Post Baby Body

Not a bikini, but rockin' my
pre-pregnancy shirt and shorts!

When you hear the words "post baby body," you might picture celebrities either harshly judged for looking like they're still pregnant after the fact, or revered in bikinis that show off miraculously perfect abs. What can you actually expect from a post-baby body?

Well, every "body" is different. But I'm pleased to say that I'm actually pretty happy with my body right now.

You could say I was one of the lucky ones. With giving birth to a baby who was over 7 pounds and then breastfeeding off a ton of calories, I was able to drop 25 of the 30 pounds I gained during pregnancy in just three months! Sure, I'd still love to drop the last 5 pounds and be at my pre-pregnancy weight again, but since I still need calories to make food for my child, that's not really my priority at the moment (I write as I bite into a buttery oatmeal lactation cookie...).

I do not have miraculously perfect abs. I have little rolls and chubby thighs and a puffy little scar across my bikini line that looks a bit like a gruesome smile if I were to ever actually show it to someone. But I'm not showing it off. That scar is for me. That part of my post-baby body will forever be a reminder of how I saved my son's life because our doctor was able to cut him out before his oxygen dropped too far or his heart stopped beating. And the scar is just low enough that I could still wear a bikini if I wanted to....

I don't fit in my old skinny jeans, but I fit in my regular ones. My favorite Captain America dress buttons up everywhere except right across my chest--another thing you can expect from a post-baby body, especially if you're breastfeeding. My chest is bigger, so my shirts are just a little tighter than they were before I was pregnant.

But aside from body fat, you can expect other changes from before and during pregnancy. For example, I loved the noticeable fact that while pregnant, my hair just didn't fall out. Like at all. Like, I could run a comb through it and there would not be strands of hair left behind. Maybe it was shinier or more full too--I didn't notice how it looked. But I loved how my hair behaved while I was pregnant. Now? Ha! I'm constantly finding my longer hairs on baby's outfits and in his fists. When I run a comb through it there's practically clumps left behind. It's not so much a disappointment as just an annoyance. But I do plan to get myself another haircut (my second since having a baby four months ago) as soon as I can.

What else? Well, your post-baby body will definitely not have the energy that your pre-baby body used to. You may, however, have a little more energy than you had while you were pregnant. So expect something kind of in the middle. When I was pregnant I wanted to nap ALL THE TIME. And I'm a person who doesn't really nap well. I was tired in my first trimester. I was tired in my third trimester. Now? I'm running on just enough mommy juice adrenaline to get me through a work day on three hours of sleep, but I'm definitely nodding off a bit while feeding my baby at night. It's still hard for me to nap, but when it's time to go to bed for the night at the late, late hour of 9 pm, I'm out like a light.

You do have to be careful to keep your energy up with food and water, even if you're not pregnant anymore. I shared before about how I almost passed out at work, and I've been able to correct this by focusing more on snacking throughout the day (Where did my oatmeal lactation cookie go...?) and lugging my large, metal water bottle back and forth.

Other than that, you post-baby body is pretty much the same as your pre-baby body. It's just "your body" but with one major difference: the knowledge that you made, and fed, and grew a miracle in there just a few short months ago.

To me, that's even more amazing than perfect abs.