Back Into My Pre-Pregnancy Jeans!

I’ve been back into my pre-pregnancy jeans for a few weeks now. Woohoo! I thought this day would never arrive, but it did, and with very minimal intervention by me. You see, I actually haven’t exercised formally for a month, since we reduced our nanny’s hours due to finances. But, I have been eating healthier, just to have more energy. Also, with my baby starting to crawl and stand, I don’t have as much time to make myself food. I’m making sure I’m close by so she doesn’t hurt herself since we haven’t baby-proofed the apartment yet.

It’s now 8 months after I gave birth and I’ve dropped 32 pounds! Still 7-8 more pounds to go before I reach my pre-pregnancy weight. It’s amazing to me that I was able to gain this much weight on my petite frame. It was 44% of my original body weight. Doesn’t that sound crazy?

After being so much bigger for so long, it’s hard to imagine what I was like before. I look at some of my old clothes or see how they fit so tightly and wonder how I ever fit in there! It’s amazing. Our bodies are so fascinating. The changes they go through are hard to imagine until you go through them.

I wonder when I will be back to my pre-pregnancy weight? Is it 9 months to gain, 9 months to lose? Most people tell me it’s usually at the 1 year mark. Some people never lose all the weight. And others have said that the last 5-10 pounds hang on until you stop breastfeeding. I wonder what it’s going to be like for me.

In the meantime, maybe I should help the process along by doing some sit-ups. Surely I can fit that into my schedule every day!

Getting My Pre-Pregnancy Body Back

I wrote this post a while ago, but I thought I’d post it anyway to show how far I’ve come. It’s 4 months later now, so things have changed since then. Here’s the entry:

It’s been almost 8 weeks since I gave birth and the biggest changes in my body that I’ve noticed is how much my belly has gone down without me doing anything except for using a compression band the first month. It’s still not completely flat yet since there is a big hunk of fat around my belly, but I definitely don’t look pregnant anymore. I still have to wear looser shirts since the tighter shirts accentuate the diminishing bump on my belly.

The good news is that my maternity jeans are slowly getting baggy on me. I had different maternity jeans at different phases of my pregnancy. During the last month or two, I could not wear my maternity skinny jeans anymore since my thighs had grown larger. Luckily I had a bigger pair of maternity jeans that fit me and I wore them religiously during the last two months. Actually, I couldn’t wear them at the very end of my pregnancy because the belly band was too tight. Once I gave birth, because my thighs and butt were still the same size I wore those big jeans during the first month until 6 weeks after giving birth whenever I went outside, but lately I’ve noticed they are baggy, so I’ve switched to wearing my skinny jeans! Yey! The day that I realized that they fit, I was so happy. My body looks no where close to my pre-pregnancy body, but at least I am slowly transitioning into the maternity clothes that I wore during my second trimester.

There is a pair of jeans I wore during my first trimester that I was upset about because i had outgrown them before I got much use out of them. When those fit comfortably, then I know I am almost back to my pre-pregnancy stage. I have yet to try on my regular jeans for fear that they are going to be way too tight, but I will soon. I have 16 pounds to lose to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. It’s progress! Just 5 days ago it was 17 pounds to go. It could be water weight that fluctuates, but at least I know I’m never going back to the 21 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight, which was what I was the first time I weighed myself after a couple weeks after giving birth.

I’ve lost 5 pounds so far just by doing light walking every now and then and still eating my ice cream. I’m hoping to see a more dramatic drop during the next couple of months as I eliminate (or reduce) my ice cream and dessert intake and increase my physical activity. I have an exercise bike at home that I bought while pregnant that I can finally use while the baby is sleeping. I thought I could use it during pregnancy, but my belly quickly got in the way so it’s just been sitting in our living room. Hopefully it’ll get much more use this year! And aside from taking walks with the dog and the baby, I hope to also add in some yoga and some pilates. I have a post-cesarian pilates tape that I plan on using first.

