What Happens to Your Body After Pregnancy: My Opinion

With your first child everything in your life changes, your home goes from neat and tidy to an armory of baby-battling devices, your quality time spent with the one you love suddenly consists of one rocking, one warming the bottle, and from gazing into each others eyes to creeping together into Juniors room to make sure all is well at night. But really, who cares? It’s time well spent, once you get in the hang of things there really aren’t too many things you miss about life before baby, heck, you can’t even remember what life was like before baby, so really, it’s fineâÂ?¦.. right?

Well, maybe there are a few post baby consequences we could do without. Everyone knows there are some women out there who gain almost no weight during pregnancy, or at least stay within that 15 to 30 lbs recommended weight gain, these women rarely get stretch marks, anywhereâÂ?¦ their noses don’t’ spread, their hips stay just as slim as they were in high schoolâÂ?¦. And three weeks after their joyous return from the hospital, it’s business as usualâÂ?¦ They gush about how they ‘ just couldn’t stop eating! I was as big as a cow!’ Yeah, you look like a cow you size seven, cherub carrying doll baby.

Anywho, to all those women, congratu-freakin-lations, we’re happy for you, really.

But for the rest of us the game plan is clear. Sure, we threw caution to the wind, we figured, we can eat! We’re pregnant now, food is our friend! Nine months later we have grown in places we had no idea even existed, our shoes don’t even fit, and we find ourselves unable to chance a glance in any mirror that shows anything from the shoulders down.

But here is the worst part: During these long months of pregnancy we figure, no biggie, the weight will come off, it’s normal to gain a little during pregnancy. So, imagine our surprise when we make that first faithful trip to the scale, or decide to try on even our loosest pair of pre-pregnancy jeans. Oooooh Crap.

Everyone has different methods of dealing with this crisis, most swear off pregnancies (even if everyone knows they don’t mean it). Some women, go into denial, and subsequently stay that weight the rest of their lives, and some women, such as myself, go crazy Kate Hudson style. We starve and we run, we run and we starve. Sure, the weight comes off, but we are too light headed to enjoy the victory.

So which way is right? Well, the world may never know, if it were up to us we’d all look Like Rachel the day after she delivered on ‘Friends’. The important thing, at least in this humble mom’s opinion, is how we feel about ourselves.

Take anyone women recently out of the pregnancy pool, give them a remodeled body they aren’t used to (I swear that wasn’t there before) throw in a brand new baby that takes most of your time and your sure to see one frazzled lady.

Sure, we know what to do next time, now we realize that it’s important to watch what you eat during pregnancy and to get in a power walk here and there, we are sure that information will come in handy next time. Assuming, that there is, in fact, a next time. But that just doesn’t help us this time, does it?

Here is the bottom line, if you are determined enough to look the same as you did before, than you shall my dear, you just have to want it bad enough to get it. However� regardless of what the always realistic women on television tend to portray, real women have curves.

So by all means, shed what you feel the need to shed, your body is about you, and how you feel about it is all that matters. But don’t beat yourself up about it. Frustration leads to anger, leads to a lag in progress. And if you come out of this situation with an extra curve here or there, good, stretch marks? Not a problem, take a gander at your babies one tooth grinâÂ?¦ and tell me it isn’t worth it.

After all, if we had the hips of our seventeen year old selves, where would our babies sit?