The Baby Weight

I have been dealing with this for the last year or so and so I have to write about it.

The baby weight.

Generally, a healthy woman at a healthy weight should gain 25-30 lbs. An overweight woman should gain 15-20. An obese woman should gain 10-15, if any at all.

First off, if you are one of those women who go right back to what they looked like before they were pregnant...with really no issues...we are fighting.

The rest of this is for every other woman who has had a hard time losing the baby weight. Lord knows that NOTHING is the same after you have a baby. Nothing. Your old normal is now completely foreign and you now have a new normal to deal with.

I am going to put this out there and I am not ashamed of it. When I got pregnant, I was around 202 lbs. In my first trimester, I was so sick that I lost 18 lbs, bringing be down to 184 lbs at about 15 weeks pregnant. By the end of my pregnancy, I weight 231 lbs. After leaving the hospital after having Emmalynn, I was down to 212 lbs.

And then comes the roller coaster. I started Weight Watchers the beginning of 2011 and in the first week, lost 12 lbs -- the secret, only drinking diet soda when I did drink soda. And then I was stuck between 200-205 lbs for the next 8-10 months. Sometimes I would dip below 200, around 198 or so. But then it was right back up to 200. I may have weighed the same I did when I got pregnant, but as previously mentioned, my new normal was more weight in the butt, hips, arms and that dreaded BABY BELLY where the SKIN never seems to shrink back to normal size.

I started to see a weight loss doctor after finding out I would eventually need to have surgery on my back because of a condition I was born with (missing bone between my L5 and S1...aka painful). So, I started to track my calories, per the dietician's advice, through MyFitnessPal. They have an online website and they also have an app that I have on my phone. Since starting this on November 1st, I am down to 185.2 lbs. I gained 2 lbs during the holiday season. I wish I could say I am upset by that, but I am honestly not. It was the holidays and I gained weight and then took it off again. No big deal.

This has been a struggle. Don't get me wrong, having Emmalynn was well worth the struggle. But I cannot ever wear the things I wore before...they do not fit the same. And I want to lose quite a bit more weight, so I cannot buy pants each time I go down a size (unless they are cheap...which some have been). Basically, I have resorted to just looking like a gangster with baggy pants.

The point of all of this is....it is okay to struggle with your weight after you have your baby. It is okay to have ups and downs and find your new normal and what works for you NOW (because what worked for you before is PROBABLY not going to work for you now). Above all, the support system that we are able to have with our friends who are ALSO trying to lose their baby weight, THAT is priceless. Completely priceless. So Mamas, let's support each other! We are all in this together and we CAN do it!!