Conceiving Piper: Damned If You Do, Damned If You Donut!

The pictures will be explained at the end of this post :)

This past Wednesday I had my 6-month post-pregnancy, hoo-ha check-up and yearly pap smear...yay! It was the usual spread-your-legs-and-scootch-to-the-end-of-the-table sort of event, so nothing to report in those regards. I do find it funny that I had yet to start my period back since getting pregnant until I joked about that probably occurring just because I had to go to the gyno, most women will get what I'm referring to here, and so of course I started about five minutes post-joke, sheesh! I was so enjoying not going through all the bleeding and bloating every month, but I guess everything good must come to an end at some point, sigh.

Such a princess!

Anyways, while I had my feet in the stirrups and my legs splayed apart, I mentioned to my gyno about my weight staying at the steady 165lbs for the last two months regardless of my diet or exercise routine. She then told me something I had never heard before. Women who breastfeed tend to lose a bunch of weight immediately after giving birth, and then they plateau and pretty much stay steady due to the fact the body keeps and loses what it needs based on the breastfeeding child's needs. That little tidbit of little known knowledge, at least I had never heard it and I'm pretty good at knowing stuff, set off a little ping in my head. So that's why I can't seem to lose anymore baby weight, now it all makes sense! Here I was somewhat but not really beating myself up over it all, and it was just my body doing what it needs to do to keep me and Piper healthy. Damn! It sure would have been nice to know this a long time ago!

I'm trying not to post all 200 of these!

So basically this means no matter what I do, I probably won't lose more than another 5lbs (I'm simply hoping with that guestimate) regardless of what I do while I'm breastfeeding. So much for dieting, huh? Not that I could do a whole lot of that anyway since it's not a good idea when breastfeeding anyways. I've also noticed that regardless of the amount of junk I eat, which really isn't all that much, I also don't again any weight. I'm sure gaining weight wouldn't really be a problem if I set my mind to it, not like losing weight obviously is, but staying the same weight by eating normally and not to either extreme is just the way life is going to be right now.

Trying to pick the best grin...it's a tough call!

My gyno told me not to worry as I'm almost down to my 155lbs pre-baby weight. I then explained to her that my true pre-baby weight was 135lbs, I had just gained 20lbs on Clomid leading up to the pregnancy, and she sort of winced and said I'd lose it after breastfeeding. I think she really did not want to discourage me to the point I weaned Piper just to fit into my old clothes. And no worries there. I'm definitely not going to wean her for my benefit. I think her nutrition and out mother-daughter bonding is way more important than my pants size right now.

Head on or profile? Another tough call!

I will admit it was a relief to hear that my stabilized weight wasn't necessarily permanent. It did give me the confidence to hold my head high and not get depressed and become overly self-conscious about my body. Sure I am not necessarily where I want to be size-wise at this point, but now I can relax and not stress on trying to drop those stubborn pounds right at this exact moment in time. I can now sit back and enjoy this small window of breastfeeding and bonding that Piper and I have got going without the stigma of weight issues hanging over my head. My ass is the exact size it needs to be to keep her healthy, and I'm sticking to that notion in my head! One of these days we won't have these special mommy-daughter moments like we have throughout the day right now, so I better relish them while I can. There will be plenty of time for dramatic weight loss afterwards. As long as I don't eat like a pig and swing things into weight gain, I will be fine. Don't worry, I'm not going to binge eat and use my inability to lose weight as an excuse to do so. Then again, I'm also not going to turn down a donut if offered once in awhile because I'm afraid it will ruin my diet!

She's just so dang happy in all these!

As I see it, I'll be damned if I diet and not get anywhere because my body will store what it needs for Piper regardless of what I try not to ingest. And I'll be damned if I deny myself tasty treats (donuts) here and there since I'll burn excess calories feeding her anyways!

Sometimes curiosity gets the better of her!

Funny thing...

I've had this post partially written since the weekend but due to Piper teething, a couple of outings, and getting used to new sleeping arrangements (Piper has moved into my bed but I have a whole other post about that one int the works) I haven't got around to finishing it until today. Believe it or not she decided to take a nap so I decided to jump on this brief opportunity to get this thing finished! Anyways, since I started writing this I have actually dropped a few pounds. I was 160lbs when I weighed this morning, so odd. I have been eating a lot of cabbage soup the past couple of weeks. I'm not on the cabbage soup diet, I just like the soup and it is calorie free. I'm surprised that I dropped any weight, and I'll be more surprised if it hasn't crept back by the end of the week, but we'll see. I'll be happy about it while it lasts.

But in the end, she cannot resist having her picture taken!

By the way, all the pics I threw in were from this past weekend. Piper went to her first baby shower and afterwards I wanted to take some shots of her in her pretty dress. I really didn't feel like dedicating an entire blog post with just the pics, as I'm already behind a few intended posts, so I thought it'd be easiest to just throw them in here.

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