Part Two: Up – A tale of 3 pregnancies and weightloss…err…gain.

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More from Melynda:

Mike is 7 years older than me and because I want lots of kids, we decided to have our kids close together. We started trying in January and got pregnant with Zoe in March. It was funny, I took at test on Ally’s birthday. I was determined to not gain 70 lbs during the pregnancy because I didn’t want to keep 35 lbs on each time – that would be disastrous. I realized that pregnancy is not a free for all and that the weight didn’t just magically disappear after birth. I also knew that if I had a hard time fitting exercise in with one kid that it probably wouldn’t happen with two.

With Zoe’s pregnancy I was fairly sick for the first 8 weeks and that helped with my weight efforts. But after that I found that if I didn’t eat regularly that I would feel sick. I found that it really helped to focus on protein and vegetables and to try and stay away from my favourite carbs. I really focused on eating well and minimizing unnecessary calories. I also incorporated what I had learned from my diets. I think I was pretty lucky because I didn’t gain weight until about 12 weeks. I vaguely remember from my first pregnancy that by the end of the first trimester I was up about 10 – 15 lbs.

I didn’t starve myself or do anything crazy, I still wanted to grow a healthy baby. I just really cut down on Starbucks and hot cross buns….haha…those were my main indulgences from my first pregnancy. I also became wrapped up in having a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) and fixing my supply problems – I had a herb regimen that I followed. As my pregnancy progressed I relaxed about food a lot because I was getting tired and trying to parent my toddler. Oh! That reminds me of what I was doing that really helped my weight gain! I was still nursing Ally. I also would step on the scale every day and if I was up I would try and eat better that day. All in all I ended up gaining about 30 lbs…I am horrible and near the end I just stop weighing myself and I lie a bit to my midwife about the numbers on the scale.

Zoe was born December 1, 2008 and she was born at home in a birth pool. It was everything I wanted and more.