My body seems to have a Pregnancy Setting which is simply not worth fighting: I gain most of my weight in the first two trimesters, then hold steady in the final months and watch only the baby grow while my thighs finally stop increasing in their circumferences. After two pregnancies, I know this about my body, but it still doesn’t make it any easier to watch the scale creep up at an alarming rate in these early weeks.
I am just past 12 weeks and have packed on ten pounds. And you know what? It was effortless! I can’t wait to hear what my skinny-faced doctor will have to say about it at my prenatal appointment tomorrow.
I have struggled with my weight my entire life: I was an overweight child, an anorexic teen, and it’s taken me a lifetime to develop a healthy relationship with food and my body. I do struggle with finding the balance in proper pregnancy weight gain. It’s hard for me to draw the line between “Let’s not obsess; enjoy that cookie!” and “Hey! You’re already a blimp! Why not make it a dozen cookies? And then some chips? Dipped in butter! Yah!”
After every pregnancy I have worked hard to lose the weight and I know how un-fun it is to watch portion sizes and count Weight Watchers Points when everyone around you is just eating what they want. But I know it’s worth it, and that I will do it, perhaps begrudgingly, one last time after this baby is born. Then I will waltz into my doctor’s office, jump on her scale and tell her to kiss my skinny rear.
The one thing I find myself wishing is that I had bothered to lose those last ten pounds of baby weight after my second daughter. Owell, live and learn. And eat.
Was your pregnancy weight gain journey difficult for you in any way? Or did you enjoy the way your body changed? Were you one of those women for whom the baby weight just melted away after your child was born? If so, I don’t know if we can be friends anymore.
Just kidding.
Maybe.
I was one of those women who lost weight during the first part of pregnancy(overweight to begin with), I think I gained 16-17 by the end and walked out of the hospital skinnier that before being pregnant but now, even though I am breastfeeding I am gaining it back. My son in 4 months old. I think I’ve gained at least 10-15 pounds back. I’m kinda disappointed about it but I’m hoping the spring and summer slaving in my garden will help that(it’s a big garden). Unfortunately I have to be a bridesmaid May 1st. Hopefully the dress still fits. The things we do for friends.
Weighing pregnant women is just plain cruel. End of story.
I hear you about the early weight gain, I knew I was pregnant the second time around before I even peed on the stick because all of a sudden none of my clothes fit… It’s like my body detected the little cells that would be my son and said, ah, what the hell…
I am still struggling with the last bit of weight from my son, around 10 lbs or so, and I am rather embarrased that he will be a year old in less than a month and I am still more plump than I would like – it’s not like I was in peak form before I had him. I am dissapointed with myself that I have let my health slide and not made it a priority, but feeling that way and actually finding a practical way to fix the problem are not the same thing. It is definitely something I need to work on.
I gained about 45 pounds with both my pregnancies. I also worried about gaining too much weight. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the weight came off without any effort on my part. The speed and ease of the weight loss came with a heavy price. Both my babies were colicky. Frankly, I never had time to eat. I was either breast feeding or pushing them in their stroller’s. My first child breast-feed so often that I got down to my lightest weight. Those days have long since past, thank goodness, and I have kept my weight off, but my body has changed.
I looked after someone the other day at work who wouldn’t let her midwife weigh her the whole pregnancy and didn’t even know her prepregnant weight. I found that kind of odd but really, if your measurements are changing what is the point of weight!!
I gained a good chunk of my weight in the first trimester or half of my pregnancy with both of my kids and then it slowed down the last half. I’m not sure why my body gains it all in the beginning when I’m throwing up several times a day!! You’d think I’d lose but nope- both times it was the same. I’m assuming with the third here this time will be no different!
I’m 32 weeks with my first baby and I appear to have a similar weight gain pattern to you. I’m up 50lbs already and I still have eight more weeks to go. And I’m only 5 feet tall. They haven’t mentioned my weight recently but about a month ago they did instruct me to switch to fat-free milk to help curb the gain. It did help, and there’s no reason I need to be this heavy, but I DIDN’T EVEN TRY. My body is just fantastic at converting food into fat. I’d be great at hibernating.
My goal post-baby is to lose ANYTHING. If I walk out of that hospital lighter than when I went in, I will be happy.
I am 32 weeks pregnant and have put on 6kgs, my midwife stopped weighing me at week 25 I was finding it was putting pressure on me when I jumped on the scales. I had a sneaky look today and am glad that I don’t have the pressure to weigh myself in front of the midwife each week. There is no need in a healthy pregnancy to be weighed…. could you perhaps ask for yourself not to be weighed?
