I had a conversation with my best friend recently. She is 3 weeks postpartum, and looks radiant. She gained a completely normal amount of weight, and has a gorgeous little girl now. She is successfully breast feeding, and all is as it should be... Except it's not. She told me how upset she was that the scale wasn't moving, and that she thought her body was ruined.
3 weeks postpartum.
This is a problem.
I have my own confession to make. When I was pregnant with Lukas I gained an obscene amount of weight. (to the tune of 80 pounds) I ate healthy. I exercised. My body had other plans. I was developing HELLP syndrome. I literally could feel fluid sloshing in my feet. I had major pitting edema. I ended up on bed rest for weeks before Lukas was born. I did not enjoy my pregnancy.
Immediately after giving birth, I was nursing Lukas, and the nurse came to ask me about food. I vividly remember thinking I didn't want to eat, because I had to lose my baby weight. I had just given birth to my child, and was stressing about losing baby weight.
A few days after I gave birth I decided I was going to ride my bike. One of our friend's daughter asked me if I had another baby in my tummy because I was still "fat." I laughed it off until I was alone, and then I went and cried. I had always been fit. No one had ever called me fat before, and while it was a child who didn't know better, I was so upset. I decided to ride my bike. I made it around the block, and paid for it for several days afterward.
There were times as I was losing the weight that my husband would have to make me eat, because I didn't want to. I would get weak, and dizzy, and it wasn't healthy. I was so concerned with seeing the number on the scale go back down, that I was compromising my health to make it happen.
I would venture to say that I am not the first, nor will I be the last women to be in this situation, and that is a tragedy. It's a shame that as women we feel such pressure to be back in our pre-pregnancy form so quickly. It's a shame that this pressure distracts from bonding with our little one. It's a shame that women are shedding tears because they don't bounce back immediately.
We grew humans! In our bellies! Forgive yourself already... So what it took you 2 years to lose it all! You can get back to where you want to be... Give yourself a break!
So what you have stretch marks! They will fade, and you can rock a bikini again!
Rather than lament the fact that your pre-pregnancy jeans dig into your hips, and give you a record-breaking muffin top, go out and get a pair of jeans that make you feel like a million bucks. Put the yoga pants away, and put on clothes that fit. You deserve to feel like you are beautiful.
As women we have to celebrate what our bodies are capable of, rather than hate our jiggly parts. We are remarkable creatures. We are powerful. We are stronger than we even know ourselves.
It's time to celebrate what we've gained, not mourn the bodies we think we've lost.
We are remarkable...
