Getting Your Body Back After Pregnancy

Hi Everyone!

Today I wanted to talk about how my body has changed with my pregnancy and the birth of my twins, as well as my plans for getting back to my old self, at least from a physical perspective. Also at the end of this post is some advice for others going through this, based on what's worked for me.

Before all my fertility treatments, I was 5'7", 140 lbs, size 6. I was athletic, mostly Bikram yoga and hiking/backpacking, and in the winter snowboarding several days a week. I also ate pretty well, aside from the occasional fast food meal. 

All the drugs associated with 4 IVFs and 1 FET, plus an 11.5 week pregnancy did a number on my body, plus me pulling back on exercise in an attempt to do everything I could to get/stay pregnant. By the time I got pregnant last summer, I was up to 155 lbs and not exercising much beyond very gentle walking. I walked for the first part of my pregnancy, but was very sedentary towards the end. I ate pretty well, especially the second half of my pregnancy, when I had gestational diabetes. By the time I delivered at 36 weeks, I weighed 202 lbs (eek!). So, 47 lbs gained from my weight at the FET, but 62 lbs more than my normal weight.

The good news is I've already lost 45 lbs, so I'm ALMOST back to my weight at the FET (I'm 157 lbs today, 6 weeks after giving birth). I am breastfeeding, but I'm not eating very carefully, and not exercising other than walking. I'm so happy with this weight loss, athough I definitely want to get back to 140 lbs...now that I'm 6 weeks out and not in recovery mode I plan to start exercising more (my husband and mom both said they'll stay with the kids while I go hiking and/or to a yoga class or two) and eat a little better (fewer desserts and fast food runs...sleep deprivation and the business of twins has had an impact on my normally healthy eating habits), although I'm not going to diet per se at this point. I'm giving myself 6 months from the birth to reach my weight goal, although of course I hope it happens sooner. I've also heard it's hard to lose the last few pounds while breastfeeding, so we'll see.

As far as other changes to my body:

• My breasts got HUGE with the rounds of IVF...I went from a 34 B to now a 38 DD. Not sure what size they will end up since the increase doesn't seem to be associated with pregnancy/breastfeeding but instead the IVF drugs
• I had really dark linea negra lines both above and below my belly button, as well as a dark circular mark to the side (like a thumbprint). These are supposed to go away, but they haven't yet
• My whole belly is dark, like I've been out in the sun. Did anyone else have this happen? Does it go away?
• There's definitely fat in my belly area that I need to lose, but my skin seems pretty elastic...there's no sagging or lose skin like I was led to believe might happen
• I made it through with no stretch marks, amazingly. I think it's just my genes vs anything I did...my mom never got stretch marks, either. I did use Mama Bee Belly Butter throughout my pregnancy
• During my pregnancy, my freckles became very pronounced, and a small red birthmark I have on my hairline that's usually flat became bigger and red and blue and raised...all that is back to normal now
• I never felt like I had great hair while pregnant, like they talk about, but I feel like I do now. Weird that it happened after the fact. I'll be sad when I start to lose it
• My gums bled like crazy during pregnancy, but not anymore

So, advice I can offer based on my experience:

1. Don't freak out about gaining weight while pregnant, especially if you are eating good foods and not junk
2. While pregnant, follow the gestational diabetes diet if you can. I did it because I had to, but I think it kept me from gaining too much weight and has made weight loss easier. Basically, it's eating 6 small meals a day vs 3 large ones, limiting portion sizes of foods high in carbohydrates, eating both carbs and protein at every meal, and really minimizing sweets and other high-sugar foods
3. I used the Belly Bandit BFF for a couple weeks right after delivery...and I can't say for sure it made a difference because I have nothing to compare it to, but my tummy flattened out really fast 
4. Breastfeed
5. Buy yourself some things for the interim period. Something that's helped me tremendously as far as not hating the way my body is right now (and I've done a pretty good job of embracing the changes, not feeling terrible about them) is my husband sending me out to buy some clothes. A few weeks after the birth, I was still wearing maternity things, which were big and I hate all my maternity clothes at this point and I was feeling so frumpy, but none of my normal clothes fit. So I bought some cute (and relatively inexpensive, since I don't plan on wearing them for too long) jeans and tank tops and T-shirts I can wear while I lose the remaining weight. Oh and some cute lacy nursing bras and panties, too. :)

Anyone else have some tips on getting back into shape after pregnancy and/or how to love and not hate this period? Would love to hear...

XOXO