It's been over a year since I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy. And what a year it's been. Sometimes I feel so guilty for not posting more to BBF but then I'm reminded that these first few years with my boy is time that I'll never get back. Soon I'll have more time to post... for now my priority is as a mama! But I still love you!
As a follow up to my body just a couple of weeks after baby (yikes!) and again three months after baby (here), I'm so ready to make my one year report. If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen the photos, and in case you missed it, here's my unmedicated birth story.
Sleep
So I just read my three month update on sleep and I literally laughed out loud. "Christian is a great sleeper" Um, false. Christian just started sleeping through the night. I mean never not once in a whole year did he sleep for longer than an 8 hour stretch (keeping in mind that he supposedly should go 11-12 hours). At about the 6 month mark (I blame teething!), things took a turn for the worst. He was up every couple of hours and wouldn't sleep with me or on his own. I tried sleep training and while it drastically helped, it just didn't feel right to me to continue to "train" (aka let him cry) my 7 month old to sleep. Alas, we had night after night of 3am nursing and on his one year mark, Christian finally decided to sleep from 7:30pm-6:30am and there have been no interruptions since. He's now on a 7pm-5:30am schedule. We are currently working on a later wake up but... progress!
As a follow up to my body just a couple of weeks after baby (yikes!) and again three months after baby (here), I'm so ready to make my one year report. If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen the photos, and in case you missed it, here's my unmedicated birth story.
Weight
I gained around 40 pounds during my pregnancy and I lost about 30 within the first three or four weeks. While I don't own a scale, I continued to weigh myself at the gym about once a month. I hovered about 10 pounds over my original weight for 5-6 months. It wasn't until the 9 month mark did I feel like my body was back to it's original shape and size. You know what they say, it takes as long to take the weight off as it is to put it on! At a year I'm back to my original weight (plus or minus a pound or two as usual)
Body
I'm fortunate to say that the stretch marks on my tummy have completely faded. It's true what they say though. Perhaps it's mental or perhaps it never will be the same (which is totally worth it btw), but my skin is much looser and my belly button is different. My tummy also has a little bigger pooch to it that doesn't "tone up" as well as it used to. I'm attributing that to the diastisis (aka abdominal separation) that I've been working on. It seems that the more abdominal exercises I do the worse my tummy looks. So frustrating! It continues to slowly improve, but if this is as good as it gets thats a-ok in my book. I did make a human after all. #mombod
Nursing
At 13 months, I'm still nursing 2-3 times a day. My goal was to go a whole year and it just seemed that by the year mark it was easier (and cheaper) to continue to nursing than to wean Christian. He literally nurses for like 5 minutes three times a day so while I've been tempted a few times to give it up, it's comforting to know he's still getting all those antibodies.
It's interesting how my body continues to change with the frequency of nursing. It's true what they say about burning calories! I love food and particularly through pregnancy and nursing I've become obsessed with trail mix and almond butter. While it's a super healthy snack, almonds are highly caloric... I have to watch my extra snacks now that I don't need the extra fuel for breast milk. While before I was stuffing my face because I was ravenous, I have to make sure I'm not just snacking out of habit anymore...Very sneaky stuff!
Body
I'm fortunate to say that the stretch marks on my tummy have completely faded. It's true what they say though. Perhaps it's mental or perhaps it never will be the same (which is totally worth it btw), but my skin is much looser and my belly button is different. My tummy also has a little bigger pooch to it that doesn't "tone up" as well as it used to. I'm attributing that to the diastisis (aka abdominal separation) that I've been working on. It seems that the more abdominal exercises I do the worse my tummy looks. So frustrating! It continues to slowly improve, but if this is as good as it gets thats a-ok in my book. I did make a human after all. #mombod
Nursing
At 13 months, I'm still nursing 2-3 times a day. My goal was to go a whole year and it just seemed that by the year mark it was easier (and cheaper) to continue to nursing than to wean Christian. He literally nurses for like 5 minutes three times a day so while I've been tempted a few times to give it up, it's comforting to know he's still getting all those antibodies.
It's interesting how my body continues to change with the frequency of nursing. It's true what they say about burning calories! I love food and particularly through pregnancy and nursing I've become obsessed with trail mix and almond butter. While it's a super healthy snack, almonds are highly caloric... I have to watch my extra snacks now that I don't need the extra fuel for breast milk. While before I was stuffing my face because I was ravenous, I have to make sure I'm not just snacking out of habit anymore...Very sneaky stuff!
Workouts
I went back to teaching just 6 weeks postpartum. I continue to teach 6 classes a week and I love it. My workouts are my alone time. They make me appreciate the time with Christian so much more. The fact that I'm doing something that makes me feel and look better is just a bonus to have some time to myself.
Sleep
So I just read my three month update on sleep and I literally laughed out loud. "Christian is a great sleeper" Um, false. Christian just started sleeping through the night. I mean never not once in a whole year did he sleep for longer than an 8 hour stretch (keeping in mind that he supposedly should go 11-12 hours). At about the 6 month mark (I blame teething!), things took a turn for the worst. He was up every couple of hours and wouldn't sleep with me or on his own. I tried sleep training and while it drastically helped, it just didn't feel right to me to continue to "train" (aka let him cry) my 7 month old to sleep. Alas, we had night after night of 3am nursing and on his one year mark, Christian finally decided to sleep from 7:30pm-6:30am and there have been no interruptions since. He's now on a 7pm-5:30am schedule. We are currently working on a later wake up but... progress!
Me oh my, I'm so fortunate to have a healthy, happy baby boy but being a mama is no joke. It's true what they say... it's the hardest job in the world. But it's also the most rewarding. I feel beyond blessed to be a mama and we hope to try for number two by the end of the year.... I'll keep ya posted beach babes xx
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