I’ve been taking pictures of my body after pregnancy – I took a photo 4 days after giving birth to Reuben, then at 3 weeks and then at 5 months. After a conversation with a couple of my blog readers who are still pregnant, they said it would be interesting to see this. Like me, they are keen to know about the body after pregnancy and, ultimately, losing weight after pregnancy. So, this is all rather revealing and apologies to anyone who really doesn’t want to see this but…
My body after pregnancy
4 days after giving birth
After 4 days, I was astounded by how much my belly had gone down but I absolutely HATED looking at myself face on! Love handle central. Looking back I now see you can hardly tell because my norks are so massive!
3 weeks after giving birth
Still large norks and love handles but the good news is, by 3 weeks time I had lost 10kgs (I had put on around 15kgs and this weight loss was entirely due to not having a baby and loads of water in there, but also breastfeeding and forgetting to eat during a crazy, blurry, exhausting 3 weeks of newborn life) which was enough to make me feel good about myself. Tired but good. So if you have something coming up around a month or so after you’ve given birth you might be pleasantly surprised by how quickly your body rearranges itself!
5 months after giving birth*
The bad news is that I stayed at this weight for the next 3 or 4 months. It wasn’t until I started to do a high protein diet (not very strictly I have to say and I never did ‘weigh in’ as I went into a pre-Christmas slump!) and loads (sort of) of exercise that I managed to lose a bit more. Since New Year when I stopped feeding Reuben during the day, I’m now back into a pair of fairly tight trousers I used to wear for work (which I’m thrilled with!) but since my boobs have shrunk, the dip in the scales is most probably my body saying goodbye to my Jodie Marsh bazoomers.
So that’s it. My hips and rib cage have almost gone back to where they were. However, while I might be back to where I started on the scales, I don’t have the same body I started with. Various things just aren’t the same, most notably my belly - it’s OK when I’m standing, but as soon as I sit the muscles are nowhere to be seen! As a result I’ve spent the last 6 months wearing this baby:
I mentioned this on Monday in the Breastfeeding in public post…basically it gives me a bit of body confidence as it does what my muscles should and holds the ‘excess skin’ in place when I sit (rather than a major overhang over the jeans). Now we’ve reached that 6 month mark it’s time to get control (literally) of my body and ditch the bodysuit! But with target areas being my arms, legs, TUMMY, back…basically all my muscles, it feels a bit daunting. So I’ve got myself a personal trainer!!!!! We’re away next week at Centre Parcs so I’ve organised to see Dan from Sound, Mind and Body Gym a week on Tuesday. He was slightly taken aback when I said I want to look like Jody Marsh (please read this before you judge me!) but you’ve got to aim high right? I shall of course fill you in on my progress.
*For some bizarre reason I thought it would be a good idea to take the pictures with the same pants on – I realise now that was a stupid idea as it looks like I only wear one sorry looking pair of nautical knickers…I do have many more different ones, I promise.
14 comments
Ellie on 2-15-2013 at 9:50 pm
Love this! And may I say, you have a fantastic body. Well done you. I have to say, I think you are lucky (as was I) and I imagine some will be a tad envious of your post preg figure. I know what you mean about the lack of muscle strength. I remember that weird feeling after being quite strong pre-preg. Oh and I’m also going to centre parcs in march so any tips would be appreciated! xx
hannah on 2-16-2013 at 1:27 pm
Ellie, as a former GB tramplolinest I’m not in the least bit surprised that a) your body bounced back (see what I did there?!) and b) you’re a milf (I’ve not seen you but I bet you are!). Thank you for your kind words…I guess it’s all relative to how you started out and I guess its not that bad BUT I did exercise nearly every day I was pregnant in the hope that that would help me regain my figure quickly (plus it’s good for nab and supposed to improve delivery – lies!)…but now I’m hoping to get a figure better than the one I had before
xxx
Sophie on 2-18-2013 at 9:24 am
Thanks for the post! Am hoping all this exercise I’m doing is going to see me through the delivery (let me still live the dream, please!!) and ping back into shape ready for the bridesmaid duties I have for my brother’s wedding a month after my due date!
