My body, two weeks after giving birth

At the end of the day yesterday, Felicity was two weeks old.

Two weeks ... and rockin' it.

Two weeks … and rockin’ it.

It’s amazing how rapidly your body undergoes a transformation over the nine months that you are pregnant. And then, how rapidly it transforms again after you give birth.

Though honestly, of all the feelings I’ve had over the past two weeks, I’ve tried to keep emotions about how I look, for better or worse, far from my mind. Pop culture puts an enormous pressure on new moms to get back to their “old selves”  as quickly as possible and that is neither practical nor helpful.

Dressing up for Ke$ha was more fun than prom night.

The idea of pulling any of these clothes from last summer out of storage any time soon seems kinda daunting.

I got a lot of comments about how fit I was and how much I am sure it helped me in labor and recovery. I appreciate them and I think my friends are being kind, ’cause its hard to feel fit when I know how much the frequency and intensity of my workouts decreased over nine months.

I sure appreciated how much harder it was to move in the last eight weeks when I finally gave birth, though. People tell me that Felicity is so small, but when I see her, I think “wow, you fit inside of me and I carried you everywhere.” No wonder my back feels so much better now. The day after her delivery I got out of bed and just reveled in the feeling of touching my toes again.

For fun.

Shockingly, I can’t find anything other than head-and-shoulders pictures of me from the days after Felicity was born, so here’s a cute picture of us in the hospital.

When I started this pregnancy I was about 160 pounds. That was five pounds over where I feel comfortable — I gained a little weight when we moved, I cooked at home less, and my training volume went down as last year was the first in three I didn’t run a marathon. So I’d like to eventually get back to 155.

Tony and I at his brothers wedding in September.

Tony and I at his brother’s wedding in September.

I didn’t keep detailed logs, but I remember that I didn’t gain much weight until 20 weeks (the end of February). I was still able to run at least 3 miles a day for 3-5 days a week and wear most of my regular clothes. I even was training for the Race the Runways half-marathon in Brunswick in April, and I did a 10-plus mile training run in March, but I ended up backing out on the day of the race due to a hip injury that was flaring up again.

20 weeks

On the day I delivered I stepped on my bathroom scale at 190 pounds, a 30-pound gain from the start. (I don’t have pictures of that, but here’s me at 40 weeks.)

When I got home from the hospital two days later, I lost 11 pounds. Not too bad, considering that I can still hold 6.5 pounds of it in my arms. 🙂

Today I’m down 18 pounds. I’m fighting hard to stay hydrated between the summer weather and the fluids I lose breastfeeding. I’m running through NUUN tablets like candy, and I invested in a new water bottle.

Photo on 8-5-14 at 12.45 PM #2

I should be able to run again in four weeks. In the mean time, I’m trying to stay on top of our sleep (easier said than done with a newborn), walk 30 minutes a day (easier said than done with two pugs and a stroller) and prepare as much of our food as I can at home (and I’m not the most enthusiastic cook to begin with).

2 weeks post-partum

Here’s me today. Looking well rested. 😉

I don’t expect to weigh 160 pounds when I head back to work in October, or be able (or have the time) to run 10 miles at a time again by then — though I’d love to say that I could run for an hour by October, and fit back into at least a few pairs of pre-pregnancy pants.

Random thoughts from the first two weeks:

  • I had three Amazon Prime trials before I commit to a membership. What got me to commit? Diaper discounts.
  • I need to write a post just on the things I wish I had before I had a baby. Because I thought we had everything, and no, no we did not.
  • Felicity does not cry much, but she does need to be held for about 30 minutes after she eats so she does not spit it all back up. She pretty much lives in a sling all day.
  • Diapers. Holy crap we go through a lot of diapers.
  • And laundry.
  • If anything is getting me to lose weight, it’s that any meal takes me at least an hour to finish it with all the interruptions.
  • Tony went back to work yesterday. He’s only gone for four hours a day but it feels a bit lonelier now.
  • One of the things I missed the most when I was pregnant was riding my bike, and I can’t wait to get back on it again.
  • Gosh she’s cute.

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Pattie Reaves

About Pattie Reaves

I'm a new mom and renegade fitness blogger at After the Couch. I live in Brewer with my husband, Tony, our daughter Felicity, and our two pugs, Georgia and Scoop.