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Slip Sliding Away
One of the idiosyncrasies of my pregnancy was that I never gained any weight. According to the scales at the OB, I was up and down over a three pound range with one notable stop five pounds up the week after Christmas, but the week before I gave birth I weighed in at just one pound over my initial visit. Apparently I was simply converting me into baby, which was fine, since there was plenty of me, but may explain why Alice was relatively light at birth. It was convenient, because between not gaining weight and my penchant for fairly loose clothing under normal conditions, I never had to buy any maternity clothes and during the last month I was finally able to wear the enormous pair of rich brown trousers that I bought because they were on wicked sale but have always really been too big for me otherwise.
I lost about fifteen pounds giving birth (6.75 lb. baby, plus water and placenta and stuff) and have continued to drop about a pound a day. Breastfeeding is said to absorb approximately five hundred calories a day and with my in-laws doing most of the cooking, I've been eating very well in terms of veggies and portion sizes and low fat content. So here we are, just shy of two weeks since giving birth, and I'm down just over twenty-five pounds from where I was before I got pregnant.
That means that I'm lighter than I've been in over a decade--lighter than Jason has ever known me. He's enjoying being able to hug me closer, now that the Belly is gone, although that has more to do with the baby being on the outside. I still have the pouffy, post-pregnancy tummy--it's so soft!--but mytightest jeans fit a little loosely now. It took me a few days to recognize my face in mirrors.
The Puritan voice inside my head is disapproving, because it thinks I didn't do anything to deserve this--no exercise, no dieting, nothing. The other voices beg to differ, as being pregnant for nine months, going through labor and taking on breastfeeding is hardly nothing. But it still feels like an oddly free bonus to what was, overall, a pretty easy and positive experience.
I find myself wondering how low I'll go. With the in-laws gone, I'll probably not eat as conservatively as I have been, although I do think that I've gotten into better habits about portions that I am really hoping will stick. Unlike my naturally thin friends, I don't need to worry about it too much--I still have about forty pounds before I get to "underweight" and it seems unlikely to me I'll ever be a thin person, myself. It's also possible that I'll simply gain it all back, which is okay, too--I was pretty stable at the higher weight and still got told how good I look often enough not to care too much about being that big. And I have a closet full of clothes that fit that size and a husband who adores me and finds my body attractive and fun at any weight.
So we'll just see what happens--but it's all sort of strange and curious.
On the feeding front, Alice continued to feed almost continuously--minus a break with Auntie B. and her amazing sleep-inducing superpowers--until about 1am last night. Jason took care of her through the dead of night, allowing me to get some sleep, and she got a fairly long stretch of sleep in this morning. We had our first daytime feeding about 11:30am, since when she has slept cozily, curled up in the boppy next to me. She's starting to make more noise and I'll probably wake her up soon, to try to keep on a 3-hour schedule. It has been a real relief to have a couple of hours of downtime--last night I was so exhausted that I got weepy again for the first time in over a week. Several of the online moms have said that their babies tended to sleep more the day after a clusterfeed, so I have vague hopes of a nap this afternoon, which should help to keep me on a more even keel.
I lost about fifteen pounds giving birth (6.75 lb. baby, plus water and placenta and stuff) and have continued to drop about a pound a day. Breastfeeding is said to absorb approximately five hundred calories a day and with my in-laws doing most of the cooking, I've been eating very well in terms of veggies and portion sizes and low fat content. So here we are, just shy of two weeks since giving birth, and I'm down just over twenty-five pounds from where I was before I got pregnant.
That means that I'm lighter than I've been in over a decade--lighter than Jason has ever known me. He's enjoying being able to hug me closer, now that the Belly is gone, although that has more to do with the baby being on the outside. I still have the pouffy, post-pregnancy tummy--it's so soft!--but mytightest jeans fit a little loosely now. It took me a few days to recognize my face in mirrors.
The Puritan voice inside my head is disapproving, because it thinks I didn't do anything to deserve this--no exercise, no dieting, nothing. The other voices beg to differ, as being pregnant for nine months, going through labor and taking on breastfeeding is hardly nothing. But it still feels like an oddly free bonus to what was, overall, a pretty easy and positive experience.
I find myself wondering how low I'll go. With the in-laws gone, I'll probably not eat as conservatively as I have been, although I do think that I've gotten into better habits about portions that I am really hoping will stick. Unlike my naturally thin friends, I don't need to worry about it too much--I still have about forty pounds before I get to "underweight" and it seems unlikely to me I'll ever be a thin person, myself. It's also possible that I'll simply gain it all back, which is okay, too--I was pretty stable at the higher weight and still got told how good I look often enough not to care too much about being that big. And I have a closet full of clothes that fit that size and a husband who adores me and finds my body attractive and fun at any weight.
So we'll just see what happens--but it's all sort of strange and curious.
On the feeding front, Alice continued to feed almost continuously--minus a break with Auntie B. and her amazing sleep-inducing superpowers--until about 1am last night. Jason took care of her through the dead of night, allowing me to get some sleep, and she got a fairly long stretch of sleep in this morning. We had our first daytime feeding about 11:30am, since when she has slept cozily, curled up in the boppy next to me. She's starting to make more noise and I'll probably wake her up soon, to try to keep on a 3-hour schedule. It has been a real relief to have a couple of hours of downtime--last night I was so exhausted that I got weepy again for the first time in over a week. Several of the online moms have said that their babies tended to sleep more the day after a clusterfeed, so I have vague hopes of a nap this afternoon, which should help to keep me on a more even keel.
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Which is to say - good luck! I've, sadly, gained that weight all back. I'm not as famished now and a bit better about the chocolate, so I can hope, but...
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I'm down 4 kilos from pre-preg weight, but that happened cause of the hyperemesis more than anything. I am back in my old pants, which rocks. I gave away all my mat stuff a few weeks ago.
The clusterfuck, er, clusterfeedings are a huge ass pain. I was getting touched out on E's last one. But yes, I got 5 hours straight a few nights ago, after his last clusterfeed. So fingers crossed for you! (The past two nights have been 2 hours, max.)
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Sounds like things are going very well with Alice. Congratulations!
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(this is Sam, btw. we keep meeting at T@F events and parties)
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And congratulations on your baby!
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Those are the ones to listen to! :-) And what moral code says you need to "deserve" or otherwise earn the right to weight loss? Your body is a complex and marvelous machine, and this endeavor has been a completely legitimate use -- none more so -- for its stored fuel. So there.
(Now as long as you can stay a step ahead of running your sleep tank dry, you'll be in good shape.)
Thinking of you guys lots -- I'm sorry not to have seen you in person yet, but I'm still getting over this cough... but I absolutely love the picture updates.