I have 2 months until I go back to Chicago to visit family and friends. I really hope to have my body back close to my pre-pregnancy state. If I can fit in my regular jeans by then, I would be ecstatic!

Aside from the weight, my linea nigra (the dark verical line down my belly) is starting to fade. And my belly button is looking much more normal now. I’ve been using some lotion on my belly to help it return back to a nice tight skin. The one thing I did notice that hasn’t changed a whole lot is my bladder. I still pee every time I wake up at night to feed the baby. If I’m awake at night, I sometimes go to the bathroom much more frequently than that. I’m wondering if my bladder shrunk during the pregnancy. Hopefully it will get back to it’s normal size soon. I usually have to leave the baby to go to the bathroom before I feed her at night while my husband tries to soothe her. Once my bladder goes back to normal, I can let my husband sleep through the night so that he can catch up on some sleep!

I also have weights at home that I could use on my arms. Hmmm… holding the baby is like having weights sometimes, but maybe I can motivate myself to use them. I’ll set them up this week so that it’s easy to access and use. Right now they are tucked away, hidden from sight in an area that is difficult to access. Haha. That shows how much we’ve used them since we’ve moved to this apt! Hopefully they’ll get more use soon!

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Lots of things have changed since I wrote this entry! First of all, we moved to get more space for the baby and for overall convenience, so I had to declutter quite a bit of furniture and other things that I could not take with me. We are in our new place now and the exercise bike is now gone, but instead, we have a little fitness room on our floor! Once we get all settled into our new place, I will start to use it. The good news is that I’ve started doing yoga! 1 class so far, but it’s a huge step in the right direction.

After I moved, since we moved into an elevator building, I was able to take walks with the baby to explore the new neighborhood. The weather has gotten quite hot, so I haven’t been doing much walking lately, but what I did do has already shown some good results! I am now wearing my first trimester pants again! That was a year ago that I wore them, so it’s the same weather for them too! That was the biggest achievement. Not in my pre-pregnancy jeans yet, but I can see my body slowly going back to what it was. It’s almost 6 months since I’ve given birth, so I hope in another 3 months I’ll be back to where I was. 9 months to gain, 9 months to lose, right?

Weight Loss After Delivery

It’s been 6 weeks since my baby was born and periodically I’ve been checking the scale to see if I’ve lost any weight yet. I was not expecting much weight loss since I was not exercising much, but I was pleasantly surprised today. I didn’t weight myself immediately after birth. Instead I waited until about 10 days or so after when my swelling had gone down completely from the IV fluids. From the total 40 pounds I had gained during pregnancy, I had lost 19 so far from the delivery. That meant 21 pounds to go until my pre-pregnancy weight.

A week or two later, I weight myself again and found myself with only 18-19 pounds to go. Since then it’s been a slow crawl down. A few weeks later when I checked I was still the same. It looked like my weight loss had tapered off and I would have to change something to continue healthy weight loss. That change was walking whenever I could get outside. Since the weather is still cold I really have to take advantage of the warmer days. Up until a month after the c-section, my stitches still hurt and my mobility was still limited. I was walking extremely slow. But ever since I hit the one month mark, somehow my body feels much more normal and I am able to walk at a normal pace.

A few days ago I took a long walk by myself. I left the baby sleeping with her grandparents who were visiting and helping me out at home. I was only planning on walking an hour, but after walking and walking in the park, I found myself far away from home. I discovered a lake that I didn’t know was in the park, and had to walk around the entire lake to make it back home. I finally made it back home an hour and half later. I felt good that I was able to get some exercise. Here are pictures from the park of the lake I didn’t know existed near my home!

The next day I took a walk with the baby in the stroller, my husband, and my in-laws. We took a nice long walk around the neighborhood to get some fresh air while the weather was a little milder.

