Fear Of Weight Gain

First I would like to say congratulations to the new and expecting mothers on the forum

Some insight on myself, I am 30 years old and have NEVER been pregnant and am now 11 weeks, I weighed 294 before GBS and at my lowest weighed 152 (I think) and had a Extended Anchor TT (both vertical and horizontal incision), breast reduction to a C (after 11 weeks I am now in a D again) and I also had brachioplasty (arm lift) I had plans to have a backlift in the Summer but am pregnant.

There is so much going on in my life and I was very happy with where I was in life, I have a great fiancé (now getting married in June because of the baby), Have custody of my 10 and 15 year old brothers and graduate May 14th with my MBA.

I found out that I was pregnant on 4/01 and was devastated and did not want to go through with the pregnancy and after 2-3 weeks my decision changed and I suddenly became happy and am now looking forward to being a new mother and my fiancé is ecstatic about this, We have all that we need at this time and I know many women who are young and have nothing and get pregnant and they do an amazing job when it comes to being a parent and I figure that I am being selfish because I have the ability to provide a child with a good life. So overall I am looking forward to the months to come.

I paid $9400 for my plastic surgery with Dr. Sauceda in Mexico and to me that is not a great concern, I would do it all over again if I had to after giving birth and healing, actually I prefer to have a flatter tummy before giving birth because my tummy was HORRIBLE and now I can see the definition in my growth, but either way it would not matter, so my issue is the weight, the 1st thing people say to me is that I am going to gain weight, My mother has 7 children so I know all about pregnancy and raising kids, no expert but I know. That is not a concern until someone says something for instance "You are going to get big" or "You lost all that weight to get big again"... I do not want to deprive my baby by not eating properly but I would like to eat healthy as I did prior to getting pregnant... ANY insight or advice. Thanks in advance. 

 

It's perfectly normal to be scared about gaining weight during pregnancy (I think even more so to those of us who have lost a lot of weight), however it's necessary for the baby to grow properly.  They say we only need 200-300 extra calories a day while we are pregnant.  So continue to eat healthy as before adding an extra small snack or 2.  For me this is very hard to do, as I can eat and tolerate way more food than pre-pregnancy.  You might find you only gain a minimal amount of weight or you might gain quite a bit of weight.  Try not to focus on the weight gain during the pregnancy, you can work on taking the extra weight off after the baby is born!  Some women are lucky and are at pre-pregnancy weight at their 6 week check up.  I was around 7-10lbs heaiver at my 6 week appt, however I gained another 10-13lbs the 1.5 years after that until I decided to get busy and do something about the extra weight I had gained!  It sounds like your concious about what you eat, so I think you will be fine!  As far as the tummy tuck is concerned, I don't know how that will effect your pregnancy, as I haven't had plastic surgery yet.  I have seen that some of the women on this site have had pregnancies after plastic surgery and it takes them a lot longer to show and they tend to feel cramped especially towards the end! 

Best of luck to you during this journey!  Sit back and try to enjoy it!  This is your 1st child and I'm sure very exciting once you get past the shock of being pregnant (I know the feeling as I'm expecting my 4th child and felt complete after my last child)!

Thanks so much for your insight and congrats on your pregnancy and I wish you the best.

The shock has gone away for the most part except when I think about the fact that someone is growing inside of me :)

It is truly amazing and overall I am blessed to be able to experience this, despite how I first felt.

I am just going to continue doing as I was and focus on being healthy for my baby.

I totally understand where you are coming from and have experienced so much of what you are feeling since finding out I was pregnant.  As time goes by I have started relaxing a bit....I am 7 months pregnant and have gained about 25 pounds....NOW this is what I expected to gain for the entire pregnancy but oh well.  I know that overall I am eating healthy.  I have always followed the 80/20 rule to maintain my weight loss. Eat Heathy 80% of the time therefore if I don't eat healthy 20% of the time it's okay. This is my goal during pregnancy. I also get 30 to 45 minutes of moderate excercise 4 times a week.  (Usually brisk walking) I know that unless I am just out of control these nine months I WILL BE ABLE TO LOSE this weight.  I may have to work at it butI CAN DO IT! 

One thing I wil tell you is for me I can totally understand how some woman gain over the recommended weight for pregnancy.  I think if I was eating EVERYTHING i was hungry for I might be consuming 6000 calories a day...LOL. I experience physical and head hunger all day long!!  And rarely do I crave healthy choices.  I am just so lucky to be pregnant after WLS as opposed to before WLS because my weight loss surgery taught me how to control my appetite and make good choices.  I am so thankful for my RNY!! 

Thanks so much for your insight, I really appreicate and congrats on your baby... 2 more months, yay for you.

if you continue to eat well you should be fine. don't focus on the weight gain i know it can be hard. it was hard for me to see that scale get back to the 200's but i knew it was all for my baby. enjoy being pregnant and relax and congrats on graduating.

Thanks so much and believe it or not you are a motivation, read some of your post and must say you are a strong and beautiful person inside and out. I wish you and hazel all the best.

I freak everytime I see the scale go up. I can't help it. I cried when it hit 200+. But i know I need to gain for my baby Liam. I also wanted to gain about 25lbs. I just hit 30lbs gained. But my weight gain has slowed down alot so I think I will be ok. You lose 15-20lbs when you pop anyway. I just keep that in mind. I also try to keep in mind that you can burn 500 calories a day breastfeeding.

I am trying to mentally prepare myself for what is ahead and just tell myself the same that you are, thus far I have only put on about 4 lbs and I am just going to be healthy but make sure I eat enough for both myself and the baby. Thanks so much on your insight and congrats to you and your family.

I felt that way also. I was pregnant with twins just recently and gained about 65 pounds. I have lost all but 10 and my girls are 3 weeks old. I have been trying hard to go back to eating right and doing as much as I can around the house. When the girls are about 3 months old I will start exercising again. good luck! Its worth it!!