Paleo/Primal, Low Body Fat and Pregnancy??

[BabySmurf]

I was just hoping someone could give me some hope in terms of conceiving while having a low BMI/body fat....I am eating close to a Paleo diet, since that is how I feel best, but I haven't been able to gain weight. (quite possibly because I am still nursing my 20 month old quite a lot).  I am currently right on the "line" so to speak of being underweight, and have always been slender.  When I got pregnant with my son, I was almost 15 pounds heavier (the most I have weighed in my life), but also quite unhealthy in terms of diet.  Once my son was born I started paying attention to food, and the weight has all melted away. 

Anyway, I am quite sure that i am going to have to substantially cut down on nursing in order to start ovulating, but I am still hoping that I won't have to stop completely.  I'm hoping that there are other Mammas out there who have successfully gotten pregnant while being on the low range of normal in terms of weight.

(Yes I know everyone is different, but just looking for advice and others' experiences)

[Dove84]

I am 5' 6 3/4'' when I conceived DD I was 128 lb (my highest weight ever) basically eating a SAD diet.  I gained 32 lb in my pregnancy and after DD was born we started eating TF and the weight just melted off- I was 116 lb when we conceived #2.  I was still nursing DD but we had had a lot of trouble BFing from the start and she wasn't gaining weight (tongue-tied) so she was only 6.5 months old when we conceived #2. 

[BabySmurf]

Originally Posted by Dove84 

I am 5' 6 3/4'' when I conceived DD I was 128 lb (my highest weight ever) basically eating a SAD diet.  I gained 32 lb in my pregnancy and after DD was born we started eating TF and the weight just melted off- I was 116 lb when we conceived #2.  I was still nursing DD but we had had a lot of trouble BFing from the start and she wasn't gaining weight (tongue-tied) so she was only 6.5 months old when we conceived #2. 

I gained about 50(!!) pounds while eating a SAD with my son :/  I've lost nearly 70 since giving birth.  Crazy, what eating healthfully does, huh?

Wow those two are pretty close together!

I x posted in Fertility, and I am getting a lot of feed back about the likelihood of nursing being a bigger issue than body fat...which is kind of what I expected.  DS still nurses a ton, even overnight. Soo, it looks like I will need to start weaning in order to return to fertility  :/

[savithny]

It's pretty well-established that actual paleolithic people, eating a real paleo diet and nursing toddlers, had child spacings of 3-4 years apart at a minimum.    It's healthy, yes -- but your body is not getting the "get fertile now!" signals it needs in order to resume cycling effectively.

[craft_media_hero]

Well, I have been hovering right around 100# since a few months after the birth of my son (that is a pretty normal weight for me at 5'1"). We've been eating low/no grain/mostly paleo for about a year. We conceived our expected newbie when ds was 18 months, and though I've been eating a little more grain when eating out, I am still pretty grain minimal at home. I'm 18 wks now and have gained about 8 pounds, but feel super healthy, have a nice big baby bump, and feel baby growing and moving all the time ds is stll nursing, tho a lot less the last month or so, but he had been nursing about every couple hours up until then.

JME here, but I feel pretty good even though I would probably be classified as "underweight" according to averages

[BabySmurf]

Originally Posted by craft_media_hero 

Well, I have been hovering right around 100# since a few months after the birth of my son (that is a pretty normal weight for me at 5'1"). We've been eating low/no grain/mostly paleo for about a year. We conceived our expected newbie when ds was 18 months, and though I've been eating a little more grain when eating out, I am still pretty grain minimal at home. I'm 18 wks now and have gained about 8 pounds, but feel super healthy, have a nice big baby bump, and feel baby growing and moving all the time ds is stll nursing, tho a lot less the last month or so, but he had been nursing about every couple hours up until then.
JME here, but I feel pretty good even though I would probably be classified as "underweight" according to averages

yay!!! congrats!

it really is so interesting how each person has the "return to fertility" on their own path...there seems to be so many different factors that come together.  was your ds1 sleeping long stretches?

i made some abrupt changes in our nursing pattern lately, and i certainly feel as though AF will return soon.  at the same time i managed to put on a couple of pounds, so i'm hoping that with just a few more tweeks we will see AF return.  my instincts say that if my DS starts sleeping a little better, that may just be enough to get things going.  goodness knows i could use the sleep regardless!

Originally Posted by savithny 

It's pretty well-established that actual paleolithic people, eating a real paleo diet and nursing toddlers, had child spacings of 3-4 years apart at a minimum.    It's healthy, yes -- but your body is not getting the "get fertile now!" signals it needs in order to resume cycling effectively.

That makes a lot of sense on so many different levels.  It's so hard to just let nature take it's course; which would obviously be optimal if other factors in life didn't make it, well, not optimal, lol.  I guess I am at the point where I feel like I want to start taking a bit more control of the situation...I always thought that things would just happen, and that we would have children close together, so I am just one more of those women who needs to explore and take into consideration that the family she thought she would have is not the family that reality has shaped...not to say that is a bad thing, just something that is taking some getting used to. 

I guess I feel as though if I can figure out the simplest changes to make I can begin to influence how my body is reacting.  I don't remember if it was this thread or another, but I didn't set out to go onto the Paleo diet, it kind of just happened to turn out that way after much experimentation...so I guess that means that I am open to making certain changes in order to help make my family more complete

I appreciate all of the feedback!

[craft_media_hero]

Ds did start sleeping longer stretches at 15mo, and that's also when he discovered raw milk--tho he only was getting maybe 4oz/day at that time.. Who knows if those two factors are what did it?