Since that day the weather has been very cold. In the 20’s and 30’s. I haven’t gone out in the past couple of days, but I was hoping that the walk I did take might have made a difference. My eating is still the same. I do splurge on some ice cream here and there, but I eat until I’m satisfied and try to eat healthy. It helps that I have help at home right now and my mother-in-law is doing all the cooking. Before her, my mother was here helping and did all the cooking too. Pretty soon I’ll be on my own and need to cook for myself and my husband.

Today I stepped on the scale (after using the bathroom after I woke up) and was pleasantly surprised to find that I had dropped another couple of pounds! So, now I have 16-17 pounds to lose. I’m saying 16-17 because my scale is digital and uses decimals, so I am 16.4 pounds over my pre-pregnancy weight. As the weather gets warmer, I am going to do more walking so I am certain that my weight will slowly melt away. Plus, I decided to start doing some exercises at home, which I will start next week. I bought a book called Cesarian Recovery and there are pictures of exercises that I can do in there and it has it broken down by the number of weeks after surgery. The book looks dated and old, but it’s helpful anyways.

I was hesitant to exercise during the first 6 weeks because I was told to hold off on exercise until the 6 week mark. But, I was told to walk 15 minutes a day. Hmmm… I guess I just started dong that since my walking during the first few weeks were extremely slow since the stitches tugged at me and since my scar was still pretty swollen. I plan on doing exercises from that book and also adopting a healthy eating plan. I bought another book called Eat Well, Lose Weight, While Breastfeeding that should help me plan some healthy meals now that I have to start cooking for myself in a few days. I also bought another book on C-sections called The Essential C-Section Guide: Pain Control, Healing at Home, Getting Your Body Back, and Everything Else You Need to Know About a Cesarian Birth. Hopefully this book will be helpful.

And I made a purchase to help me with exercise. I bought a DVD called Jennifer Gianni’s Fusion Pilates for Post Pregnancy and C-Section Recovery that I can hopefully turn on and follow once I have privacy at home and can do exercises without having my parents or in-laws to watch me. I’m sure they don’t mind, but it’s easier for me to start this kind of program when I’m alone. I plan on beginning my exercise program on Monday (in 2 days). My goal is to get my body back near to where I was before I go visit family and friends in mid-May. That gives me about 2.5 months to get in shape.

One thing that I noticed a few days ago that made me pretty happy was that the maternity jeans that I was wearing near the end of my pregnancy and after I gave birth are starting to get looser on me and started to slide down a bit. I had to change to jeans I wore a little earlier on in the pregnancy (which are a bit tight on me right now) in order to take a walk a few days ago. Just seeing that progress is making me happy. 🙂

Hypothyroid and Pregnancy

The women in my family has a history of hypothyroid, including myself. I used to be hypothyroid when I was a kid, between the ages of 9-11 years old, and then somehow I went into the normal range and didn’t need to take medication anymore. Since then, I tested my thyroid every year, up until the last time I went to the doctor, which I can remember when that was…

Due to my history and family history of having hypothyroid, my midwife did an extra blood test on me to test my TSH levels. I really didn’t think anything of it since I had not suffered from it for so long, but then I received a call from my midwife asking me to call her back. Usually when that happens, it’s not good news. I called back to find out that I had elevated test results, which meant I was hypothyroid and needed to make an appointment with an endocrinologist. Especially during pregnancy it is important to monitor the thyroid, as there could be some potential dangers to your baby… something about the potential for your placenta to rupture? Not sure exactly.

So, even though I like to stay au naturale with no medication, I made an appointment with an endocrinologist. Like I had suspected, they were going to prescribe some synthroid. I asked if there was a natural version, and he mentioned that there was, but it was made out of pig’s thyroid and it was hard to monitor the amount of synthroid in each pill. He said, “during pregnancy, it is very important to keep your thyroid levels perfect, so he highly recommends the synthetic one because the dosage is exactly the same in each pill.” Ok… I see his point. I just told him that I was sensitive to medication and that I wanted a low dosage. Fortunately, because my pre-pregnancy weight was low (he called me a little person, ha ha), he was able to prescribe me a dosage slightly lower than what he normally prescribes.

