Before and After Baby: How My Body Changed

On the left, my pre-pregnancy body (115lbs). On the right, one week postpartum (133lbs). Now, I realize that I’m almost the same size, and that for most women, this is not typical after birth. Take into account your body before you got pregnant. Did you have a muscular frame? Was your abdomen tight? All of that plays a factor into how quickly you will recover.

My body changed in more ways than I expected. I knew that I wouldn’t look quite the same. I knew I’d have a little more to love and that my clothes wouldn’t fit right away. I gained a total of 35 pounds during my pregnancy – a healthy and average weight gain for women my pre-pregnancy size.

I wanted to exercise while baby Anthony was incubating, but I was diagnosed with hyperemisis gravidarum – a hyper form of morning sickness that makes you vomit profusely and more frequently. I won’t go into details, but it was pretty awful and it lasted through the first two trimesters. When the sickness finally wore off, I noticed a huge change in my appetite. I was eating so much more – and not necessarily healthy things, either. Then it really happened. My butt got bigger, my boobs and my thighs got bigger and obviously, my stomach got bigger. Let’s not even talk about the stretch marks.

After delivering the nurses told me I was “string bikini ready”. That was so not how I felt when I looked into the mirror the first time. I was puffy and there was a jiggle in my middle that I’d never EVER had before. A few days later I started noticing that I was getting a little bit smaller. And then a little more. I think my body has plateaued now and isn’t going to get and firmer unless I give it a little bit of help. I am so ready.