I had been trying to conceive for over three years. When I found out I was pregnant I thought it was an absolute miracle.
Doctors recommend a 25 to 35 pound weight gain during pregnancy. In a previous generation, they were recommending twenty pounds or less.
At that time a lot of women who listened to their doctors didn't gain enough weight for an optimally healthy pregnancy. Who knows if the current recommendation is correct?The pregnancy books say that you can expect to gain less than five pounds in the first trimester. This certainly wasn't the case for me. As soon as I knew I was pregnant I started to eat for two.
I was so afraid of a possible miscarriage in the first trimester that I put on lots of comfort padding. By the 23rd week of pregnancy, I had gained 35 pounds. By the time I gave birth, I had gained sixty five pounds.
My baby boy was eight pounds and six ounces at birth. (That's the little goo above at about three or four months.)
Some of my friends who had their babies early in life and who are naturally slim and fit also gained mega weight during pregnancy. One of them gained almost 100 pounds in each of her two pregnancies and was able to regain her slim shape relatively easily. I wonder about the current recommendations for weight gain during pregnancy. Personally, I think different people's bodies have different needs and it may not be detrimental to gain more than the recommended amount especially if you are at a slim weight before getting pregnant. But I am in no way qualified to speculate about this.
I've read that being overweight or obese will decrease your fertility. My hunch is that being fat can sometimes be a symptom of your hormones (thyroid gland or pituitary gland) not working properly and that getting the hormones regulated (in a natural way) may actually be more important to fertility than the excess fat involved.
I had been trying to get pregnant for so long that I really thought it wouldn't be possible anymore. But about eight months before I got pregnant I made some very significant lifestyle changes. I was probably only ten pounds over my ideal weight when I started with these changes, but I believe my hormones were significantly out of whack. By the time I got pregnant, I was in great shape. I've written earlier about the diet and fitness program I undertook over those months.
In the next post I hope to cover:
- my plan for losing that last ten pounds (or ideally, fifteen...)