I go back in a month to have my TSH levels checked again. Hopefully they have normalized and I can stay at this dose. I’m also praying that this whole hypothyroid issue goes away after pregnancy. The endocrinologist mentioned that it’s possible that pregnancy brought it on because pregnancy taxes your immune system. I hope that is the case and that it will disappear as soon as I have my baby.

The one thing that has been a bit of a change in my schedule is trying to take this medicine on an empty stomach. Since I really need to eat something the moment I wake up, I decided to take the pill during my last bathroom break in the morning. Sometimes this is at 3am, 5am, 6am, or sometimes even 7am. And usually I go back to sleep for a few hours. That’s the only way to guarantee I will have an empty stomach.

I guess as much as we want to have perfect health during pregnancy, there are some things we need some additional help with. For me that was my thyroid, and for you it may be something else. I’m just grateful that it’s just something that’s pretty minor and easy to monitor and address. And it doesn’t affect me using the birthing center to deliver. Whew!

I have my 20 week ultrasound appointment in a couple of days and I am soooooo excited!!!! I will post pictures in a couple of days! We get to find out the gender of the baby and see how big the baby has grown.

Pregnancy and Heat

Pregnancy and heat just do not mix. Today in New York, the weather forecast has a high of 95 degrees. It’s probably actually somewhere around 85 degrees right now. I just took my dog for a walk, and nearly fainted. Usually the heat zaps my energy, but I had never experienced anything close to what I had experienced today. We were only about a quarter to a half a block away from our home and as I started to take out the doggie poop bag to pick up my dog’s poop, beads of sweat started forming all over my face, I felt instantly nauseous, and started feeling like I was going to faint. I had to crouch down near the floor to regain some strength before I could pick up the poop.

I managed to pick up the poop and wanted to go straight home, but that quarter block seemed so far away, especially since I had to cross 2 streets. Luckily my dog peed at the next tree and I turned straight around to go home. I didn’t make it that far. I made it about 10 feet to the steps of a church. I sat there, hoping to feel better, but even sitting didn’t seem to make me feel better. The world was spinning and the beads of sweat started dripping from all over my face. For someone who usually does not sweat, having sweat pour out of my face like that with such speed made me realize something was definitely wrong. Could it just be the heat?

After a passerby stopped to pet my dog, I mustered up the strength to walk across the two street lights back and head back home. As I neared my home, I started to feel slightly normal again. Somehow the shade in front of my home was much cooler than the shade in front of the church. I was going to make it home after all. The moment I got in, I started to feel better… I had enough energy to go change my clothes into something short and comfy. It’s probably not suitable to wear in public, but I wanted to just cool off fast. After giving the dog some ice water, I gave myself a tall glass of ice water and sat in front of the air conditioner to cool off.

I had no idea that pregnancy could affect my body this much during the heat. I almost feel like I saved myself from a heat stroke. I have to admit, I think I made it home because as I sat on those church steps, I started praying for help. What else is a pregnant woman with a hyper dog to do when she’s about to faint with no one around to help? I’m glad I made it home safely. It just made me realize how careful I have to be in this heat.

I wonder if the food I ate had something to do with it too. Some foods make me bloat more, and this morning I had cereal with almond milk. This is my lazy breakfast when I just want something quick. Sometimes this sort of breakfast makes me bloat, even though I’m not using real milk (due to lactose issues) and even though the cereal I chose was a very high fiber kind. I don’t really believe any cereals are really healthy for us, so I really eat it sparingly. Unfortunately today was the day I ate cereal and then walked my dog about an hour later. Bad combo, especially in this heat.

So, for you pregnant ladies out there. If it’s hot, stay hydrated with plenty of ice water, and try to stay out of the heat. You don’t want to experience what I just experience. It could have been a very close call.  I wonder what would’ve happened if I had fainted in the middle of the sidewalk. I’m just relieved and glad that it actually didn’t happen. Whew!

