Navigating The Changes In My Body After Birth

The changes to my body after birth have been huge and it is not just fat, everything has moved!

Being a naturally slim person I have never really worried about my weight or figure. I have never had to watch what I eat or exercise to stay relatively slim. Yes my weight has fluctuated slightly over the years but I have never been more than 65kgs.

When I fell pregnant with my first baby I weighed 60 kgs and picked up weight incredibly fast. Shortly before birth I weighed in at 98kgs! I got fat everywhere and it was very uncomfortable. The day after giving birth a young girl asked me when my baby is due, much to her embarrassment I told her my baby had already been born. I did lose weight very quickly because I was breastfeeding but by the time I got to about 68kgs it just stayed there, the majority around my waistline. After 1 year I decided that it was enough and I decided to set up a weight loss challenge through Kaboutjie which was a huge success. By the time the challenge ended I had lost about 5kgs and I was very happy.

My stomach was still flabby and not very attractive but it was better than before. Over the next few months I lost the remaining weight and reached 60kgs again. In the same month I hit my pre-pregnancy weight of 60kgs I had another surprise, yes I was pregnant again. I cried for weeks, for a few reasons: I struggled with my first pregnancy, I got so fat and struggled to lose it, I got so depressed after birth, I struggled with breastfeeding, I struggled to work and look after my baby. My daughter was hardly sleeping and I could just imagine how having teo young children must be to handle!

Luckily for me I only picked up 14kgs in my second pregnancy and only my stomach got large, the rest of me was still very skinny. I thank my daughter for that because it must have been because I could not sit around and get fat, she had me on the run from the start to the end of that pregnancy.

It was such a different experience losing weight after birth this time because my son was exclusively breastfed and ate a lot (My daughter was breastfed and formula fed). By the time my son was 6 weeks old I weighed 55kgs and I looked terrible. I had to start stuffing my face just to keep my weight maintained. That is once again not to say that I suddenly got a 6 pack stomach, my stomach was stretch-marked, flabby and just plain gross.

My son has just turned 1 and my stomach has now grown in size due to still pigging out even though my son is not breastfeeding as much and I don’t have the time, energy or inclination to exercise. As my hubby keeps telling me: You need to do crunches not eat Crunchies! And he is spot on.

I love the chats I have with other women about their after birth bodies. Much to my amusement someone told me a few weeks ago “OMG that’s not my vagina!”. And a friend of mine refers to her “Crooked Smile”. The saggy, stretch-mark boobs, the flabby stomachs…. it is all part of bringing a child into this world. I have until this point been perfectly happy with my after baby body, even though it has suffered quite a bit of wear and tear. I blame my hubby for this complacency as he is insisting that my stomach is smaller than it was when we met. (Not sure if that is an insult or a compliment to be honest).

Now that 1 year after my baby’s birth has passed and a few times in the last few weeks I have had people ask me when I am due or congratulate me on my pregnancy I have decided it is time to make a change. I also looked at the bikinis this year and realised if I don’t do something I will never wear one ever again! Time to eat properly and exercise. Operation slim down will commence in the New Year of course, not prepared to miss out on all the great festive meals and chocolates that are coming my way.

I will keep you posted on my progress next year when I start, perhaps some mommies would like to join me on my mission!