Interesting about the slack tummy muscles when sitting. I think I might have to invest in some sort of body suit for this wedding!
hannah on 2-20-2013 at 3:14 pm
Sophie, given your triathlete past, you’ll ping back for sure!! In fact, I recon with a little help from our body suit friend people will be amazed you’ve only just had a baby! Just luck for these last few weeks xxx
Faye on 2-20-2013 at 12:08 pm
I’m currently 37 weeks pregnant and these pictures put my mind at ease BIG TIME! you look great in all of these and I can only hope I’m looking that good a few days after I’ve given birth… I’m so worried that I’ll have the baby and realise that unlike you, it won’t have been baby, water and other bits, it’ll just be that I’ve eaten far too much of the wrong stuff. Have managed to put on just over 1.5 stone so far so I guess not too bad but I’m concerned about WHAT that weight actually is, stupid I know.
Anyway, you’re my official body inspiration! And don’t worry about the nautical knickers, we all have a fav pair. x
hannah on 2-20-2013 at 3:19 pm
Thanks for your kind comments and giving both me and my knickers a break…it’s funny, I still don’t feel all that pung back but knowing I’m at least 1 person’s body inspiration is very reassuring!!!
I worried the weight wasn’t baby or water, but you’ll soon see it is when something resembling a river gushes out of you…oh and remember to give yourself a break because your boobs will weigh a stone each for the whole time your breastfeeding!
Good luck for the last 3 weeks
xxx
Durwin Banks on 2-22-2013 at 9:13 am
Dear Hannah
What a great thing you are doing and congratulations for helping spread good messages. I thought you might like to read my comments about fats in pregnancy after this
Southampton research. If you find it interesting please get in touch.By Durwin Banks
Southampton University: The wrong fat in pregnancy diet ‘may make kids fatter’.
More great work from Southampton. I have been to a number of presentations where researchers have detailed results of work around The Southampton Women’s Survey, which I believe is the largest cohort of young women anywhere involved in measurements and assessments of lifestyle and diet.
The results of work done there are always impressive but in relation to fats, they often do not quite get it – or maybe one more question needs to be asked, the question of balance and how the modern diet impacts the balance of fats in our bodies.
The fact that the health service is about to be overrun by obesity and diabetes is reason to welcome this kind of research, but from my point of view it could do so much more.
Let’s ask that question, let’s stand up to the industrial food empires. It is our right to have food that nurtures us and to understand what that is.
Many other studies of breast milk lipids and other transference mechanisms during pregnancy flag up inconsistencies and imbalances but they do not go that final mile and relate it directly to fats in the diet.
When pregnant, a mother is doing the most amazing job of making new cells, therefore the raw material for this enterprise has to be supplied by the host. Nature is not much interested in the host but more in the new life.
So, what makes up these new cells? Well, the mitochondria is protected by the cell wall. The cell walls are made from the fats, a balance of them. If essential fats are not in the diet in the correct proportions, especially omega 3, the mother’s own body is depleted this can often lead to postnatal depression and childhood eczema. It would be good to use the Southampton cohort to look at this.
Omega 6 is a fat so abundant in the food chain that it could classified as the substance that does more harm to human life than any other material. This is where the issue of balance comes in.
Although an essential fat, omega 6 is only needed in the Stone Age ratio of one to one with omega 3. Levels up to maybe five times more omega 6 may not be too harmful but this is not certain. Levels of omega 6 in the general population is often in the order of 15/20 times more than needed. The evidence for this lies in the vast increase in inflammatory disease.
