A Facebook friend recently made a post asking women how their bodies have changed after going through pregnancy and giving birth. I chuckled when I saw the post as I have been meaning to do a post on it.
However before I talk about the after baby body,perhaps,I would need to first talk about my before baby body and pregnancy. While I was in the University,I weighed between 74-78kg,I was not by any chance a slim person as I have always had big bones ,but I was in great physical shape because I was quite active. I had a wash board tummy because I tried to ensure that my stomach stayed flat through an early morning exercise routine . I put on some weight after school and by the time I was getting married,I weighed close to 90kg.🙈

Shortly after I got married,I took in,by the way,Mike and I had agreed to wait 6 months to 1 year before we get pregnant o but 🙈🙊Nicole was having none of that😂😂. I took in and the first sign was  constipation,Lord! I would sit on the toilet seat sweating profusely but the poop won’t come out,I would strain so much😢😢. By the time I confirmed I was pregnant,it was sleep galore,at the time,I would sleep for hours unending after downing 50cl bottle of coke . My tummy grew quickly and by the 7th month(by now I was looking like a baby hippo😂😂😂)I noticed my first streak of stretch mark across my lower tummy, I was shocked as my mum had carried 7 pregnancies and didn’t have even one streak of stretch mark across her tummy. My sisters do not have stretch marks either. I took it in my stride. I had an emergency CS with my first child,see,that CS is story for another day,I almost died on that table but God held me😓😓.

Then came the rigours of taking care of a newborn while my body healed. You know how Nigerians enable nursing mothers yea? I was always hungry as I breastfed exclusively the first 5+ months,Nicole ate ravenously, she still does😏😓. I had developed an unhealthy fondness for bread and tea,I would make the tea really thick and dip my bread in it,I sometimes ate this 3 times a day besides other meals. The weight piled up quickly,I weaned Nicole at 10months,I had a lot of breast milk which proceeded to keep running till almost 2 months later,probably because I just went cold turkey in the bid to stop breastfeeding,I paid dearly for it😖😖.

Erm, sorry,I digress,back to my post baby body,here I was,left with a ‘ginormous’ tummy (giant+enormous) 😭😭with angry looking stretch marks cris crossing my lower tummy ,my breasts were a lot heavier and ah,I forgot to mention I suffered painful nipple crack the first two months after delivery. It kind of left my nipples extra sensitive. My feet grew wider and longer,I began to wear a size bigger after my baby. My nose was bigger and more sensitive to smell. I had a difficult experience during my emergency CS,so I wasn’t looking to get pregnant for a while. I weighed  105kg by the time Nicole was about a year…

I will do a follow up post to round up the experience by the time I had my second😊 before then,let’s be good to ourselves and stay happy,shall we?

Image culled from Social Media.