Back to back pregnancies, and what it does to your midsection

So the Sprogling was 8 months old when I discovered I was pregnant with Little Bit. It had taken us a good two years of trying to achieve him and countless doctors prodding at us, so knowing we wanted a second one, we decided to start not using protection with the idea it might take us that long to get pregnant a second time. Ha ha ha ha. Now I've never been what you would call skinny. I had a fairly good figure when I was in high school and had a really great one in university due to being broke and not eating a lot. Then I met my husband. He is exactly what you would call skinny, with a metabolism to match. So when we were dating and eating out a lot, I started putting on a little weight. He'd take me to fancy restaurants and we would drink some wine and have pasta and dessert. After we got married, I started cooking for him more and started putting on more weight. Not a lot but I was about 15 pounds heavier than I was when he first met me.

Then I got pregnant. I was ill from the day I conceived to until 5 hours after giving birth, but I was still HUNGRY the entire time. So I got inventive in what I would eat that wouldn't upset my stomach but would satisfy my cravings. I worked really hard to not eat complete crap, but 4 weeks after giving birth I finally stepped on a scale and I was 40 pounds heavier than I was before I had gotten pregnant. Not to mention I had a lovely pattern of stretch marks over the entirety of my tummy. So I set to exercising, not my favourite thing in the world. I kept at it and managed to lose twenty of those pounds. Then I got pregnant again.

I had gained all that weight even when I had tried to eat well and kept up some kind of exercise routine so this time round I decided to say, screw it. I ate what I wanted, when I wanted. I still had exercise (you try not getting any when chasing after a fully mobile toddler) but I didn't care less about the weight I was putting on. I somehow lucked out though. Again, 4 weeks after giving birth to #2, I stepped on the scale and was exactly 2 pounds heavier than I was when I got pregnant. Apparently all the weight gain this time was baby and fluid.

So I tallied it up and plugged all the numbers into the BMI calculator and it tells me that I am way overweight. Thanks. Just the pick me up I needed. I need to lose 25 more pounds to be firmly in the healthy weight zone. I don't think I've ever been that skinny. I think I need to lose ten more pounds before I'm happier with myself. I'm taking it easy with the exercising, but I'm trying to be really good with the food. I know I need to eat healthier and it can't hurt my kids to eat healthier either. Some weeks I do better than others. Last week I lost 4 pounds because I managed to get in 45 minutes of exercise every night and I only cheated a little on the food. This week I've lost almost a pound. I haven't been able to exercise and we've eaten poorly every night. But I'm not beating myself up over it. I'll get there and eventually my stomach will look better. I'll still have my badges of honour, but they will be faded and I'll feel good about myself and that will show in more ways than the purely physical.