I probably don’t need to say this again but it is OH SO NICE not to be pregnant!

I wanted to check in on postpartum weight loss. If you recall, I reported back at my six week appointment my doctor recommended to be patient with my body and rely on breastfeeding for weight loss until four months postpartum. I listened to him for the most part but I have made an effort to exercise more days than not. Nothing crazy though unless you count my nine-mile race last Saturday which quite possibly did me in making me susceptible to the flu I woke up with the next morning…but that is another story.

This time around I successfully did the drop off even though that is now transitioning to Andy. (It is more emotional turmoil than I choose to deal with before going into the office and it doesn’t bother Andy as much.) Since things are going well, I wanted to share a few things I did differently with the transition this time which I believe helped it to proceed a lot more smoothly:

First and foremost, I think I knew what to expect since this is the second time. The old adage, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

Second, my maternity leave was so wonderful and I never spent any time doing things I didn’t absolutely want to be doing. I didn’t waste a single day doing what I thought was expected of me or what someone else wanted me to be doing, but instead only spent my time how I wanted to which was mostly just hanging out with Eloise. Selfish…maybe, but I didn’t care.

Third, no work during maternity leave. I had 2600 emails and didn’t read any of them until my last week of maternity leave.

Today I returned to the working world.  Before I say anything more, a huge thanks to everyone who wrote comments, sent emails, texted me, wrote tweets, visited me in my cube and called me offering your support on this difficult day.  While a few of them did lead to me shedding some tears, I wholeheartedly [...]

We are just plucking along over here at the Hoobing household enjoying the heck out of July. I mean seriously, a smiley baby, entertaining toddler, nice weather, no work, the Tour de France, BBQs, a backyard fire pit, an ability to drink wine again, a new book by George R. R. Martin and workouts finally feeling great…does it really get much better?

Saturday morning we were walking through the Capital City Farmer’s Market when I found myself next to a woman from my Hypnobirthing class and her baby born just three days before Eloise. After some initial pleasantries we immediately began asking each other how our birth experiences went.

I started by saying I flunked hypnobirthing and she said she did too but then proceeded to tell me how she survived 21 hours of labor, including three hours of pushing, without an epidural.

Um, chick, you didn’t flunk.

When I told her that my contractions were immediately so strong and so close together I asked for the epidural minutes after arriving at the hospital, she kind of said, “Ooooh really?” in a nice way that oozed with “Wow, you suck!” beneath the surface. Or maybe I was reading too much into her response but I agree it is a little lame that I spent five weeks taking Hypnobirthing classes and then so quickly gave into to the allure of pain-free birth.

I mentioned my current weight which is not budging and even appears to increase some days. Then I said offhand, “But, it’s been awhile since I’ve weighed myself when I like to, in the morning after pumping, pooping and exercising but before eating.”

There are still many changes my body will make to get itself back to normal. Hopefully it will be able to do the majority of them in the next two to three months, however I don’t expect to be able to lose the weight for awhile longer. My new coping mechanism for anytime I start to become frustrated with a lack of progress is to compare where I am now to being pregnant. That train of thought snaps me right back to a very positive state of mind…this is 1000% better!

It’s still postpartum week but I have to tell you I am already getting really excited for next week as I finally transferred the photos from the past two weeks off of my camera and there are some great photos to share.  I cannot seem to find any time during the day (or night) to [...]

A post giving you a “how to” get back into shape postpartum is a bit premature because I am so far from in shape at the moment.  I am, however, giving it a valiant effort and will share with you what I have been doing. Before my doctor gave the okay to exercise again, it [...]