Is It Safe For a Pregnant Woman To Swim in a Chlorinated Pool?

This is a question I considered briefly before jumping into the pool here in Puerto Vallarta after I was getting extremely overheated from trying to tan out in the sun. I don’t think it’s wise for any pregnant woman to try to tan in extremely hot weather. Being pregnant, I get overheated so quickly and dehydrated. It almost becomes unbearable and I have to either jump into the pool to cool off or go back into my air conditioned room. So, having already jumped into the pool, I had already made the quick decision that a little chlorine would not harm me and my baby as much as being overheated would. I just made sure I didn’t stay in there too long.

Just to check out my gut reaction, I decided to look it up and found varying opinions. For the most part, it looks like a lot of pregnant women use swimming as a form of exercise as they get bigger and don’t seem to have any concerns. There are even doctors that suggest swimming as a form of low impact exercise. But, it is also known that your skin is your largest organ, and anything on your skin gets absorbed, including chlorine from the water, so limited exposure is probably best. Some suggest using outdoor chlorinated pools versus indoor pools so that you don’t breathe in the chlorine fumes on top of absorbing it through your skin. As long as the pools are properly chlorinated, it is safer than a pool filled with bacteria. And someone mentioned that swimming in saltwater was much safer and better than swimming in a chlorinated pool.

For all of these issues, I believe it is common sense. Do what feels right for you. Chlorine is a chemical and exposure to toxic chemicals should be limited, especially when you are pregnant, but depriving yourself of everything is also no way to live. Keep exposure as low as possible. Although there are pregnant women that sound like they swim every day for exercise, I probably would not do that myself. I make sure to drink filtered water to take the chlorine out of my water… why wouldn’t I avoid it in a swimming pool? So, a quick dunk and a few minutes of cooling off is probably okay, but swimming all day is probably not the wisest choice.

What was a bigger concern for me than swimming in the chlorinated water was what type of bathing suit I would wear! Being in-between a large gut and an obvious pregnant belly, my protruding belly might turn some heads in a bikini as some may wonder if I’m pregnant or just super bloated. I found that I was pretty self-conscious about my belly since I was not prepared with the right swimsuit (one of those tank top ones that cover my belly). I ended up just going bare because I wanted to tan my belly a little bit. It was okay when I was lying on my back because my belly would go down and it looked no bigger than anyone else’s at the pool, but when I stood up and walked to the pool, that was when it was noticeable. I had no idea it would be so strange to be in this phase where my belly hadn’t actually “popped” yet.

I finally did see one other person that was pregnant. She was much further along so it was pretty obvious and she wore a tank top over her bikini and swam with it on. I hadn’t really thought about that, but I guess that’s a good solution. I just wanted to make sure my shoulders tanned with no strap lines, so I like to wear tube top bikinis instead. I just didn’t have a tube top shirt that I wanted to wear into the pool. Something to consider for next time!

Flossing

Flossing has been a regular part of my pregnant routine. I know it should be part of my regular routine, and it started just after my last trip to the dentist. I found a holistic dentist online that had written a book and decided to go to him. I did not know I was pregnant at the time, but when I went to the dentist, the hygienist asked if I was pregnant. I told her that I was planning on trying to get pregnant soon, and she did a cleaning on me. She also flossed my teeth and told me that I had mild gingivitis. Uh oh! She told me that whenever you bleed when you floss, contrary to what people think, you should go back into that area and floss again several times. It means that there is still some stuff in there that is irritating your gums.

So, ever since my trip to the dentist, I have been flossing daily…sometimes even 2-3 times a day. Once you really keep up with it, you can really feel the plaque and other food particles getting stuck in your teeth. Another motivation I have is that I heard that bacteria from your gums and plaque can get absorbed into your body and eventually make you sick if it builds up. Knowing that I have a baby growing inside me give me more motivation to floss frequently. I also bought a natural mouthwash from Whole Foods that I use every now and then.