My baby was a year before I even started working out to lose the baby weight. I kept hoping it would just fall off with all the nursing we did. It took me a while to get back to “normal” but I still have an ugly post baby belly. I don’t know if it will ever really go away.
Oh man! Great topic and a thorn in my side too. When I was pregnant I would always book the first appointment of the day..you know..so I wouldn’t be full of food and fluid and weigh an extra few lbs. It was also spring/summer and I always purposefully wore sandals and skirts to weigh the lightest.
Getting weighed in pregnancy is SO old fashioned and really does not do that much for indicating the health of a pregnancy. If someone is to get PIH or pre eclampsia weight gain is usually obvious and indicates related fluid retention.
Sometimes on prenatal sheets I will see that a GP or OB has circled the women’s last weight in red and written, ” WATCH WEIGHT!!”. Not for any obvious pregnancy health concerns (like pre eclampsia) but because she is packing on those prego pounds. So, silly and so old school.
I’m about 16 weeks with my first and I’ve gained five pounds. You’re going to hate me, but the midwife told me I need to gain 10 pounds in four weeks or she and I will be having a “talk.” However, she also told me that I need to exercise a lot more. So, boo to her!
It’s been a struggle, mentally, to gain weight. I know I should eat more, but after having been on WW for the last four years it seems so wrong. It’s just something I’m going to have to come to grips with and do though, because a healthy baby is so much more important to me than whether I have a double chin for a few months.
Other than that, I love the way my body is changing. I’m already showing and feel so proud!
I gained 40 pounds with my one and only, in one month alone gained 7 pounds, did the ugly cry at how the scale kept creeping up and up, but my doctor assured me it would melt off after. Although I didn’t enjoy breastfeeding, I truly believe it did make those pounds melt off.
Don’t hate me but I lose weight while pregnant. I’m overweight to begin with, if that helps. But for some reason my “Pregnancy Setting” turns off all desire for sugary, starchy foods. And my desire for food in general goes way down. With my first I lost 18 lbs during the first 2 trimesters and gained 8 in the third. The girl was just over 7 lbs and I walked out of the hospital 20 lbs below my pre-pregnancy weight (but still overweight). It stayed off without any real effort for about 8 months after her birth, but then slowly crept back on when she started eating solids and breastfeeding less.
This time it’s been similar, with 17 lbs lost since in the last 32 weeks, but this has caused zero concern because the baby is healthy and big. We’ll see if there is any gain in the next 8 but I’m guessing I will once again be below my pre-pregnancy weight after the birth. This time I just need to figure out how to keep it off.
I could have written this post, Amanda. Seriously. I gained a lot while pregnant and most in the first few months. The good news is that now that my kids are older (7 & 10) I can focus on myself a bit more. I actually weigh less now than I have in my adult life. Not a lot but a bit. I run now (when my only exercise in the past was walking to the park…some days) and focus more on my long-term health.
Don’t stress about the cookie. I found that I ate everything I wanted with my first and was much more conscious of food and overeating with my second and I gained almost exactly the same amount. Your body knows what it is doing even if you don’t always like it!
I’ve been really “lucky” in that I am going through a divorce, so my doctor had warned me that if I didn’t start gaining weight, he would stick me in the hospital. And, encouraged me to eat sugars/fats.
Well, I weigh 15 pounds more now after having a second baby than I did after the first, so I think our friendship is safe!
I’m currently 37 weeks with my third, and am SO looking forward to being done so I can stop gaining weight.
With my first baby, I gained 55 lbs. Lost all of it easily. With my second, I gained 50 pounds. Lost about 35 of it. And the rest stuck around for four years, until last spring when I lost five. And then found out that I was pregnant.
So I started this pregnancy heavier. And watching the scale creep up sucks. Granted, I’ve not gained as much this pregnancy. Thank God, because if I had? I’d weigh as much as my 6’2″ husband. Which would be kind of depressing.
So you’re not alone. I too hate the scale for the entire nine months. Especially when I gain ten pounds in six weeks and the doc looks at me in horror. I wanted to smack him in the head.
I went for coffee last night with some girlfriends here are we were all complaining about how much harder it’s been for us all to drop the last 10-20lbs after the third baby. Yours truly included. Despite efforts to eat healthier and exercise. What’s the FREAKIN POINT!?
ARG!