Things I wish I did differently my first pregnancy

Hello beautiful people!!!

I though I could share with you things I wish I had done and knew differently during my first pregnancy. Some of you may be able to relate and those that have not had kids yet will hopefully take something from this post.

My oldest son is 8, he will be 9 in November. I was 19 when I got pregnant with him. Throughout my teen years I was always on some type of diet, unfortunately even those teen magazines put “skinny pressure” on us early on. I have a very athletic body type. No matter how little I weighed I never looked  skinny and I love that about my self now but I did not back then, so through out high school I always felt the need to diet so I can fit in with the rest of the girls. When I became pregnant shortly after getting married I used that as an excuse to eat whatever I never allowed my self to eat before.

I am 5’8 and my starting weight was 155, the day I went to deliver I was 222 even 😳 That’s 66 pounds, my 8 year old weighs that much now!!!!

I was only 5 month pregnant in that middle picture, and in that December picture above I was one month post partum. I could not recognize myself.At one point these were the pictures I would burry in a deep dark hole and never show it to anyone, but I am proud of the way I look today, I have never felt more comfortable in my body before but it took a lot of hard work and discipline to get there.

1 year after first pregnancy.

2 years after 

During my pregnancy I ate anything and everything all the time and I used my pregnancy as an excuse. I remember eating 4 honeybuns in one sitting. I had acid reflux so bad that I would vomit blood because my esophagus could not handle any more acid. Did I meantion how swollen and how much edema I had?! I went from shoe size 8 to 11 wide. I wish I knew better, I wish I would have nourished my body and my child differently. I was at such high risk for gestational diabetes and thank God I did not get to that. Luckily my son was healthy, but he was 9lb 14 oz and yes I had to have a c-section. I was so upset with my self that five months after having my son I was still 195 pounds. That’s not the worst part, the worst is that I risked gestational diabetes, the extra weight put pressure on my joints and the heartburn was out of this world. I had severe leg cramps even when sleeping. Of course there are risks of complications during delivery, and like I said I ended up with a C-section. I got stretch marks not only in my belly like most people do during pregnancy, I got them all over, back of my legs, arms, thighs…everywhere. I blame my self completely, but I also blame my doctor for not putting more pressure on me and telling me the risks, he would always jokingly tell me “wooooa Maya lay off salt” and that’s it. He never mentioned that an overweight mother is more likely to give birth to a large baby with a greater risk of diabetes and obesity throughout childhood. That would have scared me enough to be more careful. So I am using my self as your PSA…be healthy all the time but be even more careful what you put in your body during the time you are nurturing and growing another human being. “Eating for two” is a LIE, you are eating for your self and a pea size that will slowly grow and get enough from what you eat for ONE. Feed your self with quality not quantity.

It took me a year and a lot of visits to the gym…no really A LOT, to loose the weight I gained. It was torture. I had to retrain my MIND (yes this is the hardest part to train) to learn to eat healthy. Not diet by eating nothing but salads and sandpaper lol but eat clean and nutritional meals. My second pregnancy I was much more educated, and was much more careful. I only gained 29 pounds, and I had no side effects of pregnancy other than the belly to show for it 🙂 I ran in my first trimester, and most of second, then I had to stop because my bladder could not handle it 🙂 There are pleanty of websites, apps and resources that can help you with this. My favorite one that I used a lot was Fit Pregnancy.

December 2014

Please do not get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with gaining weight during pregnancy. It is ABSOLUTELY normal, but the normal weight to gain is 25-30 pounds. There is nothing wrong with stretchmark’s either. I call them my souvenirs from pregnancy 🙂 Most of us can not avoid them and some of you lovely ladies are blessed to not have them. However, its it important to take care of YOURSELF and the BABY in the best possible way. We may enjoy the junk food at the moment but the reality that hits us later is just not worth the temporary indulgence. There are many delicious meals and desserts that you can eat that are still clean and healthy you just have to put the work in to fix them for your self. YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF AND YOUR CHILD.

              The day of my wedding 09/2005                                         My anniversary 09/2013  
                        2006                                       2012                                             2015