STM’s, did you actually “bounce back”?

@cuteness20 I have managed to bounce back after each pregnancy (I have 5 kids including twins). The only time I had an issue was after being diagnosed with hypothyroidism. That being said, please do some form of core work, be it Pilates, yoga, standing crunches, etc. your core will feel super weak and you’ll have a harder time recovering without it. Good luck and congratulations!
 
@cuteness20 I honestly really did. 9 months postpartum I was in the best shape of my life. Lots of walking, getting back into running, eating well, and breastfeeding for me burnt extra calories (I know this doesn’t work out well for everyone in this department).

I’m now due any day with #2, but don’t know if it will be so easy again. We’ll see. I am a bit older, after all. But I reason all I can do is my best—I can’t stop time, nor can I do the impossible. I’m sure that I can get myself comfortable with myself again, but perfection is an illusion.
 
@cuteness20 I gently worked out during my pregnancy and went on 2 walks with the dog up until the day before birth. After birth I lost so much muscle, like NO butt haha!. I am 7 weeks pp now and am getting back into working out baby wearing and going on walks again. I have lost a lot of weight, initially lost the weight of not having baby inside anymore along with placenta and now I'm exclusively breastfeeding and seem to have lost a bit more. However I have a belly pouch and need to lose 10 more pounds to get to pre pregnancy weight. I'm trying to remind myself our bodies go through so much in 9 months and it can take a while to "bounce back" and it is most important to keep baby healthy :)
 
@cuteness20 I’m pregnant (10w) with #2 and I did not bounce back. Between undiagnosed PPD & PPA, struggles with breastfeeding and never ending lack of sleep I never made time to prioritize me and today I’m the same weight I was 9 months pregnant with my first. I finally am in a better head space but my priorities have shifted from being fit. So no, I didn’t bounce back - at all.
 
@kayetj I bounced back fast after my first and a little slower after my second, but by all accounts, pretty darn fast. You can probably expect a similar but not identical experience to your first.
 
@cuteness20 I worked out all my second pregnancy with strength and cardio. I have had such a hard time coming back in the 18mo since I’ve had baby. Now pregnancy with #3, and feeling a little deflated about not seeing the results I’ve been working for since then. But that’s my own issue with body image, and watching my cousin literally bounce back immediately after having her first
 
@cuteness20 Nope. Not even remotely. I still had about 1/2 my weight gained still left over when I got pregnant 8m pp.
I EBF until 6 months pp, and weaned during month 7. I worked with a personal trainer and sometimes did 2 a day workouts. I started working out (lightly) at 4m pp

I was a FTM, 28/29 years old. Very fit/ lean prior to pregnancy. Pregnancy kicked my ass, and I could barely workout, but I walked up to an hour daily.

Honestly, all the “yeah, I lost all the weight and then some. I just worked for it and did EBF” posts were (and are) suuuuuper demoralizing for me. I did that, too, and it didn’t work. I hope that isn’t the case for you, but if it is, you’re not alone. 💕

Edit: I wrote that I started 4m pp. I meant to say 4 WEEKS. Two a days started at 3 months pp.
 
@cuteness20 I was working out at a CrossFit style gym (general strength training and HIIT/metcon) and doing obstacle course racing. I worked out my entire pregnancy, but absolutely did not bounce back. One reason was that I didn’t have time or energy to go to the gym for months, and then our gym shut down. The other reason being that I suffered from PPA/PPD and that took a year to get straightened out. I got back into okay shape, but nowhere near where I was before.
 
@cuteness20 How are you defining "bouncing back"? How long did you train prior to getting pregnant? What level are you "bouncing back" to? Was it endurance or strength based? The longer you trained something, the easier it is to recover prior levels. The higher level you are, the longer it might be to "fully" bounce back. And I believe that (fast-twitch) strength tends to come back a little faster / is lost less quickly.

I hear plenty of stories of moms who are sleep deprived. Sleep deprivation is not a good environment for your body to put on (muscle) weight.

I hear plenty of stories of moms who have PPD or PPA. This tends to affect all sorts of things, from diet to sleep to general stress/inflammation levels. Your body needs proper fuel to be able to recover / put on muscle weight. Higher, general inflammation levels similarly hurt your ability to "recover" after a work out and "bounce back".

