how long did u have to wear maternity clothes post-partum?

[SnuggleBuggles]

Time to embrace skirts. Maybe by the end of summer you will be pants ready- I am sure you will be!!

Beth

[♥ms.pacman♥]

^actually skirts are a good idea, thx for suggestion.. i have a few pre-prego skirts from AnnTaylor that still fit (elastic waist ). only bad thing about skirts is i can't wear sneakers with them so i have to wear semi nice sandals etc.

[arivecchi]

I am astonished that most posters say they were back in regular clothes in less than 3 months. That was not my experience and it was not my friends' experience either. I think you should give yourself at least the same amount of time it took to gain all that weight - 9 months. I was super tiny before DS1 and I will never be that tiny again. I am still not able to wear lots of pants and skirts that I had before DS1. I am ok with that though. I am now a size 4 and I am happy with that. Just make sure you exercise and make healthy eating choices. If your old clothes don't fit anymore, get some new ones that adjust a bit so you feel better about yourself. I agree that skirts and dresses are great because they can fluctuate with your weight a bit more. HTH.

[luckytwenty]

I personally found breastfeeding to be the fastest weight loss of my life (to the point that I remember joking, years after my daughter had been weaned and I was stuck on a 5 lb plateau, that if someone would just give me a baby to nurse I'd lose it in a jiffy--kidding, of course.) But I also know plenty of women who say the weight doesn't come off until they are done nursing.

Anyway, I know you must be very very frustrated. Have you thought about Weight Watchers for nursing mothers? I have many friends who were extremely successful with that program--and if you follow it carefully, you will NOT undereat at all.

P.S. I'm a long distance runner also and just like you, tend to gain during high mileage weeks. To lose weight, I run 3-4 miles max a day and one 5-6 mile long run. Anything more than that and I begin gaining a little or at least maintaining.

[♥ms.pacman♥]

arivecchi - i'd KILL to be a size 4 again (pre-prego size). actually i'd be happy just being a few sizes bigger, just as long as i could wear REGULAR clothes (e.g. non-maternity) like a normal person. No matter what size, big tummy just doesn't look good at all, and it's nearly impossible to find clothes that don't make me look pregnant, let alone that are some what flattering.

also i think about the whole " 9 months up, 9 mo down" thing, but that doesn't give me much hope as it actually only took me 5 months to gain my 30 lbs of prego wt since first 4 months of pregnancy i didn't gain any weight at all (morning sickness). so far 5 months have passed and nothing, i somehow doubt the next 4 months i will magically lose 20 lbs. my only shot i think is to when my son finally stops nursing (at 1 year?) and then i can again return to eating like a normal person instead of like a sumo wrestler. lol

luckytwenty - didn't know WW had a program for nursing moms, that is interesting. could check into that. i wonder how they calculate how many calories (or points) you are allowed to have...if it is based on age of baby or on actual size of baby. my 5mo old is the size of an average 10 month old and seems to be constantly on a growth spurt. i feel like i must eat constantly just to avoid hunger-induced migraines. FIrst month after he was born I had to drink high-calorie Ensure just to get enough calories in so i didn't collapse with a headache by the end of the day. I know it's probably bad that i eat so much, but seriously i don't know what else to do, i literally feel like i'm starving all.the.time.

[bubbaray]

I am astonished that most posters say they were back in regular clothes in less than 3 months. That was not my experience and it was not my friends' experience either. I think you should give yourself at least the same amount of time it took to gain all that weight - 9 months. .

Hmmm, well, I guess it depends. Of the people IRL who I knew before they had kids and after, all that BFd lost it rapidly. I lost 60+ lbs I gained with DD#1 in 2 weeks PP. It took longer (4 weeks) to lose the 45lbs I gained with DD#2.

I will say, though, that by the time I was about 6m PP, I started to slowly gain weight. By 12m, I was up about 10lbs from my PP loss (2w & 4w respectively) -- and that weight was really hard to lose. I think it was because I had 2 *big* babies who BFd voraciously. I ate and drank a TON in the early months. Like, enough to feed an adult male. Seriously, it was insane -- especially as I was losing weight like I was on some sort of starvation diet. It was REALLY hard to get back to a normal appetite after that, KWIM?

OP, have you had your thyroid checked? Like I said, I don't know anyone who took longer than a few weeks to lose their baby weight.

[arivecchi]

I BFed a couple of months each time and it did squat for me. LOL. I did end up doing Nutrisystem to lose the last 10 pesky pounds. My tummy still needs work. I need to start hitting the gym again soon. OP, don't be too hard on yourself. Just work at it at your own pace.

[hillview]

After DS1 I was back to pp weight after a year. DS2 is almost 3 and I am still 10 lbs over pp weight. I do still have a few items (Japanese weekend) that I wear on occasion. I am finally back into my pre preg clothes for the most part (that 10 lbs is ON my belly so annoying).

If you are eating well, I would expect SOME weight loss. I might go to the doc and have bloods run just to rule that out. Hug for OP I know how frustrating it can be!
/hillary

[♥ms.pacman♥]

thanks everyone. i haven't seen my OB since 6wk postpartum checkup, and at that point i did mention the lack of weightloss but she said it was normal that it takes a few months. but i'd imagine that 5 mos of of EBFing on demand resulting in zero weightloss is probably not normal.

i will look into having my thyroid checked. i did have a series of bloodtests done for insurance purposes and nothing seemed off but i will go ask a doc. if there is some explanation of it all that would at least make me feel better about it..right now i just feel very frustrated bc it seems like i must be doing something very wrong here. i do feel like a eat waay too much but then on the other hand i feel i cannot help it,i literally feel like i'm starving all the time.

[bubbaray]

I seem to recall that by 6m, you don't need to eat extra calories while BFg.

What about (assuming your tests are OK) trying Weight Watchers? They have a BFg friendly program.

HTH