Three Months Post Partum

It's been just over three months since I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy. My world (and my body) will never be the same! Motherhood continues to challenge and excite me. Having a child is truly the best gift in the entire world.  Childbirth has made me appreciate my body in ways I never knew possible. Women are incredibly designed creatures!

As a follow up to my postpartum body one and two weeks after baby (you can see that here...eeek!), I'm not quite as self conscious to report my three month mark! AND In case you missed it, here's my unmedicated birth story.

Weight

I gained just about 40 pounds during my pregnancy and I lost about 30 within the first three or four weeks. While I'm not hung up about the number on the scale, I have been hovering around 10 pounds above my pre-pregnancy weight for the past couple of months. I've increased my activity level and have been watching what I eat so I'm a little surprised I haven't lost any more, but I think I'll probably remain where I am until I stop breast feeding.

My body shape is definitely different. My hips are still wider than they were and I've got a faint linea nigra which is weird because I never had one while I was pregnant. Inevitably I did get a few stretch marks on my tummy but they are slowly fading more and more...

Workouts

I feel like my strength has returned about 95%... I'm still fairly weak in my core but I feel myself getting stronger everyday. I returned to teaching six classes a week just six weeks post partum and I incorporate Towel Toning whenever I can. I work it in between naps or I'll take Christian with me to my workouts! The first few weeks he would sleep while I sweat it out, but now he just loves to watch us move! He will kick along to the music and has the best time laughing at us. 

Challenges

At six weeks Christian and I came down with a bad case of Thrush. OMG. If you've ever had thrush I know you feel my pain. It was terrible. Honestly, I'm going to say it was even worse than childbirth. I couldn't feed or even hold Christian for a day and I had to pump for all of his feedings. However, I was determined not to go on antibiotics (In case you haven't figured it out, I'm generally against most western medicine practices!). I went on a strict diet of absolutely zero sugar (including grains and fruits) and I took strong probiotics and other supplements to balance out my system. Since I'm strictly breast feeding, Christian received my same regimen, and I'm happy to say that after two days we were both on the mend... LMK if you need my prescription!

Sleep

Christian is a great sleeper. He takes long naps which lets me get my work done and at night he sleeps in his crib for the first three or four hours. Around one or two o'clock he wakes and I grab him and nurse him in bed until the morning. From there he's up about every couple of hours, but I gotta say, I feel much more rested now that I ever did during my pregnancy! 

Diet 

After my nightmare with thrush, I continued on the same diet of zero sugars as well as my nursing diet. Naturally, the worst part was giving up coffee for a few weeks. But I also didn't eat dairy (except for goat's milk and cheese), grains (including oatmeal, quinoa etc.) legumes (beans), or cruciferous vegetables. Um, yeah. I was pretty intense for a couple of weeks... but a mama's gotta do what a mama's gotta do!

So what did I eat? My sweet hubby spent a lot of time on the BBQ for a couple of weeks grilling up meats and veggies like zucchini! I ate a lot of eggs for protein and almond butter and coconut oil to keep up my energy. It was hard to make sure I was getting enough calories but it's amazing how much more energy I have now. Over the last couple of weeks I've re-incorporated fruits and occasionally grains, but my morning oatmeal routine came to an abrupt stop and I'm only eating sweets on the weekends now... except for my Lily's Coconut Dark Chocolate bars of course!

#bodypop #vimmiaactivewear #fitpregnancy