Post-Pregnancy Body Changes

I wish I was one of those cute pregnant girls who wear skinny jeans throughout their pregnancies. But I just gain weight.

Jennifer Garner

When you get pregnant, you understand that your body is going to change. You understand that there is an entire human being to grow in there, and that your organs are going to have to make room.

You know that during the pregnancy, sleep will become more difficult. You’ll get backache, and your breasts will ache. You know that things are going to change.

You also know that there will be a period, after you give birth, where your body will not be normal. That there will be excess fat stored in preparation for breast feeding, that your stomach muscles won’t really know what to do with themselves.

What I didn’t expect, was that fourteen months after the birth of my second child, that things are still different. Still different even though I’m back to my pre-pregnancy weight. That I’m fitter and healthier than I’ve ever been.

So here are those post pregnancy body changes that I haven’t been able to shift:

Backache:

My lower back is not a happy bunny. It seems to take the strain of everyday life much harder than it used to.

I suspect that it’s because my core isn’t that strong since I pushed and pulled it about during two pregnancies. Two pregnancies with two children who behaved completely differently while I was carrying them.

I also have a rather large curve to my back, which I think makes it worse. It’s always been there, but I suppose it makes my back a bit of a weak point.

Even though I can do full press ups, and full range sit ups without trouble. Even though I can do full burpees and even full planks. My core is still weaker than it should be.

I think pilates or some other exercises that are specifically focused on my core is necessary, so that I can begin to work solely on those muscles. I feel like the rest of my muscles around my core are so much stronger, and that my core is just lagging behind.

Feet:

There is no denying it, I have wider feet than I did before. I still resolutely stuff my feet into my beloved Gina shoes, but even I have to admit that by the end of the night it’s like having my toes squeezed to the point of pins and needles.

It has definitely not helped that while I was pregnant, I was in the Middle East. So I was in the sunshine and the warmth and I was wearing flip flops for the entire time we lived there. My feet got used to the room and the lack of restriction, and have happily spread themselves about.

Is there anything you can do about widening feet? Other than continuing to cram them into shoes that are really not wide enough. I want to be able to wear actual shoes again, especially now we are in the UK and it’s cold enough to warrant actual shoes and boots.

Untamed Hair:

I used to love my hair. It was thick and shiny and healthy. It stayed in a style after you had blow dried it and it was a good enough colour not to need highlights.

Until my hormones got in the way. After I gave birth I lost a record amount of hair. It came out in massive clumps everytime I brushed my hair. In fact, quite a bit is still falling out fourteen months after the birth of Mister L, my second child.

I have wispy baby type hair EVERYWHERE. It sticks up at odd angles no matter what I do with my hair. It’s growing at a ridiculously slow rate and I’m getting really hacked off with looking like a fuzz ball.

Blow drying my hair is a luxury at the moment, but I even groan once that’s done. My hair doesn’t seem to have settled into it’s new shape, and it constantly appears to be fighting with itself. It doesn’t lie flat on top of each other, and it seems to just want to be as far away from my head as it can.

I keep reading that in time it will go back to the way it was, or at least to not being this bad, but I’m rather sick of waiting to be honest. The hair gods planted some rather nice hair on me, and I’d quite like it back!

Sleep Positions:

I completely understood that I wasn’t going to be able to sleep the same way, when I was pregnant. I knew that because my body was changing, I would have to change the way I slept to  accommodate it.

What I didn't realise was that even after I got my pre pregnancy body back, that comfort at night was going to evade me. I just cannot figure out, for the life of me, how my body now wants to sleep.

I’ve tried my pre-pregnancy sleep positions, they don’t work. I’ve tried my pregnancy sleep positions, they are really weird if you aren’t pregnancy anymore.

I’ve tried every which way and I just cannot seem to find a position that suits my post pregnancy body.

I’ve used pillows of different shapes and sizes, I’ve tossed and I’ve turned. That glorious sinking feeling I used to get when I got into bed, seems to have disappeared for good.

I’m most gutted about this one because I’m a complete nightmare without enough sleep, and currently I spend a lot of time tossing about until I seem to sink into a coma. I miss my bed and the comfort it used to offer…. Someone bring it back!