I have my first midwife appointment tomorrow, and I am dreading talking about weight gain. How can someone who eats her fill of excellent quality food whenever she is hungry possibly be eating wrong for pregnancy? I think it's possible to have a weight gain pattern far different than what they expect and still have a healthy pregnancy and baby.

With dd they told me to eat ice cream and whipped cream every day I may need more fat, but seriously why would a medical professional encourage someone to irresponsibly gorge on sweets like that JUST for the sake of packing on pounds?

I dunno--I'm not giving into the paranoia and pressure, and we'll see how it goes. I'm guessing this baby will be a healthy ~7 pounder like my last.

[BabySmurf]

Originally Posted by craft_media_hero 

Ds did start sleeping longer stretches at 15mo, and that's also when he discovered raw milk--tho he only was getting maybe 4oz/day at that time.. Who knows if those two factors are what did it?  it's hard to guess for sure, but interesting to know :)
I have my first midwife appointment tomorrow, and I am dreading talking about weight gain. How can someone who eats her fill of excellent quality food whenever she is hungry possibly be eating wrong for pregnancy? I think it's possible to have a weight gain pattern far different than what they expect and still have a healthy pregnancy and baby.  ITA!
With dd they told me to eat ice cream and whipped cream every day I may need more fat, but seriously why would a medical professional encourage someone to irresponsibly gorge on sweets like that JUST for the sake of packing on pounds? Sometimes medical professionals baffle me......well okay, often! there is definitely a "good" way and a "bad" way to add weight...i think it's dangerous when people aren't listening to what their bodies are saying for the sake of gaining OR loosing weight. 
I dunno--I'm not giving into the paranoia and pressure, and we'll see how it goes. I'm guessing this baby will be a healthy ~7 pounder like my last.

definitely wishing you a happy and healthy pregnancy! just listen to your body, and you will be fine

and thanks for the input!

[HouseofPeace]

Originally Posted by craft_media_hero 

Ds did start sleeping longer stretches at 15mo, and that's also when he discovered raw milk--tho he only was getting maybe 4oz/day at that time.. Who knows if those two factors are what did it?
I have my first midwife appointment tomorrow, and I am dreading talking about weight gain. How can someone who eats her fill of excellent quality food whenever she is hungry possibly be eating wrong for pregnancy? I think it's possible to have a weight gain pattern far different than what they expect and still have a healthy pregnancy and baby.
With dd they told me to eat ice cream and whipped cream every day I may need more fat, but seriously why would a medical professional encourage someone to irresponsibly gorge on sweets like that JUST for the sake of packing on pounds?
I dunno--I'm not giving into the paranoia and pressure, and we'll see how it goes. I'm guessing this baby will be a healthy ~7 pounder like my last.

lol- i have the OPPOSITE problem. i eat no grains, only farm fresh meats and veggies and raw dairy, and the moment i get pregnant i gain weight.  they never told me to change my eating pattern, just indicated that i needed to gain less weight, somehow.....  usually gain 10lbs in the first trimester, sometimes up to 13, and 40 lbs the entire pregnancy, but lose the weight quickly, have enough breastmilk for 2+ babies, don't get any edema or blood sugar issues, and have fabulously healthy babies.  that said, i have a solid frame, and at 130 am a size 4, so my body seems to like to be heavier.  when i saw the more traditional dr's they were always WORRIED.  and then my kids are small at 1 year and they told me to feed them JUNK!  right.  

all my babies are born at ~42 weeks with the ability to hold up their heads (last one could roll over) and between 7lbs and 8lbs 8oz.  I think there is a HUGE diversity in what is healthy and what it looks like in a pregnancy as well as in daily life.  my homebirth midwife (oversaw last 2 birth) told me that she wanted me to gain 40 lbs last pregnancy, but never weighed me (i was solely breastfeeding my 9 month old), and was very supportive of a healthy diet, and just believed that my body and my baby were good and strong.  So amazing to have support in that!

[provocativa]

As far as I know, the return to fertility has to do with night-weaning...a 6 hour span without nursing is supposed to prompt ovulation.  So you don't need to wean, but rather try for that.  But since children really need to nurse until their dental arch is fully formed (after age 3), if you can wait until then, it would be optimal.  I got pg with #2 when #1 was 2y3months, but I had enough milk to continue nursing her through my pregnancy, and tandem nursed after the birth of #2.

[BabySmurf]

Originally Posted by provocativa 

As far as I know, the return to fertility has to do with night-weaning...a 6 hour span without nursing is supposed to prompt ovulation.  So you don't need to wean, but rather try for that.  But since children really need to nurse until their dental arch is fully formed (after age 3), if you can wait until then, it would be optimal.  I got pg with #2 when #1 was 2y3months, but I had enough milk to continue nursing her through my pregnancy, and tandem nursed after the birth of #2.

That would make sense too, although I think that there are probably several factors that go into fertility, and individuals probably need some "magic" combination on each factor.  I am totally not opposed to tandem nursing in theory.  I have heard that may change in practice, but I think that being able to tandem nurse would really help my DS, and luckily I have always had a surplus of milk, so I assume that I won't dry up if I were to become pregnant. 

Anyway, night weaning is my next step, I just need to let DS get over this cold he woke up with this morning :/  hopefully this will help things continue in the right direction! (by eating a bit more and adding in more carbs at the same time as scheduling my son's daytime nursing a bit has given me some signs that AF may be just around the corner......)

Thanks for the insight!