Regaining old strength foundations (or whatever you do) requires consistency and commitment. Those can be hard with a newborn, especially depending on your partner, support system, job, lifestyle, plans, and even your mental capacity.

Any sort of training gains or "bouncing back" requires you to truly rest between consistent training sessions. Rest involves everything from physical rest (ie limiting actual physical movement / exertion outside of training sessions sufficiently) to high quality and sufficient quantities of sleep to eating healthy foods to eating enough food to proper hydration. I also would not underestimate the "consistency" aspect: have you and your spouse worked out how you'll work consistent training in after you have a baby? If you're breastfeeding, have you worked out how you'll fit your training in? That may require pumping, or having baby nearby, or training for less time or closer near the baby.

My husband and I have very deliberately chosen a place to rent for our new life which will allow us to do most of our conditioning in our apartment (where we can pass baby back and forth between sets, or utilize an exersaucer/playpen/etc), in the apartment building (one of us can go down and 'take shifts'), downstairs at a public park with more equipment for conditioning (can babywear, exchange, or have a seat/area for baby, and it's less than 5 minutes to get back home if needed), we've worked out a schedule (short commutes included) for how we'll both attend classes on our own (outside of conditioning), and we've budgeted for using a sitter/daycare if we find we need it. We also have a pretty extensive meal prep routine we've used for the last year -- aimed at minimizing time necessary to cook, and having some meals prepped ahead of time or ones that require minimal time/effort -- that should make it easier to fuel up. I have a therapist ready and strategies for any potential PPD, but we also deliberately chose a location/lifestyle that optimizes our physical and mental health as much as possible.

Anyway, I have chronic illnesses that could very well flare up, and as first time parents we might (will!) find ourselves lost/stressed/sleep deprived. And there's a chance we could have a more "difficult" baby... so there might not be much "bouncing back", at least not right away. But I think that the most important thing to remember is to just do what you can, and to recognize that if this happens, it need only be a temporary phase you work through rather than as something that defines the rest of your life.

P.S. Some first time moms keep their pregnancy changes--and I sure hope I do, personally! My hips have grown way wider, and my chest has expanded, aside from my breasts having already gotten bigger. It feels almost like a second puberty to me. With puberty, athletes in some sports say they have "different bodies" and sometimes even need to "become different athletes". That's not a bad thing, but it does require them to make changes in their approach and/or allow time to adjust. These changes will indeed require you to put on additional muscle and/or change your movement pattern a little bit--though this is going to be dependent on sport, with some more affected than others.
 
@cuteness20 If you mean mostly weight: I got really skinny while breastfeeding and pushing a heavy stroller on hilly roads to make naps happen. Like down to high school weight which I had not been for years.

However I still have some stretched belly and boob skin that is never going back and my breasts shrank and went more pancake-y as I lost weight and due to breastfeeding.
 
@cuteness20 Weight-wise, yes I did. Specifically because I was nursing which burns a lot of calories. I was at the lowest weight I’ve been in 10 years.

Fitness-wise, no. I had a ton of leaking issues and even with pelvic floor PT I still can’t run the distances I used to without leaking problems. So I no longer run much at all.

I think you do get out what you put in and if you spend a lot of time on exercise post partum I don’t see any reason you wouldn’t be able to bounce back.
 
@cuteness20 I guess it depends how you define bounce back.. but TLDR; no I did not bounce back despite working out before and during my pregnancy.

I lifted and ran throughout both pregnancies and breastfed after for a year+.

I’m 18 months pp my second now and just starting to see my strength really return. I was running by 8 weeks pp and lifting regularly probably around 3-4 months pp but it took a longgggg time for me to feel comfortable and strong in my workouts.

Even though my pre pregnancy clothes fit and I’m actually stronger and about as fast as I was 4 years ago I definitely wouldn’t say I “bounced back”. I worked hard and slowly rebuilt. Although my body still looks and feels different.. so 🤷🏻‍♀️
 
@cuteness20 I did not, I think bad abs from diastesis recti ruined it for me. No matter how much I exercised I looked a little pregnant 😩

But I’m in my 40s & maybe just not gonna have the body I had in my 20s or 30s. Or maybe if I do more DR exercises after this pregnancy it’ll be better.
 
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