Pregnancy + Postpartum Weight

Inspired by a friends blog post I have decided to do my own post about pregnancy weight gain and postpartum weight loss.  Since I know quite a few of my readers are friends that don't have children (yet) I thought it would be interesting to write about what really happens - or at least what happened to me.  Weight is traditionally kind of a controversial topic among women, and being petite I mostly hear from others that "I don't have to worry about that."  But with limited time (or desire) to exercise, I have tried to make healthy food choices - at least during the week - for the last 8 years or so and was kind of worried about the whole gaining weight thing.

Before I was pregnant my typical food day included:

- breakfast: special K with skim milk and coffee with skim milk
-snack: granola bar
-lunch: sandwich or lean cuisine with some type of fruit and a diet dr. pepper
-snack: yogurt or string cheese
-dinner: something somewhat healthy, prepared by husband, more than 50% of the time including red meat (we are not huge chicken eaters at our house)

I am 5'2" and my pre-baby weight hovered at about 112.  In the last 5 years I had been as low as 107, but I don't think I look good that thin.  Ideally I would be more like 110.

First Trimester
I was lucky enough to never have morning sickness, but I did feel nauseous if I got the slightest bit hungry, so I was constantly eating.  I thought I was going to end up as big as a house at the end because I could not eat enough.  I had to keep crackers in my car for my hour long commute home so I would have something to eat.  It was crazy.

Second Trimester
I was less hungry than in the 1st trimester, but started eating more for breakfast.  I would make egg sandwiches with turkey bacon on an English muffin and pack them for a snack instead of a granola bar.  I also had to get used to eating something for lunch besides a sandwich since preggos aren't supposed to eat lunch meat.  I alternated between soup, different casseroles and PB&J.

Third Trimester
Still tried to eat fairly healthy, but I did crave a lot of sweets and started adding soda back into my diet to combat the fatigue I felt.

Overall, the Dr recommended I gain between 30 and 35 lbs.  I had hoped max out at 140, which would be a gain of 28 lbs, but ended up at 142.5.  Not too bad, and I really feel like most of it was in my belly.

After Baby

Day we got home from the hospital - 4 Days after Birth - 142.5 lbs
I wish someone had told me it was possible to come home WEIGHING THE SAME AS WHEN I LEFT.  Seriously, after my complications and a ton of IV fluid, I came home from the hospital weighing the same as when I left, 142.5.  All that after a 7 lb 10 oz baby - nobody warned me this was possible!

Once we got home and I got my appetite back, I tried to eat pretty healthy, despite all the food people brought over.  Luckily most of my friends tried to keep it pretty healthy, and brought salad instead of dessert.  Much to the disappointment of The Husband I might add.  Although I was not eating junk food, I was eating all the time because breast feeding made me really hungry.

Here is the weekly progress I made:

1 Week After Birth - 130.8 lbs
2 Weeks After Birth - 125.4 lbs
3 Weeks After Birth - 124.6 lbs
4 Weeks After Birth - 123.2 lbs

So it appears I am losing about a pound a week, which is a little disappointing.  I can't start exercising for another 2 weeks, and I ordered the Tracy Anderson post-pregnancy workout video, so hopefully it works as good as the reviews say it will!  My goal is 110 by Christmas time, but the Holidays are not exactly the time to lose weight so we will see.  Really I just need to fit back into all my work clothes before I go back after Christmas.

Note: I wrote this post to give a life view of post baby weight loss, I know I am fortunate to be petite and I am not looking for compliments, I just wanted to tell it like it is!