I still have about 10 pounds I gained and have not lost from having C, four plus years ago. Luckily with R I lost all but about 10 pounds I gained during the stressful first month. No clue how or why, as I was busy feeding and keeping a tiny baby alive, but thankfully I now don’t have much weight to lose. I actually gained less with him, and was healthier when pregnant with him. Then, I had a C-section and it took about 8 or 9 weeks before I even felt whole. I’m back at exercising. Trying to run 3 days a week, doing a 5K race on Saturday. I’ve added in weight lifting to my exercise. Trying to get to the family part of the base gym once a week for that. I should eat healthier, but now that holidays are done I’m trying to be at least better at not eating too many sweets and junk, neither easy when the preschooler tends to mean we have both in the house.
All that said, I am being realistic that I may lose none of the last of the baby weight until after I wean R, and I don’t want to wean him for at least a good year. Breastfeeding being a great weight loss mechanism is something I have heard a lot about. Eating extra to not lose too much weight while breastfeeding is something I have heard about. It’s not at all me. After losing almost no weight having C, I gained almost 10 pounds afterward while breastfeeding, which was partly stress eating. I did eventually lose some of that baby weight from C, and before I quit breastfeeding her completely. My body is just not one that loses weight breastfeeding. It instead seems to go into mild survival mode and hold on to calories even more. While this isn’t what people talk about with breastfeeding, I have also heard others whose body did this, and it makes sense to me. You’re asking your body to feed another growing person, why shouldn’t it get stressed over that.
I’m still going to try and get back into shape with running, lifting weights, eating not complete junk. But, I’m not expecting the last pounds to fall off. I would like to trade some fat for muscle, but I’m not expecting to look much trimmer. I’m not going to drive myself crazy looking at the scale barely if all go down. I’m not going to drive myself crazy looking at my still pudgy waistline. I’m not going to compare myself to others who are rocking fit trim bodies 6 months to a year after a baby. I want to feel healthy, and I mean to get myself back to that point, but I know that my body might not allow me to look healthy until I stop breastfeeding. And that’s okay.
(Pic by C. And I may be pudgy, but trying to be confident and realistic on what busy mothers look like less than 5 months after having a baby.)
Mommy Over-educated 