Anybody else not gaining a whole lot of weight?

[Barcino]

I am 36 weeks today and have gained 14 lbs total. I actually lost a few pounds in the first trimester and put those back so now I am 14-16 over my pre pregnancy weight. I don't think I will make it to the "25-35" lbs that doctors recommend. With my first I did gain 32 lbs at 42 weeks. He was 9 lbs. With this one according to my midwife she feels he will be around 7 lbs. And seems to be growing totally normal. I am not retaining any water or swelling or anything and I guess I have lost some of my own weight as I look smaller and other than the zipping I can fit even on my skinny jeans. This is so weird... Anybody else doing the same? I feel like an odd ball.

BTW according to my midwife I am eating well and enough.

[BowenTherapist]

this has happened with me also. i have gained about ten pounds, yet the babe is likely 8-9 pounds.
for me it is because i eat so well whilke pregnant, and maybe something with my thyroid, that i end up slimming out durring pregnancy.
hopefully this time i will not start eating junk after the babe is born and gain wieght back

[ZanZansMommy]

Well I started this pregnancy out 15 lbs underweight . So with a 20 lb weight gain my midwife is a bit concerned. I've tried to add extra calories lately but as the babe grows my stomach can only tolerate so much. I'm hoping with & more weeks or so to go that I can gain at least another 5-7 lbs. Anybody know of any high calorie nutritious things to eat or even better to drink?

[Barcino]

Oh good... glad to see I am not the only one! My husband thinks I look great... all skinny with a big belly that sticks rigth out!

In my case, I started pregnancy at least 15 lbs overweight... Midwife and husband thinks that I have lost that weight by eating healthy. For example today I ate for breakfast some organic cereal high in protein and fiber and low in sugar, a banana and the organic milk in the cereal. For lunch I had leftovers from last night which were a whole weat pasta with spinach, garlic and chicken. I had a snack of almonds and organic raisins and a 12oz glass of organic milk (I am drinking whole milk to put on more lbs!) And I am about to head downstairs to eat an orange now. For dinner we are going to be away so I am thinking I will have a chipotle salad or something similar. When we get back home I will have I bet you some Dreyers all natural chocolate icrecream (again to put in some weight) and another glass of milk.

I am wondering if when baby comes I will go under pre pregnancy weight. would think so since the baby is already 5 lbs out of the 14 I have put on?
However I bet you money that when I am not pregnant and worrying about what I eat I start eating more junk and put on the lbs on again.

Lola I would drink a lot of whole milk. I find it very nutricious and easy to squeeze in. Also if you like eggs add those. I ate a lot of eggs early on pregnancy but then I stopped cooking on teflon so I havent been eating as much egg. Now that I think about it I am going to hard boil me some tonight and have them as snacks. Also I love snacking on the almonds. They are high on fat but so good for you. I am also into Almond butter and jelly sandwitches for quick lunches when I am not inspired.

I stopped taking prenatals about a month and a half ago and since then I sure watch what I eat and write what I eat and drink. That helps me a LOT!

[Belle]

When I was pregnant with my dd I was very sick and lost a lot of weight initally. With great reluctance at 15 weeks I started taking zofran. I hadn't wanted to take any drugs, but it was better than the alternative of going to the hospital for dehydration. I hadn't been able to keep down any food or water for four days. After taking zofran for about a month I felt better. I was only throwing up about once a day and started gaining a pound or two for every appointment. My total gain from my pre-pregnancy weight was only about 10 lbs. My doctor wasn't concerned because I was gaining at a steady rate at this point and was healthy otherwise. I was really worried that my baby would be underweight. I was really surprised and relieved when I gave birth to a 8lb 2oz baby at 38w4d.

A lot of people (women mostly) would hear how much weight I didn't gain and their first reaction is "I hate you". That would reallly hurt my feelings. I tried very hard to gain every pound and was very worried the whole time about my baby. It wasn't fun throwing up several times a day either.

