How much weight do you lose on the day of birth?

[Adaline'sMama]

I gained 27 lbs with my first baby, and didnt weigh myself until about 6 weeks after she was born. I have no idea how much weight I lost during birth. I'm curious to know if there is a "normal" amount that is lost, or if it all depends on how much you gained. It seems like in general most women's placenta, fluids, ect would all weigh about the same, so if the baby is average size, how much would you lose?
So far, Ive gained about 8 lbs this time, and Ill be 37 weeks on Sunday. If I go to 40 weeks and I gain 1 lb a week from now until then, I'll have gained a total of 12 lbs. I havent tried to not gain much, this is just how it worked out. The reason I'm asking is that last time I had one pair jeans that I could wear after birth, but other than that I wore maternity pants. If I lose more than 12 lbs during birth (baby is at the 50th percentile) Im wondering if my clothing from before I was pregnant will actually be too big, and it seems unlikely that I would be able to wear my maternity jeans at all. I'm taking yoga pants to the hospital, and Im sure they will fit regardless, but I'm trying to avoid needing to shop in the first two weeks post partum. Its cold outside, its not like I can just wear a skirt this time

How much weight did you lose the day you gave birth?
The week afterwards?

[cristeen]

I didn't weigh myself the day of, but by 2 days pp I had lost about 16(?) lbs (I gained less than 20 lbs, and I was in pre-pg jeans at a week pp).  I had lost some before he arrived just with water breaking, DS was 8 lbs even, plus the amount of peeing/bleeding you do as your body flushes pp, you can lose somewhere around 20 lbs those first few days.  You may lose more if you don't eat/drink during a long labor - not a problem I had, but sometimes an issue with hospital births. 

Stretch/elastic waisted pants and/or drawstrings are your friend. 

[dogmom327]

I think it was 14 lbs. a couple hours after giving birth. Everyone was horrified when I got out the scale but I was really curious what baby + amniotic fluid + placenta weighed (DD was 8.5# alone).

[~Adorkable~]

i had twins and gained 31 pounds be the time i gave birth at 36w, i was on the heavy side of normal when i got preggo in that i weighed 171 and am 5'7" i know that the babies sucked a good amount from the rest of me even during the pregnancy, i think they were gaining faster than i was the last month or more. my arms and thighs actually started feeling thinner as my belly got bigger.

i weighed myself 6 days PP and was al the way down to 172! so that is 30 pound in 6 days, my twins together weighted 10lb13oz

by 6 month later i had lost another 23 pounds to drop to 149, 6 months later still and I seem to have leveled out at that weight and it feels right on me.  

so that is a total loss of 53lbs, 22 pounds below pre pregnancy weight with 30 of it lost in the first week.  

yeah i fit very little of my old wardrobe. and yes I'm concerned as to what is going to happen when i ween the twins someday.

[Monkey Keeper]

I gained about 27lbs with my son and am a healthy weight not pregnant. I had 8lbs left to lose the first time I got on a scale at 8 days pp. DS was 9lb, 5oz and I had polyhydramnios so that was heavy, plus my babes grow "huge" placentas according to my care providers. So 20lbs, but that is offset a bit by the hugely engorged bbs.  With DD1, I gained 30lbs and had lost 32lbs by 2w pp, but I was hugely swollen with her.

Even though I got back to a normal weight quickly with both of them (I did not with my 2nd), my jeans did not fit for at least a month just due to the pooch/abdominal muscle separation. I was able to wear pre-pg stretchy pants and skirts pretty quickly with both of them, though.

[Peony]

I don't gain a lot of water weight, most of my weight seems to be just fat.  I weighed myself the next day after DS1 was born, he was almost albs, and I had lost 10 lbs. Really not fair! About the same thing after this baby. I didn't weigh myself after the birth of my girls so no idea there. I gained 40 or so this last time and lost another 10 that first month and the rest is still there and baby is 5 months old. The pounds just do not melt off for me. 

[Zan&Zav]

I gained 57 lbs and lost 27 in birth. The other 30 melted off with breastfeeding, and then some

[cat13]

I never weighed myself after birth, but I did look a lot skinnier than I expected (although I didn't seem to stay that way for long!) Regardless, I couldn't imagine wanting to wear jeans anyway, even if they did fit. I think it's totally worth it to buy some comfy pants for your pp time.

[lizsky]

I was on the slim side of average pre-pregnancy and gained 31 pounds.  2 days post-partum I had lost 13 pounds (DD was almost 8, so I guess the other 5 were placenta etc...).  By 2 weeks post-partum I had lost 20 pounds, but I remained stuck there (10 pounds above pre-pregnancy weight) for several months.  At this point I could wear a lot of pre-pregnancy clothes, but form-fitting pants with zippers and buttons were not comfortable.  

Finally got rid of the last 10 pounds around 5 months post-partum.  I was able to wear some of the more form-fitting clothes, but some things still didn't work- I think pregnancy permanently changed my body shape slightly and my hips are wider now.  

I've asked other mamas about their experiences and it seems like there is A LOT of variation among women and sometimes quite a bit of variation among one mama's different pregnancies.  

I think yoga pants are a great choice!

[KarenEMT]

The only time I weighed myself right after birth was with DS#2, when I lost 14 lb by the next day.  Too bad he alone weighed 10 lb 9 oz!   I couldn't believe it!   Like Peony above, none of the pounds after any of my 3 children ever came off easily, and I held onto weight horrendously while BFing.  I work out 6 hrs/week minimum and DD is 5 and I still can't manage to get the last 15 lb off.  Grrr.

[sunflwrmoonbeam]

I don't own a scale, so I didn't weigh myself until my 2 weeks post-op appointment. I had gained ~30 pounds during pregnancy and was a few pounds below pre-prego weight at 2 weeks PP. DD was almost 10 pounds, and with all the other fun stuff I think I probably lost 15 pounds on the operating table.

It's pretty common for a woman to hold onto 5-10 pounds during breastfeeding. After my initial weight loss I regained a bit over 5 pounds which didn't come off until 18 months PP.

[Adaline'sMama]

Thanks everyone! I was curious about how much the fluid and placenta weighed, and there was a scale in my room, so I weighed right after birth and for the next few days. Here is what I learned:

I went into labor at 169.5, up 9.5 lbs from my prepregnancy weight.

1 hour after labor: 160 lbs
Next day: 156 lbs
Today: 152 lbs, at a little less than two weeks PP.

DS was 7 lbs even, so that means fluid and placenta only weighed 2.5 lbs! I thought for sure that it was way more than that. Hopefully, it will keep coming off.

[cat13]

Thanks for the update, and congrats on your new little guy!

[MidwifeErika]

I gained 7lbs with this last pregnancy of mine. I weighed 149 on the morning before he was born. I had him at dinner time and then became curious about my weight because he was 8lb 6oz and there had been soooooooooooo much fluid! I weighed 131 about 4 hours after having him. So, the process of birthing took 18lbs and I really hadn't had any edema at all, so that was all baby, amniotic fluid, placenta, and a teensy bit of blood loss. I gained back about 2 lbs as my milk came in and now have gone down to 129 at 2 weeks postpartum.

For clothing sizes though, even though I came out of the pregnancy lighter than my conception weight, it took about 5 days or so for my pre-pregnancy jeans to fit because of how the weight was distributed and my uterus still being large. Now at 2 weeks postpartum, I am a size smaller than I was when I got pregnant and expect for that to most likely continue as my body still adjusts a bit to not being pregnant.