Body After Baby

I've had a lot of requests to post about my body after having Harper.  I gained about 32 pounds when I was pregnant and about a week and a half postpartum I was 12 pounds away from my pre-pregnancy weight.   I haven't weighed myself since then, but I imagine I've lost a few more.

I took this photo a couple of days before I went into labor

Currently I can fit into all of my pre-pregnancy clothing (last Saturday was the first time I tried on my jeans again), but of course my body isn't the same as before, when I was working out regularly and hadn't yet carried an 8 pound, 3 ounce baby inside of me.

I would describe my post-pregnancy body as looking like I haven't worked out in a year (which is basically the case since I didn't work out for my entire pregnancy).  I'm still thin, but I lack the muscle tone and definition my body had when I was weight training. 

I had a few people ask what my "secret" is or what diet I'm following to try to get my pre-pregnancy body back, and the truth is, there isn't one. I've always said that I believe genetics play a large role in your pregnancy/postpartum body and things like whether or not you get stretch marks.  I didn't get any stretch marks and my body seems to have bounced back fairly quickly and I know my mom was the same way. It's just the luck of the draw.

I'm also breastfeeding and pumping, so that burns a lot of calories and thus I have to eat a lot to make sure I'm making up those calories. I still eat the same way I did before and during pregnancy. I eat every 2-3 hours and if I want pizza or ice cream, I have it---everything is okay in moderation as long as the rest of your diet is balanced. 

In terms of my stomach, which is the area most people are curious about post-baby,  I've actually been pleasantly surprised with how quickly it went down.  It started to go down right after giving birth and has gotten flatter since then. It's not the exact same as before, but honestly, I expected it to be much worse so I'm happy with it.  I still have my linea negra which I know takes time to go away, so right now my stomach looks better from the profile view than the front view. 

I took this photo within 24 hours of giving birth

About 2 weeks postpartum

The picture on the left was taken right before I found out I was pregnant, 

the picture on the right was taken today, at 3 weeks 1 day postpartum.

While I'm on leave (and medically cleared) I could probably squeeze in a workout during one of Harper's naps...but I have no idea how I'll have the time (or energy) to work out once I go back to work.  I want to spend every moment after work with my baby and not at the gym, so I may have to get creative. If you have any tips on how you incorporate fitness into your life as a mom, let me know.  I know that weekends I could fit in a class or go for a nice long walk with the stroller, but during the week it seems tough.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with my postpartum body. I feel like women are kind of taught that it's not okay to say that, but I don't care.  I think the media pushes the message that women can't be okay with their postpartum bodies until they're back to exactly the way they were before (see: all of the tabloid covers featuring celebrities who are back down to their regular bodies weeks or months after giving birth), but I'm just going to say that I feel okay with my body right now. I would still love to tone up and get back to pre-pregnancy shape, but realistically, it takes time to build that much muscle mass so I'm just going to take it one step at a time and enjoy my newborn. 

How did you feel about your postpartum body? Leave me a comment below!