I’ve had other dentists that have told me to floss (with some attitude) that really turned me off, but this new dentist and hygienist are so nice and really took the time to talk to me about everything I had questions on that ever since I went it has been much much easier to follow their recommendations! It just goes to show, when you tell someone how something can benefit them and explain everything nicely, it’s much more likely that people will follow the advice and bossing someone around! I am very happy with my choice to go with a holistic dentist. They automatically use natural alternatives rather than harmful chemicals.

Just a reminder to keep on flossing! It’s good for you and your baby!

Safe Makeup and Beauty Products While Pregnant

One of the first questions I had was if I could still use the makeup and beauty products I had in my bathroom. I had already switched over to mineral makeup and all-natural brands. I started to take a look at everything, from my toner, face lotion, shampoo, soap, and all of my makeup. Some things just seemed like I used such small amounts that they didn’t matter, such as mascara and eyeliner, but toner, face lotion, and powder seemed like something I should pay attention to. I didn’t want to do incredible amounts of research, so I looked into the products I was already using to see if they passed the test.

Face Products

I had been using Origins for a while, but knew that they were probably not the most natural choice, but was surprised to find out that a couple of years ago, they had changed their products after Oprah featured their GinZing eye cream as one of her favorite products to remove any parabens and other harmful ingredients. Oprah had also done an episode on toxic chemicals in makeup, so since she had one of Origin’s products on her favorite things list, as a responsible company, they reformulated all of their products to remove the harmful ingredients! Isn’t that great? I took a look at Aveda’s products, and although they are eco-friendly, most of them still contain all the harmful ingredients.

So, now, on the packaging of all Origins products, it says:

Formulated without:

• Parabens
• Phthalates
• Propylene Glycol
• Mineral Oil
• PABA
• Petrolatum
• Paraffin
• DEA
• Synthetic Fragrance
• Animal Ingredients

Origins tests its products on volunteer panels.

This is good news! I could continue using the products I had, plus replenish my dwindling supply toner and lip gloss without guilt. That solved my toner, face lotion, eye makeup remover, eye cream, and lip gloss problem. Now I needed to find a better powder. I had used Origins powder before, but it was too heavy for my face and always left my face shiny. I think it was clogging my pores. I had also tried a small brand for mineral powder which worked okay, but I had not gotten around to replenishing it so I was going around with a shiny and oily face.

Face Powder

I decided to try Bare Escentuals instead when I ran into the store while I was buying some maternity clothes. I walked in and found a color that matched my skin and ended up buying the starter kit for $60. It was great because it also came with a free travel brush. I watched the DVD that came with it to make sure I was using it correctly, and after using it, my skin has improved, my face looks smooth and matte, and I am in love with this product! My face looks flawless! Even though I had a bunch of red acne marks on my face when I started using this, I noticed that my face cleared up and all of my acne went away because since my pores were no longer clogged, my face didn’t get shiny anymore and I didn’t get any new acne. Amazing! I’m pretty sure I’m going to be using this mineral makeup for a long, long time.

Bath Products

My bath products are already screened for harmful ingredients. I know a couple of brands that I know I can trust that I turn to. This can be a pretty complex topic itself since there are so many ingredients to watch out for, but instead of being incredibly strict about everything, I just do my best now to use healthier products and avoid the standard products you would find at a convenient store. It’s hard to avoid on vacation, but I figure a week won’t be that harmful compared to the entire 9 months. I remember from a long time ago I did some in depth research and remember that Aubrey Organics was one of the safest brands out there. Since I don’t feel like doing that research again right now, I just use that brand and a couple of other brands: Kiss My Face, Nature’s Gate and some others I cannot recall right now. I’m sure they are much cleaner than standard shampoo brands, but I don’t know if they are free from all the harmful chemicals. One of these days when I have the time and motivation, I will do the research again.

For soap, I have been using glycerin soap, the ones that are clean and made from all natural ingredients. When I do some more research on this topic, I will post more! Wishing everyone a safe and healthy pregnancy!