Pregnancy Weight Gain Round 2

I wrote about the weight gain with Olivia here. Since it's one of my most googled posts - I figured I would write about my weight gain with Emma - a vastly different experience.

First - with both Emma and Olivia, I was sick for the first 5 months. With Olivia, I could barely eat anything. Nothing sounded good. With Emma, I only felt better after I ate. So naturally, I gained more weight earlier with Emma than with O. 

I was starving with Olivia no matter how much I had eaten, what I had eaten, etc. I found it so hard to stop eating - even healthy food. With Emma, I had a month that I was extra hungry in the second trimester, but mostly was perfectly content barely eating. Once I realized that my weight was surpassing my first pregnancy and I was on track to gain 50 pounds, I started tracking everything I ate in an app. I made sure that I never ate over 1800 calories (with a few exceptions like Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas). I monitored sugars and protein - and made sure I was drinking enough water. 

The weight kept piling on.

For a two month span I gained half a pound a day. Half a pound a day!! If 3500 calories is a pound, I would have to be eating an EXCESS of 1750 calories a day to gain that much. The math doesn't even add up. It's not possible.

Dan confirmed what I knew to be true: "you are eating less than when you aren't pregnant." 

Emma's health was the most important thing - but when you constantly hear about mom's that use the 'eating for 2' excuse and packed on too much weight - or how children whose mom's gained more weight than normal in pregnancy have a higher chance of health issues and diabetes as they get older - and that any more than a pound a week gain is a cause for concern - you start to wonder if you are doing something wrong for your baby.

I thought for sure the weight gain would level out. So many people barely gain weight in the third trimester - maybe I would be one of those people?

Nope.

On the day I delivered Emma, I weighed exactly 50 pounds more than normal. 50 pounds?!?! So many friends had made snarky comments in the past about people who gained more weight than recommended. I know that none would believe me. I know they would think I wasn't being honest with myself. Or I wasn't actually measuring my food (counting every single cracker - measuring berries and greek yogurt - logging each tic tac I ate, typing every recipe into a calorie counter and measuring out every serving size). 

It was exhausting but I never gave up.

I wasn't swollen at all, so I knew it was additional fat. 

I decided that with all the weight I gained. Lugging a 27 pound toddler around who wants me to "hold you" all the time. And trying to walk 2 miles a day. I wasn't going below 1800 calories a day. There's no way I could get in the nutrition Emma needed at 1200 or so calories. Not while pregnant, active, and a lot larger than normal. 

If my body needed 50 extra pounds of baby + fat for Emma, then I was fine with it. And when she arrived, a wonderful size and healthy - I was so thankful for each one of those 50 pounds. For whatever reason, it gave Emma exactly what she needed. 

And now that they have been thanked, I'm ready to see them go. :)