[TurboClaudia]

this happened to me when i was pregnant last year. i inexplicably gained about 10 lbs the summer right before getting pregnant, then lost about 5-8 lbs in the first trimester because of feeling icky and puking, then slowly started gaining weight for the rest of the pregnancy. i think i gained about 20 lbs during the pregnancy. Immediately after birth, i lost about 15 lbs, then just continued losing more weight, probably frpom the breastfeeding. now, just over a year after our son was born, i have finally gained back about 5-10 lbs and am almost weighing what i did before the summer before i got pregnant. overall, i feel good.

peaceful pregnancies to all of you...

warmly,
claudia

[teachinmaof3]

I don't gain much during my pregnancies.

The first time was the most, 25lbs. The second time I gained about 14lbs, she was 2.5 wks early and weighed 7lbs6oz. The third time I gained about 16lbs, she was born at 40w1d and weighed 7lbs9oz.

So far this time...I'm 35wks and have gained 8lbs. I lost 5lbs in the beginning and have gained 8lbs over my pre-preg weight. My fundal height has been 1-2cm more and baby's growing just fine. No worries here.

[wendy1221]

I gained 40lbs w/ my first 2 and have only gained 25 w/ this one. I was feeling concerned, but my mw says I look great and the baby feels pretty chunky in there, so I guess it's ok.

Please don't talk about drinking milk. Just hearing about it makes me ill. Blah! I don't think cow's milk is all that healthy anyway. I've managed to have 2 9lb boys without dairy or eggs in my diet. Maybe 3 if you count this one, although we don't know for sure how big he is yet.

[Barcino]

I am sure you can make healthy babies without milk and eggs - was not suggesting you can't!

I was just sharing what has been working for me.
In my case I am not a huge fan of milk when I am not pregnant but when I am pregnant I crave it for some reason and it really feels good. I drink about two glasses a day so not like I am drinking milk all day The organic milk btw is so much better than the regular in terms of taste IMO.

Glad to hear that others are in the same boat. I do too get the I hate you comments from my friends... while I am trying my best to pack on the pounds. I guess your body, if you are eating right, will gain what it needs.
Looking back at my first pregnancy, I sure was a lot more relaxed about what I ate and often had shakes, icecream etc.. This time around I barely go near sweets. That alone probably packed me up some unnecessary pounds for sure!

[Peppamint]

We were paying a lot of $$ for organic milk and then I realized it too is homogenized. : The more I read about it, the more I'm disappointed in Organic Valley, Horizon, Stonyfield et al.

Back on topic... my first pregnancy it took awhile but I started gaining weight and gained a total of 25lb, or maybe 30?

My second pregnancy, I lost 10-15lb and then gained about 25 or so... I think I ended up about 10lb above pre-pg weight. I ate badly the first year pp and gained weight so I'm starting out a bit heavier this time.

I've already lost 2lb and I'm only 4.5 weeks along! I'll just make sure I eat well. I'm making homemade kefir and yogurt from raw goat's milk so hoping that will help keep things healthy.

[justmama]

Originally Posted by Belle

A lot of people (women mostly) would hear how much weight I didn't gain and their first reaction is "I hate you". That would reallly hurt my feelings. I tried very hard to gain every pound and was very worried the whole time about my baby. It wasn't fun throwing up several times a day either.

