having kids.

Engorgement, Wholly crap had i known then what i know now i would have called someone about it. I was so so rock hard, i literally had to walk around with my arms away from the sides of my body - I was so big i couldn't even fit the Dcup maternity bras.. from being a b cup just before delivery.

Missing being pregnant, Ooooh how i miss that, I really really do, just that feeling that you're never alone, and i loved my pregnancies so much, it was nice to lie in bed at night and have little conversations with baby, they'd kick, so you'd pat them back on the little sticky-outy foot so they'd boot you harder. And just that knowing that something really awesome is happening in side you every minute of the day.. That's one thing i found after having the missed miscarriage, is knowing that it HAD been happening up till pretty much the fated day of our scan. I really lost that feeling, I felt emptyness instead even before the D&C, but i just wanted them to keep it in there somehow so i wouldn't have to let it go, I think i still have this feeling of not having finished something i started. I really miss being pregnant.

I did lose weight after pregnancy. Especially with Paris but then i think that's cos #1) i didn't actually understand how much i had to eat to keep up with my own needs as well as making milk for PAris, and #2) I had a fair spell of depression, which actually ended up with me being only on the verge of 50 - 51 kgs when i fell pregnant with Ayja cos i hadn't had too much urge to eat.

I must say that after ayja, i didn't have as much time nor as much energy to do too much for myself, shopping for my own clothes is till something i don't really do very often at all, maybe 2 times a year i might get myself something nice, usually on sale for very cheap too. It has taken a long time to start trying to get back to pre-ayja shape, i breastfed for much longer which meant i lost a bit of wqeight, but the longer period of increased hormones helped everything stay nice and soft and flabby, that and i ate lots more to keep up with breastfeeding a toddly till 16 mths, so once i stopped it took a very very long time for me to get out of the habit of still eating that much food even thoug i didn't need to be.

Am unsure that i'll ever get back too much sense of being toned... I really wonder why i didn't like my body more when i was 17, a gymnast with abs and toned muscles head to toe. lol. I know i won't get back there completely ever.

I love what my body did, I don't really think about it too much apart from just wanting to loose some of the wobble.

and stretch marks - I got none

Edited by mum2paris

charly! wow you are lucky..I'm like everyone else..due to the stressful birth my c-scar is in a slightly differrent plac4e and becaus eof the way he was inside one side hurts a lot mroe than the other.. i dont like the marshmallow thing either...and esp not the leaking everywhere thing.. I was already a DD...and now..well ..a lot bigger:( !!

I was surprised how much the breastfeeding made my uterus contract and how much it hurts:( ! stretchmarks look a little different already...bio oil causes a rash but think i might use it anyway..

also the emotions after having him are ten times worse than pregnancy!!

I really really didn't enjoy being pregnant but now I miss it..makes no sense!!:) oh more to say but he's awake (not like my poor Dh who had his first sleepless night last night so he's asleep now..I've had 5 of them..lol.... it's scary being home from the hospital after 4 nights!!!

For me it has gotten harder the babies I have had. I was 17 with my first and I remember wearing my size 10 jeans when he was about two weeks old. 23 with my second and by 3 months I was back to normal. 28 with my third and well - 6 months and counting.

What has surprised me this time is that although my stomach has gone down the skin is all saggy. I got stretch marks with all three just a few each time - but it has all added up to a saggy belly that looks like a road map

I don't think I could ever wear a bikini again.

I love all my kids and would change a thing - but sometimes its really hard and I wonder what my husband really thinks

My biggest downer has to be my post-pregnancy belly and my loss of apetite. I have always had a belly since I was about 19 (now 23) and I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight, but I guess I didn't expect my overweight belly to hang so low. I was given a tubi-grip last year and was wearing that for the first 4 weeks, but found it unbearable due to the heat.

My apetite is becoming a serious issue, I have been forcing myself to eat for breastfeeding sake, and I am struggling. I have had to quit breastfeeding and move bubs to formula as I am only eating one main meal a day, and I am not much of a snacker. I was worried for bubs health, that I was not giving him enough of what he needs. I feel a bit like a failure, but I just want my lil man to be healthy and happy.

I didn't fully enjoy my pregnancy, but I do miss the kicks in the tummy, the big firm bump (in the first week after delivery I was still holding my belly and rubbing it). I liked the firm belly, as it was a good excuse for the tight tops over the huge bump.

I was also scared to do a number two after birth, I had a second degree tear about a cm away from my *whistle*. I made sure I ate the right food to aid the passing of stools etc.