FYI – this is just a quick “touch base” post since it’s Wednesday and I want to get back in the habit of checking in about health & fitness — by no means am I working on losing weight yet! Here’s the post I wrote at 1 week postpartum with Stella. I was stoked I had gained a healthy 25# (up to 186#) and never weighed more than my husband (195#) – a totally vain goal, but one I was happy to have met. This time around I somehow started at the exact same weight and gained 20# (up to 181#) and never weighed more than my husband (183#).

My 1st pregnancy I quit working at 31 weeks. Looking at the chart below, I’d have to say it’s fairly obvious that I spent a lot of time sitting on my couch and eating those final 7 weeks. 🙂 That being said, I have no idea why my weight plateaued so much at the end this time. Yes, I worked until the end, but it’s a desk job where I sit on my butt and do very little walking, and I was seriously eating little meals ALL DAY LONG! Whatever the reason, I’m happy that my body for some reason does pretty well with pregnancy and weight gain, probably in no small part thanks to the lack of empty alcohol calories + eating better because of heart burn concerns. Now it’s just time to continue with healthy eating & and to get back at the exercise thing so I can get back down to my happy, healthy goal weight!

Red – 1st pregnancy, Blue – 2nd pregnancy
You can tell my morning sickness was worse early on this time!

GOAL WEIGHT: 150# (I’m 5’8″ – medium build)

Pre-pregnancy weight: 161#
Delivery weight: 181#
12 hrs postpartum: 168.5#
3 days postpartum: 166.5#

I obviously don’t expect to keep losing weight this quickly, but since Harvey weighed 9#5oz, I’m not surprised I’ve lost almost 15# already. Baby + placenta + amniotic fluid + blood should easily have weighed that much!

I probably won’t check in again until I can start working out at 6w postpartum to try to get some tone back in this body, but I wanted to record my measurements for posterity’s sake here (and for future reference, since I’m a nut like that).

                              May 1 (4w)         Dec 25 (38w)      Jan 8 (40w)         Jan 15 (3d pp)

Bust:                      37”                        40”                         40”                         41”
Ribcage:               31.5”                      35.5”                      34.5”                      33”
Belly:                     38.5”                      43.5”                      42”                         39”
Waist:                   31.5”                      n/a                         n/a                         34”

It’s always amazing to me how much your rib cage expands to make room for the baby (and since I carry really high, maybe it’s more for me than some). Mine is already down 2.5″ from when I felt most constricted, which is pretty amazing. Also, you can tell I always carry my extra chub in my belly since it’s only technically 0.5″ larger than normal right now. It’s definitely not the same belly though – very squishy/jellyish (which is to be expected of course).

So there ya go. That’s where I’m starting at. Or rather, at 6 weeks postpartum I’ll check in and that’s where I’ll really be starting at. For now. I just want to document where I’m at and decide where I’m going!

12 hrs postpartum #1

12 hrs postpartum #2

Stella!

Harvey!