When I was pregnant with M2 and P5, I was heavier to start with. With both of them I didn't really look obviously pregnant until well into the third trimester. I've always kind of envied those cute pregnant gals - you know, the ones who stay perfectly skinny with the perfect round baby belly.
After I lost weight and got down to a fairly small size, I remember thinking that if we had a third child I would finally get to be one of the cute pregnant chicks. But...moving, a foot injury, foot surgery and then the holidays were all unkind to my body. During that 6 months I was still eating like I was running 5-7 miles 5 times a week when I was barely running 3 miles 3 times a week. I put on about 15 pounds. Then as my foot was recovering, I started to slowly work out again. A few weeks later I found out I was pregnant. For the first two weeks I knew I was pregnant I made it to the gym - I felt good and I had the best of intentions to make this my healthiest pregnancy yet.
And then the morning sickness hit. From the middle of February through the end of March, I didn't make it to the gym once. Just getting through the day was enough of a challenge with my husband gone and the horrible all day nausea I was plagued with, I cannot even imagine trying to work out during that time period. Morning sickness is the strangest thing because not only does it involved feeling nauseous all the time, it also causes extreme food cravings and extreme food aversions. I couldn't think about certain foods without feeling like I was going to hurl. On top of all that, pregnancy makes you very hungry. So you feel terrible, most foods don't sound good to eat, but you're very hungry. It's the perfect storm. So when you're in that situation you eat whatever is in the handful of foods that actually do sound appetizing, and for a short time while you are eating and shortly after, you feel less sick.
For me, the handful of foods that didn't make me want to barf included pizza, milkshakes, bread, crackers, orange juice, and fried chicken. Yeah - not exactly healthy. So the first trimester weight gain has not been pretty, I am already up more than 10 pounds. Ugh! My extra body fat seems to congregate in my stomach, butt, mid back and upper arms. I don't look pregnant, I just look a bit chunky and puffy. Part of it my first tri diet, I think part of it is my genetics for how my body reacts to being pregnant. Now that the morning sickness has mostly passed (occasionally I get a short bought of it) I am trying to eat healthier, and I've been forcing myself back to the gym a few times a week to use the elliptical and get the blood flowing. It's a little depressing that a year ago I was super fit and running 8 minute miles, now I'm struggling to get 3 miles on the elliptical in 35 minutes!
I'm trying not to be too hard on myself. I'm going to pack up all my cute small clothes and put them away for awhile. I know that my body does not lose weight while breastfeeding - with both my other kiddos my body held onto it's extra fat stores until after my babies were weened. I'm OK with this and I know that someday I will get back into shape. Realistically I'm telling myself it may be 2 years - 6-12 months of breastfeeding (we'll see how it goes, I BF M2 for 7 months, P5 for 9 months), and then 1 year of Weight Watchers and running.
Not that I want to be big and miserable quite yet, but I do look forward to sometime in the coming months where my stomach is protruding enough that I don't look fat pregnant, and maybe I'll even get to have a little while where I can be cute pregnant.
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