When I was pregnant with my first born I gained a lot of weight I think it was a total of 90 pounds. My second about 40, the third about 70, the fourth was also 70. I’m now on my fifth child and with this one I was on track to gaining my goal of 40 pounds until I was put on bed rest and procardia. Now I’m closing in on 45 pounds. I’ve always tried to keep my weight gain within the 35 pound range, I really did, especially at the beginning of the pregnancy, but it was always with a lot of effort and counting calories – not fun! Well counting calories didn’t last long and a trip to the hospital at 29 weeks scared the crap out of me. The contractions were getting stronger, closer and the meds just wouldn’t take so of course I immediately started worrying about the size of the baby and whether I was eating enough. From that point on I made a decision to stop worrying about how much I was eating and started focusing on eating a little more and a whole lot healthier . I let the laundry pile up (even higher because I suck at that too), cancelled my hair appointments and everything went out the window so I could just focus on having a healthy baby boy.
Last night while I battled with another night of insomnia I was on instagram and happened to click on what I think was a 34 week hashtag and I was shocked at what I saw. Tons and tons of women looking stick thin – almost boney – with a huge belly. And all the comments from other pregnant women were, “I wish I was that tiny!” I know that some woman are naturally thin and no matter what they do they will not gain a lot of weight while pregnant, and they have perfectly healthy babies. I’m not knocking them but I’m talking about the women who are dieting while they’re pregnant in order to bounce back within a couple of weeks after the baby is born. I don’t agree with this method but I can definitely understand them. The particular battle I always have during my pregnancies are not only because of how I look but because of what the scale says and the fact that I’ve always gone over the recommended weight gain of 25-30 pounds. Seriously, WHO invented that ideal anyway? lol
Im not trying to say that women should gorge and eat everything in sight while pregnant but I do think that our bodies should be embraced and our focus be more on the baby than a post baby body. As I get closer and closer to my due date there are still days where I catch myself slipping and feeling like I’ve let myself go but that’s when I try to remind myself that I’ve been there and done that and still came out on top not looking half bad after 4 kids.
image via Pinterest
I gained 80lns carrying twins that I just delivered? It was very humbling. Some women just tend to gain more weight than others. Poor Us!!!