I volunteer with the teenage girls at my church, including teaching gospel lessons, planning activities, and Wednesday night youth activities. The young women are 12 to 18 and they say some of the most profound and some of the silliest things! During last week’s activity, one of the more impetuous young women looked at me and my baby and asked, “Doesn’t having a baby make your boobs sag and ruin your body?” or something to that effect. After laughing out loud, all of the mom’s in the room went on to say that it does affect your body, but nature is going to do that anyway. For each one of us, having children was clearly worth any wear and tear our bodies experienced.
As I cleaned out my summer things from my closet this morning, I thought over this question again. I’ve had 2 children in four years and I’m actually letting go of clothes because I’ve gone down 2 sizes. (Before you want to smack me for this, I was overweight and I’m no size 8 now). I think many factors come into play, including nursing each baby for 12 months, improving my eating habits to be a good example, less boredom snacking, and simply being more active. If anyone had told me 5 years ago when I was married that I’d need a smaller wardrobe after having 2 children, I wouldn’t have believed it!
Size certainly isn’t everything by any means. I feel healthier as well. I honestly can’t explain this, but I suffered from lactose intolerance and irritable bowel syndrome for years before I had kids. After my first pregnancy, these symptoms seriously diminished. Some of it certainly seems related to stress and satisfaction with life – all my stress and unhappiness goes straight to my gut – and I am certainly happy with my life. But nature also seemed to give me an unexplained gift with pregnancy. I am happy to take my serious “tummy flames” and other miscellaneous mommy body stuff for improved energy and health!
My second baby will turn one soon and we’ll transition away from nursing. I know that at this point I will need to finally take that next step toward exercising because nursing will no longer burn all of those calories for me. I’ve never found that love of exercising, but I want the benefits that come from it. A good friend of mine clearly loves exercising – it’s like a drug to her. She just gave birth to her 4th child and looks fantastic. She actually taught an exercise class to the young women 3 weeks after delivering and apologized because it was a less strenuous version because she needed to take it slow. Everyone else was aching days later!
I know that losing weight is good, building a habit of eating healthier is better, and that adding exercise to this is optimal. As I look toward a future that potentially includes 1 to 2 more pregnancies, I don’t want to spend my days agonizing over a stretch mark here, some sagging there, or a bit of extra lingering fat. Instead, I want to do all that I can to be healthy and energetic and to just consider some “tummy flames” a little souvenir of mommyhood. ;0)
If you’re looking for a little bit of encouragement for working on your “Body After Baby,” visit www.mamanotes.com to participate in her challenge!
Erin M. says
You are so lucky to be down two sizes after pregnancy!! I’m envious. I eat pretty healthy things, but my portions are a little out of control. I feel so hungry all the time….sigh.
Zeemaid says
okay I still want to smack you… no seriously, Good for you. Being aware is half the battle so you’ll be ready for when nursing ends.
For some reason the 3rd child in my life actually made me less active in the sense that I found myself stuck at home more. 3 Kids were just not as portable as 2 were. 😉
I was lucky I lost all my baby weight within 2 weeks of delivery but unfortunately gradually gained about 10 pounds with each kid afterwards. sign.
I have a SIL who I think is still hanging on to nursing because of the weight loss benefits it had for her. I so wish that had worked for me.