It should not be a great surprise that pregnant women eating a western-style diet and even women eating a so-called healthy diet show the wrong balance of fats in the blood. There is little real information out there about fats and what there is, is skewed and unintelligible. Food labels show only mono or poly unsaturated fat contents, which is useless if you are keen to eat a diet balanced in the essential fats. These same labels do not give information about how the oils have been treated and where they have come from. This is why even the healthy eaters can be fooled.
The role of the essential fats, among other things, is to produce anti and inflammatory hormones; they are the raw materials of the prostaglandins. Omega 3 produces the anti-inflammatory, omega 6 the pro-inflammatory ones. Now, the reason becomes clear why it is so important to get this balance correct.
It is also clear that cheap oils rich in the omega 6 fats are also often changed by heat and hydrogenation and solvent extraction – and even in the home by roasting or frying with them. This changed fat is not recognised by the body, so what is the body going to do with these Frankenstein fats? It does not want them in its system but has no real way of disposing of them – and so they build up a store of trouble.
The most reliable message that ought to be taken from this survey is of the importance of the right balance of fats for creating new life and keeping us free from not only inflammatory disease but disease of all kinds, which includes obesity.
My advice would be for the NHS to change its attitude to fats and the quicker the better. Dietary advice to pregnant mothers also needs changing as a matter of urgency; it is complacency in the extreme not to do this.
Here is a link to background papers that can be read in association with this one.
http://www.southampton.ac.uk/mediacentre/news/2013/jan/13_06.shtml
http://highbarnoils.co.uk/durwins-blog/2013/01/eczema
http://highbarnoils.co.uk/durwins-blog/2013/01/the-oxford-real-farming-conference
Durwin Banks
hannah on 3-4-2013 at 8:14 pm
Hi Durwin,
Many thanks for this in depth comment – I had never really given the omega 3 vs omega 6 discussion much thought. I think my favourite line has to be ‘Nature is not much interested in the host but more in the new life’… Sums up how a lot of us feel during pregnancy I should think!!
hxx
Amy Metcalf on 2-24-2013 at 4:28 pm
I must say I did giggle at your comment of wearing the same pants
Am exactly the same re belly. Have found it most distressing as am at a weight I like (thanks notably to breastfeeding I reckon and a bit to Weightwatchers) but my belly is horrid. What distressed me further upon googling for exercises to tone a post pregnancy belly,was that there were none.WTF?!! I think this is a fib and running would help tone so want to start that but also hoping to try a class called synergy which is like a mini bootcamp with a machine,which I can’t remember the name of,but it looks fun
Good luck with the personal trainer! Oh and you look fab! My butt clearly grew a lot whilst pregnant as it is also as saggy as my tummy! Xxx
hannah on 2-25-2013 at 12:59 pm
Right, Amy, first thing I’m going to do is get the trainer to do us a set of exercises to sort out our jiggly bellies then…starting tomorrow (thank god, I ate sooooo much at Center Parcs!! Active holiday it was not!).
Second thing, totally forgot to mention my butt – it’s really changed too, much saggier!!!
xx
Durwin Banks on 3-8-2013 at 10:13 pm
Dear Hannah
Thank you for reading and commenting. Raising awareness about food and health is a full time job for me. As a farmer it has been a total life changing experience but one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. On with the food revolution. More on you tube put in Durwin Banks to see me talking from my kitchen.
Happy watching Durwin
Amy Metcalf on 2-25-2013 at 4:44 pm
Excellent..look forward to sorting this jiggle out
Lol yes my weekend also involved stuffing myself silly…a loss at weigh in always involves this!lol. A centre parcs has lovely spa treatments too though,and with a small babba,you need some R&R 
Really?? It looks all perky..mine is like an old ladies :/ xx
hannah on 2-25-2013 at 8:36 pm
Ha! It’s the pants
Amy Metcalf on 2-25-2013 at 9:29 pm
Am heading to m&s for some awesome pants ;D I keep googling high waisted bikini briefs just in case we get away this summer..also hoping that high waisted jeans stay in style as they hold in any potential overhang
(I clearly waste a lot of time surfing the web at night!) x