Baby Weight

Who doesn't like compliments? Friends have been telling me that I look great and, of course it's nice to hear things like that (even though telling someone they look great is only a nice way of saying "hey, a little while ago you didn't look so hot") but, for the record, I am not one of those lucky mom's who lost their baby weight "without even trying." Nope, for me it took a lot of old fashioned diet and exercise! Despite all attempts to keep my weight gain within reason during my pregnancy with Rylan I ended up gaining 40lbs. That was more than I was hoping to gain but it could have been worse I suppose and being put on bed rest early in my pregnancy and also later on after the emergency plane landing scare did not help. After delivery, I had been planning to rely on breastfeeding to help lose the extra weight but obviously I never got a chance to do that. Also working against any weight loss was the outpouring of concern from friends which manifested itself in the form of food (read: delicious, carby, fatty dishes) for about two months after Rylan was born/passed away. We soo appreciated all that support, of course, but eating that kind of food combined with spending most of the day in bed or in a heap on the couch meant that I did not lose an ounce. It wasn't until about March that I decided to get serious about trying to lose the baby weight because it was making me so miserable that not only did I not have my baby but instead I had a mom body (no offense, moms!). Plus I'd always intended to lose as much of the weight as possible before we had our next child and since circumstances were now dictating that we would probably be thinking about baby #2 much sooner than we ever imagined, I needed to get started. Since giving birth I have lost about 50lbs (with about 20 of those pounds coming off during birth/first week post-partum). Strange thing is, I am a little bit sad to see all the baby weight gone. It's like one more reminder of Rylan is gone. I gained all that weight eating yummy things to make him grow big and strong and slowly the pregnancy that I enjoyed so much is being washed out of my life.

Anyway, thanks for your kind words but I wanted to set the record straight that it took a lot of hard work! Yay for the moms whose baby fat just "seems to melt off" or celebrities who have their body back in one week post-partum, but that was not me!