So discouraged..

[Sydnee]

Why the heck does weight have to be such a big thing in pregnancy???? I had an appt. yesterday, and I gained 9 lbs since last month. Ugh. They say I've gained 24 pounds total, but I've been weighing myself at home, and I come up with 17 pounds. I'm mortified. But why should it bother me? I eat well, I do yoga everyday for half an hour, but I'm so disappointed in myself. My doc was not concerned, and said that I was skinnier to begin with, so he was very reassuring, but it still bothers me. Isn't this stupid??!!! :lol

[Attached Mama]

sounds like me (DD is 6 months). I think I gained like 11 lbs one month! Gained 50 lbs total. I was 112 before I got pregnant up from 107 when I was dancing 6 hours a day a few months before. So I *never* thought I would gain that much! Definitely more of me to love now! :lol

It was hard sometimes to watch the weight go on. But I just kept reminding myself that I was eating really well and all so if this is what my body needed to make a healthy baby so be it. Now I'm on the other end trying to remind myself that it is ok if it isn't all off by April when I have a wedding to go to. The first 30 flew off breastfeeding, but now it's slow going.

Anyway, hang in there and just focus on being healthy. I know... easier said than done...

[alexisyael]

You just have to keep reminding yourself (over and over again) that you are eating healthy and growing a healthy baby and this kind of weight gain is YOUR normal.

I've gained 26 pounds last time I checked. It's a bit freaky. But I keep reminding myself, this is normal for ME. Actually, I talked to my mama today, and she says she had triple chins (gained a LOT of weight) with both her pregnancies -- my sister got a triple chin, too, with her baby and gained 50+ pounds. So far, I don't really even have much of a double chin -- just if I lower my head -- so I think I'm doing pretty well, by my family's standards!

All three of us are dancers, too, btw (mom did modern dance, my sis and I both bellydance). Mom didn't really dance much while she was pregnant with me, but with my sister she did, she gained the same amount. My sis danced until she was about 6-7 months pregnant, and I haven't really been doing much dancing, just fooling around the house. I am swimming and doing some yoga and walking and stuff, tho. Not as much as I would have thought I'd be doing, but enough.

Weight is hard... just keep telling yourself positive things, over and over. :)

[alleybcat]

Ugh, I hear yah. I have had so many tears over stupid weight gain. I am really trying to be good, but between the holidays and just being hungry alot, I am probably eating more than I should. My midwife has hissy fits at me everytime I see her. It got so bad, I had to switch midwives, but I still feel the world's worst mother.

I was 10 pounds over weight when I got pregnant, and have gained 21 pounds in 24 weeks. I know its not good and I am going to see a nutritionalist this week about it, but I wish that it didn't have to be such a big deal.

I am so much more stressed about "making the baby sick" by gaining too much weight than I am about actually having the baby, kwim?

[ChattyCat]

With my last pg, I gained about 40lbs overall. My peri said at the beginning that she wouldn't say anything unless it got to the point where I was compromising my health (excessive gain or blood pressure issues, etc.)

This pg is a totally different story. I've gained 18lbs so far, but 8 of it was in the last 4 weeks. All my OB said was 'you're doing ok on your weight, only 18 lbs so far.' But, the only reason she said anything was because she took pause at the 8lbs in 4 weeks.

It's so annoying! I have 16 weeks to go in this pg (only 13 if she comes about as early as ds), and I figure I still have about 15 lbs to get to the weight I was when ds was born. So, as long as it tapers off a bit, which I expect it will, as it's already getting harder to eat much at one sitting, I should gain about the same amount I think.

I just don't see why it matters so much. As long as your not pigging out on ice cream and snickers for every meal, you're gaining the amount of weight that you need to gain to be healthy.

[Snowdrift]

My CPM's don't really care about weight unless it's obviously way off (they were a little bit concerned when I was still losing at 16 weeks, but since it was starting to level off they just reminded to keep eating well and not get discouraged. The CNM I saw this week (she works at a CNM/OB office, she's mostly my liason to the practice in case I need medical care--doing testing that I want and having records so should I need/want to see an OB I will have soem records there) was a little more medically oriented witht eh wieght issue, but I think she was just trying to emphasize that even though I started out overweight, I still probably will/should gain some weight. But then I told her to put me down as 5'8" (I'm actually about 5'7-1/3") because according to the CDC if I'm 5'7" I'm "obese," and I don't want to be risked out of anything automatically because a government chart says I'm too fat. I'm not really fat, and when I was smack in the middle of the CDC's weight chart--ideal for my height--I was anemic and looked painfully thin.

I think she was just trying to reassure me that it will in fact be a goood thing if by 40 weeks I'm at 215, and that even though I dropped to 183 from 201, I should still gain about 15 pounds more less in addition to getting back what I lost.

Seems to me that it's such a hot-button issue that either people are already stressed about it or other people end up stressing them out even more about sometimes by deliberateyl tryign to do the opposite. We don't like people paying attention to our wieght. I've never really dieted but soem of my friends who have played the weight-loss game seem to live and die by that number on the scale. It's just something we're conditioned to tense up about. I was totally relaxed about my weight, but the CNM felt obligated to arruse me that 215 is fine for me, which now has me giving long-winded explanations of why 215 is ok which has me thinking I need to go buy a new battery for my scale so I start checking it daily again (a good idea when I was losing rapidly, totally unnecessary now). It just kind of snowballs because we are conditioned to either be sensitive aobut it or to feel like we should be sensitive aobut it, or both.

[luckylady]

I hear ya. I have gained 38 lbs so far. WAAAAAAh. But with DD I gained 85 and everyone of my sisters gains a ton of weight too during PG so that's just the way my body works. It sucks. I am NOT one of those cutsey pregnant women. LOL.

[boingo82]

It's probably just that gaining more is normal for you. My mom was a gainer (60 lbs with me) and I gained 60 with DS.

Both of us have the type of metabolism where normally, I weigh 123-128 NO MATTER WHAT. No matter what I eat, no matter how much I do or don't exercise. The 120-something lbs might move around a bit, but it's always there.

And likewise, when I'm pregnant, I'm simply going to gain a ton of weight, that's just how it is. Once my pregnancy was over last time, the weight literally fell off. It was about 4 months for me to get back in my "normal" pants and within 7 it was 100% gone, and I never dieted, exercised, or made any effort whatsoever to lose it.

I think some people just have a body that decides it wants to weigh a certain amount, and barring extreme measures (gorging yourself until you're miserably full every day, or starving yourself) that is just what it's going to weigh.