Yep! Felt this! I wasn't throwing up but I never gained a single pound. In fact, I started pregnancy pretty big at 5'5" and weighing 175. I finished my pregnancy at 34weeks weighing in at 160.4lbs. I lost all that weight immediately and never gained it back despite eating high calorie foods constantly and resorting to high protein boost at the end. I had a stressful pregnancy with lots of weight checks and blood pressure checks and sonograms. The midwife AND OBGYN assigned to my case were concerned not because I was at 160 but because I lost 15lbs and then never gained. They are both convinced that my body lived off stored fat and never gained enough to sustain the pregnancy and that's why my water broke at 33weeks and I delivered at 34weeks. I was constantly worried about my baby and finally about myself as my blood pressure started climbing(probably due to stress, it's a vicious cycle). Women who were jealous of me because I didn't gain weight hurt me immensely and I felt so alone and like no one understood. Even hubby didn't get it. I think part of the baby lust I've felt since 3 months pp(and I'm now 8months pp) has been in attempts to reclaim the pregnancy and birth I wanted so badly but never got. Our pregnancy was stressful with weekly weigh-in's and blood pressure checks and 5 sonograms and nearly weekly blood work and bedrest after 21 weeks and our delivery was a stressful week-long bedrest hospital stay with an induction and being confined to the bed to labor and then a 2 week NICU stay. We were lucky that dd is healthy now and right smack in the middle of average for height, weight, and development but it still doesn't alleviate the loss I felt at my ideal birth and pregnancy.
But my baby was pretty healthy and big for her gestational age. She was 5lbs 3oz at 34 weeks and now at 8months is 17lbs even. And mama is now 122lbs. : Starting to get a bit thin for my big hips and medium size frame I think. Hubby even thinks I'm getting a tad small. I'm watching this thread for more ideas on weight gainers to at least attempt to maintain this weight or gain 5lbs.

Meg

[foehnjye]

Good to see I'm not alone!
With my dd I gained a total of 15 lbs. I was 10 lbs lighter after her birth than I had been when I got pregnant.

With this baby, I lost nearly 8 lbs in first trimester due to high exercise levels and an amazing metabolism! I was literally eating every two hours, and still losing weight! I've kept up my exercise schedule up until the last couple weeks when I've been forcing myself to tone it down because I don't want my water to break this early!

But so far I've gained 17 lbs. Most of it in the last few weeks.

[Peppamint]

Now I'm 5w2d and I've lost 6lb. I feel pretty good though and trying to make good food choices, although when eating out it seems useless. My mom's milking doe took sick and died last weekend so I've had to switch to low heat pasteurized creamline milk (organic). It's really tasty poured over Kashi's new "Cinnamon Harvest" cereal.

Meg- I'm sorry to hear that your weight loss was such an issue. It sounds like your dd did well, but I understand how that fear could ruin the joy in the your pregnancy.

Some commiseration if you want to read it: The doctors I saw in the first 19 weeks and the midwife I switched to at 20 weeks were NEVER concerned about my weight loss or slow weight gain, but the WIC people were SO worried and annoying. In fact, I had to go every two weeks or once a month instead of getting three months worth of coupons per visit. I told dh there was no way I was going on WIC again because I cannot stand that "fear" being put upon me. Ironically enough, when I finished my pregnancy and went in for my WIC coupons a few months after ds' birth they started harping on the fact that I need to lose about 10lbs. Can't win for losing with some people!

[dnr3301]

I only gained about 15 lbs with each of my kids, and immediately afterwards was down about 20-25 lbs from my prepregnancy weight, only to gain that all back in about 6 months. I don't know why, my midwife just said, "I guess this is how you grow babies." OH, both of my kids were about 9 lbs at birth (#1 was at least 9, don't realy know, didn't have a scale until she was 3-4 days old and it said 9 when we weighed her, #2 was 8lbs 14 oz.)

[onlyboys]

I'm still 2 lbs under my prepregnancy weight, but I lost a bunch of weight in the beginning. I've worked hard these last few weeks to gain some back. I'm 35 weeks, so not much longer, but I'm certainly not going to be very far in the positive weight gain.

[Barcino]

I think it is easy to worry about reaching the number that the medical community gives you ... you know - the 25-35 lbs...
Last time I did fall into that but I was doing brewer's diet along with sugar... this time around I am eating really healthy but not super high protein and I guess this is what my body is doing so I am trying to ignore the "recommended" weight and just focus on the midwife's opinion that baby is doing just fine. If I loose more weight after he is born... I will welcome it!
The normal mom might put on 30 lbs like I did with my first by 42 weeks but the normal mom is also eating a lot of junk I am not eating - YKWIM?