The Weigh-In

I thought I would mention this, though this is where I seem to get a lot of women unhappy with me.

I’m taller (5’9.5” – yup I’m keeping that half inch!), and while I’m not large by any means, muscle weight and height has me at 145 as a base weight that I float around, and have been, for years.  So with pregnancy, I considered that as my starting weight (I was probably a pound or two below that though).  I used the same scale at the Y, and weighed myself regularly.  At the end of pregnancy I was at about 158 for my weight.  I kept expecting (as people kept telling me) that I would gain a lot more in the last trimester, but my weight only went up a pound or two in the last months.  I’ll also add that I didn’t get stretch marks, no dark line down my belly, nothing.  I could feel the baby kicking pretty far back on my sides, and since I’m tall, I knew my belly was all baby, and she sat pretty far back in me.  (This also means all my organs were squished and the bathroom trips were all too frequent).

Anyway, so three days after delivery we stopped in at the Y so Andy could workout and I could get in a walk, and I weighed myself and found that I was already back at my “base” weight.  Did I look the same?  No way!  I had curves for my sides, but my belly was so soft (though not that big), but had plenty (in my book!) extra there.  Two weeks later I was back at the Y again and weighed myself before leaving.  I was down to 140!  A couple things about this – I think I actually lost weight during pregnancy and those pounds transferred over to the baby’s weight, so it went unnoticed.  I also may have lost some muscle mass that I use to have, since I wasn’t lifting weights as much. 

My point is that you don’t need to stress about getting the weight back off if you have been really active during pregnancy.  My husband said he’d give me nine months to take it off since I had nine months to put it on.  Just knowing myself, I knew I wouldn’t need that much time, but I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I was getting my shape back.  The baby grew as she needed to, and I gained only as much as was necessary.  I just can’t stress enough the rewards of staying active during pregnancy!