body after bump: 1 week
Guess who’s a week old?!
OK, well, she turned a week old on Tuesday but you understand. MacKenna had her 1 week checkup on Monday. She now weighs 5 pounds 3.2 ounces, which is down from her birth weight but up from when we left the hospital! And although she’s still a little peanut, she is a healthy little girl!
With MacKenna’s birth + now 1 week checkup, I have had to start thinking about my post-baby bump body. Obviously being only 1 week postpartum and having an unplanned C-section, there hasn’t been much going on in the exercise department on my behalf. I’m still feeling a little sore around my incision + hips (Why do my hips feel bruised? I did ZERO pushing…) and with my strict “no vigorous activity” prescription, I have had no choice but to take it really easy this week. Not that I planned on being out running only 1 week postpartum had I delivered vaginally, but I was hoping I’d at least be able to go push MacKenna in the stroller.
With absolute zero activity that I have done this week, I am actually really happy with how my body looks 1 week postpartum. The comment I got from every nurse that checked my incision in the hospital was, “Where is your stomach?!” Given that my baby bump wasn’t all that big to begin with, I’m not surprised that it’s gone down quite a bit already.
The day before I went in to be induced, I decided to take my “before” measurements so I had a starting point to look at. Luckily, having a baby makes it really easy to lose a lot in that first week. Like over half the weight I gained (I gained a total of 30 pounds throughout my pregnancy). This past Monday, I took my measurements again – 1 week postpartum. Here are the differences:
1 week postpartum
Weight: -16.2 pounds
Arms: -0.75 inches
Chest: -1.75 inches
Waist: -3.5 inches
Umbilicus: -1.25 inches
Hips: 0 inches
Thighs: -0.25 inches
How I lose more in my chest than around my stomach beats me. But, I really can’t complain about the numbers. Most of those are back to their pre-pregnancy size, but I still have some work to do.
I honestly don’t really have any goals with my measurements. Would I like to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight + size? Of course! However, I don’t expect that to happen right away and I know I’m really going to have to work at it. My theory is it took 9 months to gain all that, so it’ll probably take close to 9 months to lose it all. But, I think I have a pretty good jump start.
And of course, some before + after pictures. (Sorry, you’re not going to see me scantily clad on the blog. I know you’re disappointed…)
Before:
After:
I’d say I look about 5 months pregnant still, but I honestly feel really thin! Before I was pregnant, you would have heard me complaining about 15 extra pounds on my body and how fat I thought I was. However, now that I see what 15 pounds extra looks like, I’m not too upset with it! That’s not going to stop me from working to get back into my pre-pregnancy jeans though. (No, I have tried those on yet, more out of fear that they’ll hurt my incision.)
Since I don’t know when I’ll get cleared to exercise (I’m hoping she’ll at least let me start walking after I go see her next week), I really have to focus on healthy eating. Not that I didn’t eat healthy during my pregnancy, but I was much more lax on what I would let myself eat. Read: carbs. Lots and lots of carbs. I LOVE them and refuse to give them up, but I know that my diet can’t be solely based on carbs any more. (I joked the last few weeks of my pregnancy that I was carbo loading for labor. Ha!)
My nutritional goal is to balance my meals with whole grains (oatmeal, whole wheat bread, brown rice, etc.), fruits + veggies, vegetarian proteins (beans, cheese, tofu) and healthy fats (peanut butter, EVOO, nuts). I am a big believer that weight loss is 80% nutrition and 20% exercise. With exercise out of the question for a little while, I know that healthy eating is really going to be my key to my post-baby bump body.
I must say, I am very happy with the progress so far and I’m only 1 week in. Hopefully, a month from now, I will be happy to show you even more progress that I’ve made.