Iron deficiency??

Hello everyone!

i am now 28 weeks (yikes!) and as I'm sure most of you have felt, I'm having troubles with the scale going up. I know that we are suppose to be gaining but it is messing with my head! I lost 140 lbs two years ago from surgery. I was down to 160 and got pregnant at 170. I am not 190 (okay fine, 193!)..I am a little over where I wanted to be but my doctor isn't worried.

anyways, I went for my diabetes test which was negative however, my iron is extremely low. It has dropped significantly and has my OB concerned. I am now on iron twice a day and will be meeting with hematologist to go over the next steps. My OB thinks it may be an absorption issue from surgery. Has anyone else gone through anything like this?

Also, if anyone has any words of wisdom about the weight gain and how to take it off after, I'd love that too!

Thank you :)  

Hi!  I am 27wks and I too have low iron despite taking meds, though I must admit I am not the best at remembering to take them :-/ I have an appt with a hematologist to take about levels on the 11th. My hemoglobin and hematocrit and rbc are low and a few others are off as well. 

Good luck,  keep us updated! I will do the same :-)

congrats on being 28 weeks! exciting! :) i was 173lbs and got preggers at 183lbs. the day i gave birth i was about 210. i was happy that i kept my weight in check. i wanted to get down to 160 before getting pregnant so that i would have 30lbs of wiggle room before being in the 200s but thats ok. i only gained about 25lbs which is very normal. and i ate tons of donuts. lol. i totally was bad. i'll be better with my next pregnancy. but anyway. the day after i gave birth i weighed 195lbs. amazing huh? i was breastfeeding and not sleeping and i probably could have lost the weight over the next months but to be honest i ate like crap. i was stressed, sleep deprived, on an emotional rollercoaster (our little guy had some issues when he was newborn), those things far outweighed my weight issues. i started to grab whatever was readily available. i lived off funions. and junk food. fast food. and i ballooned up during the following months. i got up to 215lbs. no bueno. it took me a LONG time to get myself back in check. why? because i had a baby to worry about and i was not a priority. when he was a year old thats when i was finally like, ok, he's old enough, i know he's ok....i can step back and focus more on me now. and i've been slowly and steadily getting back in shape. currently at 186lbs....trying to get back to 173lbs. and ultimately my goal is 140lbs. i want to also have my panni removed. i am giving myself till next spring (that will be a year) and hopefully i can have the surgery, then i can start on baby #2. and that pregnancy will be different.

here's my advice to you regarding weight. this is from a woman who's been there.

your body will completely change. everything is just gonna sit differently on you. you're gonna be lumpy and mushy (thats all the fluid and hormones, that will last for a few months if not more, i was still like that at 6 months). your sides will be narrower but your stomach will stick out more. forever. thats part of being a mom. not that you can't have a flat stomach, you'll have to work hard to get one but even then you'll have a tiny little pooch of skin. you're gonna feel like who is this person? you're gonna feel like you lost yourself. that is completely normal. we do lose ourselves completely. we give ourselves to our children. thats our job. my best advice to you is don't stress about how you look. know that you're gonna feel ugly for a while. thats ok. concentrate everything on that precious baby who needs you. enjoy, i can't stress this enough, enjoy that time, you will never get it back. enjoy your baby. concentrate on doing what you need to do for the baby. you will have time for yourself later.

also you should know that most women (wls or not) take a year AT LEAST to lose the weight. don't expect it to come right off. 9/10 times it won't. know that it is completely normal for it to take a while before you're even ready to start getting the weight off. some of my friends, their kids were 2 when they finally started to lose weight again. it takes time. its totally normal.

breastfeed. it burns calories. BUT i makes you super hungry and super thirsty. drink LOTS of water (i'm sure you already do) and try to make healthy choices. now, you won't be in any state of mind to make healthy choices when you haven't slept, your baby is crying, your nips hurt, you're starving, etc. so my advice is ask your family to make you some meals that you can keep in the freezer (casseroles, etc, things that will last a while) so you can just heat as needed. because you will have no time or energy to cook. having a nice homemade meal will keep you on track. try to keep healthy snacks on hand as well. precut fruits, nuts, cheeses, crackers, whatever. you don't have to eat carrot sticks but pretty much anything that isn't potato chips (like i did). tuna and crackers, sandwiches even. trust me, you will be so thankful there is stuff already prepared for you. so you won't have to do any work. tell your mom or your mother in law to help out with that. they wanna take care of us and i think some of the best things they can do is make us food and clean our house because god knows we won't be doing that for a long time. girl your house won't be clean for a while. lol. but who cares? like i said, that baby is priority #1.

i had low iron as well.  my midwife wanted me to eat beets and organ meat. ugh. lol. but i just doubled up my chewable iron and that seemed to be ok. i'm not sure which surgery you had so our situations might be different. i had VSG.

anyway good luck sweety!! as far as the weight the best thing you can do is make good choices now and make sure you have real food stocked up for after baby comes. and it will be what it will be. spend the first 6 months (at least, if not 1yr) just focused on that baby. the weight you can deal with later. as long as you don't go off the rails like i did, you'll be fine.

I'm 9 weeks pregnant and my ferratin was 5 and my hemaglobin was 101 and my dr just told me I'm anemic. She wants to do iron transfusions, however, we are going to try iron supplements first. I feel like a bag of dirt, like a walking zombie...I could sleep all day.

Let's not talk about weigh gain and loss..lol..this is my 2nd post op baby and 4th in total and I am disgusted with myself and the weight gain. lol.

I am 30 weeks right now and I too have been diagnosed as anemic... My ferritin and hemoglobin were both very low and I ended up doing 8weeks of IV iron infusions march through April ! I felt so much better and my hemoglobin was back in the normal range at 12.3!! Now my hemoglobin has dropped slightly and my obgyn has referred me back to the hematologist since he says the demands on my body will be the greatest in the coming weeks...so I'm betting when I see her this week I will be getting more iron infusions! Good luck to you! 

My iron was/is pretty low and I'm terrible about remembering to take my extra iron. 

As for weight gain, the healthier you can be now, the easier things will be after the baby is born.  With my first two kids (one pre op, one post op)  I gained about 20 lbs despite eating total garbage and I lost it all right away.  I think I got a little over confident about the fact that my metabolism magically works when I'm pregnant.  With my third baby I gained 30 lbs and now I'm left with 10 lbs to lose.  I blame being over 30 now!  I find that breastfeeding is tricky because I'm hungry all the time so it makes it a lot harder to be good about what I eat.  I'm hoping to get rid of several pounds before my check up with my surgeon next month.  Good luck!!