After maintaining my 150 lb weight loss for several months, about January to June, I found out that I was pregnant with my first baby, due February 22, 2005. Needless to say, I knew that low weight would not last with that.
I made a valiant attempt to stick to Weight Watchers for those months thinking I could just add a few points and I would not gain that much weight, because after all I had been a faithful WW-er for years! I knew what I was doing, and I was never one of those women who had things like cravings during PMS or anything like that before. Surely I could be one of those women who'd only gain like 20 or 25 pounds and be back in my pre-pregnancy jeans at six weeks after delivery!
Well, I was so naive about what pregnancy would do to my body and my appetite that it wasn't funny! First of all, I will say I was extremely lucky with how well my pregnancy went in general, especially early on. I never had any morning sickness aside from bouts of nausea that came from not eating frequently enough and not eating enough starchy carbs. Unfortunately "frequently enough" equated to every couple of hours except when I was sleeping and what foods I did crave other than chocolate (specifically dark chocolate) were things loaded up with protein... cheeseburgers, pizza, nachos, fondue... if it was hot and filled with melted cheese, it went into my mouth. To make matters worse, around 14 weeks I started suffering from dizzy spells whenever my blood pressure got too low (which the doctor attributed to being anemic and having low blood sugar from going too long without eating and getting dehydrated) so I had to eat constantly to stave those off.
Over the course of my pregnancy I gained more than the recommended amount of weight, although thankfully the doctor never lectured me. My blood pressure never got anywhere near high, and I stayed in very good shape. Although I ate too much and gained too much weight for my liking, I am proud to say that I exercised pretty much up to my due date and a bit past it. (DS was born at almost 42 weeks, so he was pretty late.) I even managed to stay in good enough shape that I was still doing abdominal crunches in short sets until about 39 weeks. This actually helped me in what was a rushed delivery, as doing that and strength training on my back all those weeks kept me strong enough to push very hard and fast and kept me from needing a C-section, which the doctor told me I was within minutes of needing due to fetal stress during delivery.
As of my last visit to the OB before delivery at 41 weeks exactly I had hit a high of an ugly 181 pounds. By then I was very tired of being pregnant, I was huge and DS was starting to put a serious strain on my back despite all the strengthening exercise I'd done on it over the course of the pregnancy. (As a side note, I also had the joy of back labor when I finally did go into labor with him.)
When he was born DS weighed 9 of my extra pounds, and when I weighed myself the Friday after he was born (about a week) I was 162 on my home scale. Delivering such a big baby (he was 22 inches at birth) left me very sore and unable to get back into my usual routine of riding my exercise bike, but by a week after delivery I was able to do my strength training like I had been before delivery. Shortly after that I began to get back into riding my exercise bike, and a few weeks later DH bought me an at-home stair stepper which helped a lot in burning fat.
I did not lose weight as quickly post-baby as I did before him. I was used to a rate of about 2 pounds a week, but I wasn't so lucky as to have that again post-partum. Nursing for six weeks slowed me down and then stopping it so I could go back to work threw me onto a plateau where I had to go back to suddenly eating a target of around 30 points to 20 points - not a fun switch! On top of that, within two weeks of returning to work I was informed that my job was eliminated and I had a very stressful month of finding another position in my company, which led to more stress eating. After about a week of eating whatever I wanted (and having a 9.8 lb gain in that week!) I slapped myself into shape and it seemed to bust my plateau. I lost that weight plus a few ounces more in two big losses the following weeks and I've had a pretty steady loss of around 1 to 1.5 lbs a week since.
Now I'm below my original WW goal weight again and within a few pounds of my lightest pre-pregnancy weight, and I'm very happy to be there! Considering DS is not even six months old yet, I consider that quite an accomplishment!
Before, During, and After Pregnancy Shots
Here are some pictures of me. The first is how I looked just before I found out I was pregnant, back in May. I weighed somewhere around 125-130 in that picture. In the second that was me at 38 weeks pregnant thinking I didn't have long to go. DH and my mom both confirmed that I got noticeably bigger than that at the end. The third picture is one taken of me on March 13 with my son with my baby weight to lose. The fourth is me as of August 2005, weighing 134.4 fitting into my pre-pregnancy clothes once again.
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