The wait is over, he’s finally here! Our beautiful baby boy has arrived!
After 39 weeks and five days of waiting, we finally got to meet our handsome new addition to the family. And what a different experience it’s been! Our oldest son wasn’t sure what to think at first, and really just looked at his new little brother with curiosity and a little confusion. The biggest impact on him was when we brought his little brother home. We got a lot of “Is he still here?” looks over the next week, but he is warming up to him.
This delivery was a little different from the last one. In Having Baby #2, From An “Experienced” Mom, I outline more of the actual process and how it all went, but I will say that mentally, it was a little easier this time around. Does that mean that the actual labor and delivery was easier this time around…HA! Not so much, but it was a little easier to cope with mentally because you know a little more what to expect and I definitely took charge more this time. I was determined to not have a long labor and with only about 2 hours of hard labor, I’d say my efforts were successful.
Exercise
One of the biggest reasons I believe I had a quick labor was once again being active while I was pregnant. Though I wasn’t quite as active as I was with my first pregnancy, I at least maintained a daily walking schedule and it really paid off. The stronger your muscles are, the easier it is to get through the contractions and the faster your body can work through them and get your baby out. With increased stamina, you’re also able to keep your energy level up longer and that really helps you through the labor process.
Weight Update
If you’ve been following these Mommy Updates and my second pregnancy journey, you’ll know that at about the beginning of the third trimester, I had gained about 10-12 pounds. By the time baby boy arrived, I really hadn’t gained much more. I had gained about 14-15 pounds by the time I had him. Our little boy weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. so you can tell I really had kept my pregnancy weight gain to a minimum.
This time around, it only took about 3 days to get back down to my pre-pregnancy weight, mostly because I hadn’t gained much to begin with, but also because I breastfed around the clock. In Breastfeeding VS. Formula Feeding, I explain how well our breastfeeding journey started off, as well as some tips that may help you if you’re considering exclusively breastfeeding. It’s so nice to not have to balance myself around my baby belly and have a lap again for my one-year-old to sit on and rock at bedtime.
Going Forward
So where do you go from here? Your whole world changes once again with the addition of a new family member and your daily schedule once again revolves around someone else. Your focus is not only on your new baby and meeting their every need, but also meeting the needs of the rest of your family and making sure your other kids still get the attention they need.
Meanwhile, you have your own needs. You’re finally not pregnant anymore! You can eat whatever you want…sort of. Just when you thought you’d gain all this freedom with your diet and physical ability, you realize that you can’t really eat or do whatever you want.
The focus is RECOVERY.
Pretty much everyone knows that for the first 6 weeks after childbirth, you’re fairly limited on what activities you can do, including lifting restrictions. While I welcomed the requirement to not do laundry or vacuum, it was a real eye-opener that I wouldn’t be able to lift my one-year old…an impossible restriction for a stay-at-home mom.
And then there’s you’re diet…
Even if you’re not breastfeeding, you should focus on maintaining a healthy diet to help give your body a boost of nutrients after the marathon of child birth that you just completed. Plus, many women are immediately concerned with losing their baby weight.
Let’s go back to that first point…the focus is and should be RECOVERY.
That means that for the first few weeks of bringing your new baby home, just focus on them. Focus on your family and getting to know this new little bundle of joy. Learn their cues, or signals, for when they’re hungry, when their diaper needs to be changed or when they just want to be held.
And focus on yourself as far as your basic needs are concerned. Focus on making sure you’re eating healthy, nutritious food. Make sure you’re getting the sleep and rest you need to be able to take care of your baby.
And then start to focus on yourself…
Once you’ve established a good routine for your family and you’ve healed yourself, you can start to think about new goals for yourself to get back to where you want to be. The most important thing to remember here is that your body has changed.
Yes, you know yourself better than anyone…but that self you knew may have changed since having a baby. Everything might not go back to where it was before and THAT’S OK!
Celebrate your new body with all it’s scars and shortcomings because it just gave you the best gift you could have ever received!
Even still, I know many of you want to get back to your old self as much as you can, so here are some tips to help you get there.
Train Your Body Appropriately
FYI, you just became a super mom and as such, you need to train accordingly. Think about those olympic athletes. You don’t see a swimmer sleeping in every day and eating junk food. They’re up early, they train hard and they eat accordingly. They know they’re going to burn a ton of calories during their workouts and they fuel their bodies to meet that demand.
Look at your new role in the same way. You know what your baby needs by now and if you’re lucky, you have them on a solid routine at this point. That means you know when you have windows of opportunity. In other words, you know when you can take a break or set them down to sleep or shower. Once you know this, you can start to take advantage of that schedule. You can get up a little earlier and use your morning before they get up to workout and shower and nap with them later to catch up on your sleep. It all depends on what you want to accomplish during the day. Or, if you have a baby that is content to lay down and look around for a half hour, use that time to do an exercise video or workout right next to them. That way, you take care of both you and baby and then you can go right back to cuddling them when you’re done.
You also need to fuel your body like an athlete would. This is crucial, especially if you’re breastfeeding, or exclusively pumping. Your body needs to stay hydrated and you have to maintain a certain level of calories to produce milk. This is where it can get tricky when women start to workout or burn calories to lose weight, without allowing it to affect their milk supply.
In my experience, as long as you’re not starving yourself, drinking plenty of water, and nursing consistently, your body will continue to produce the amount of milk your baby needs. However, it’s best to start out slow and allow your body to adjust to the increase in activity over time. This will also help your body adjust and get back in shape from not working out for 6 weeks.
Make sure you eat a balanced diet. One of the hardest things for me this time around is making sure I’m getting enough protein and vegetables. I have always been pretty good at maintaining a healthy diet, but when you’re tired and you have about 0.02 seconds to eat something, sometimes convenience food is the only thing you can grab. I always tend to eat more carbs than I mean to because cereals, granola bars, and toast are easy to prepare. But, if you prepare ahead of time or set aside time every week while you have help with the babies, you can prepare easy-to-grab snacks that will help get you through the week.
Some of my favorites are fruit, string cheese, healthy granola bars, and trail mix. I like to make small, portioned bags ahead of time so I can stash a few in our center console of our love seat. That way, in the middle of the night when I’m starving because I’m nursing my son, I can have a quick granola bar right next to me and I don’t have to juggle him as he’s trying to eat, to get to the cupboard.
At the end of the day, as long as you’re taking the best care of your little one, you’re an awesome mom. You aren’t perfect, and the rest of it can wait. Your priority right now is them and when you’re ready, use these tips to get healthy and feel better about yourself.
For more information on how to lose your baby weight, stay tuned for my guide on losing the baby weight quickly, coming soon!