to have expected to come home from hospital a little lighter than this?

[EagleRay]

I had a baby on Tuesday - a HUGE one at 4.6kg

During the ELCS, the theatre staff marvelled at the size of the accompanying placenta.

There was fluid pouring out of me and onto the floor - can remember the doctor complaining her feet were wet.

And yet, I've come home to find I weigh precisely 5kg lighter than I did at the start of the week

I ate some flapjack and crisps before I was discharged but it still seems a bit unfair.

Anyone else been cheated in this way?

I weighed 9.5 stone before I became pg. Just before dd was born, I weighed 10.5 stone. When I came out of hospital, I weighed 8.5 stone. DD, at birth, was 6.2 lbs. It made no sense to me then and doesn't make much sense to me now.

Ah yes the water retention in the legs and feet - mine looked like bags of potatoes the day after the birth

There was quite a big thing made of trying to find surgical stockings big enough and then a health care assistant was trying to show the MW the best way to haul them on to me.

They were especially soothing with the post anaesthetic all-over body itching

I'm 5 years postpartum and still retaining that post-birth fluid. It's definitely not G&T.

I was the same. Totally shocked when I was under 4kg lighter despite having a 3.85kg baby, not to mention placenta etc. But yes, it was water... I lost around a half kilo a day for ages afterwards all through night sweats

I had a 10lb baby and lost a stone immediately now working to get the rest off.

yeah I packed my pre-pregnancy size 10's in my hospital bag - wouldn't go past my knees

I had this idea it would all 'ping back' hahahahaha what a twat I was - 2 more kids and 13 years later I'm still waiting to ping!

I weighed myself pretty much every day the week following giving birth out of curiosity. I was just amazed at how quickly the numbers went down. I lost about 12lb the day he was born and then at least 2lb a day for the next few days. I think I'd lost two-thirds of my pregnancy weight gain in the first week. I had expected things to go much slower after the initial birth-related weight loss, but it didn't work like that.

I was massive the day after I gave birth and lost 2.5 stone in 2 weeks!

After both of my vaginal births I lost around 14lbs. After my c-section it was only around 5lbs. I was gutted.

I seemed to retain a lot of fluid for a few week after both my c-sections.

With DS1, I was 11st 4oz when I went into hospital, and v disappointed to be 10st 10oz when I got home. DS was only 5lb 0oz but I had a lot of fluid due to pre-eclampsia. But by eight weeks later, I weighed 8st 3oz with zero effort.

With DS2, I was 10st 11oz when I went in, 10st 3oz when I got home (he weighed 6lb 6oz). Four weeks later I was back to 8st 1oz. In fact I went right down to 7st 4oz when he was about 6m old - I had thyroid issues, he never stopped feeding due to reflux so I didn't have time to eat anyway, my hair fell out due to anaemia... not a good look. I'm back up to 8st 10oz now, much better!

It's really interesting hearing about everyone's weights in the days/weeks/months following. There may still be hope for me!

Luckily my face isn't too bloated (but I am nearly 45 which brings its own challenges). All the mother/baby pics were done by myself when I had a bed by a window for a while - lots of daylight to fill in shadows and lines, and then a bit of a filter on the photo to make my skin a healthier colour! All vain nonsense really but when you feel like shit, you don't really want photos of yourself looking shit too...

Nah I completely understand the vain nonsense Eagle Ray...if anything I've gotten vainer since having DS 4 weeks ago...getting showered and dressed makes me feel like I'm coping better plus looking 'nice' makes me feel like I'm more in control of my body (tore pretty badly and bfeeding every couple of hours)

I think it's all luck/biology though...I'm only 2lb heavier than pregnancy and squeezed myself back into my skinny jeans this morning (just couldn't stand leggings anymore!) and I just sit on the sofa and eat biscuits all day...but I spent the first two weeks sweating all night and had pretty bad after pains (uterus contracting quickly)

I had very preemie twins 3 weeks ago and am back to within 7lbs of my pre-pregnancy weight...

However I'm attributing this to double expressing/pumping 8 times a day, plus the stress of having our girls in neonatal ICU since birth and living in hospital accommodation for 3 weeks...

I'm pretty sure that if I was at home, I'd be sat on the sofa, feeding the babies and eating biscuits and crisps and wouldn't have lost the weight....

Hi Eagle! Congrats on the safe arrival of the baby . I seem to remember a similar issue with DS3. It's crazy! 7lb odd of baby plus placenta and fluid should = a good stone. Didn't. Sulk.

hello Pigeon! I made it! So nice to be home again despite the bloatiness

Mermaid sorry that sounds so stressful - I have no idea how parents cope with babies in nicu for long periods. We were very lucky to have just a short stay and felt s bit embarrassed as our baby was 3 times the size of most of the others!

I was 4lb down after giving birth to a 7lb baby I was on fluid during the labour which I think made me retain water

With my second I lost 22lb within a week of giving birth but there was no fluid involved!

I suspect it will go down over the next week or so!

Congrats

I was only slightly lighter after having DS but had massive fluid retention from the IV fluids and epidural. Two week after birth I was almost back to my pre- pregnancy weight. Just peed it all out!

The night sweats!! How could I have forgotten about those? For two weeks after each of my births the night sweats were horrendous. I seemed to leak from every orifice for weeks. Childbirth is gruelling really but we must be designed to forget it all.

Blimey I'd be more worried about being out of a job once I as pregnant than my weight 4 days after giving birth!

Put on 10lb in pregnancy, DS was 8.5lb and within a month I'd lost even more weight. Two years on I'm almost a stone less than I was pre-pregnancy. I was lucky to not have any sickness and went to the gym til 38 weeks and did yoga everyday and walked a mile for the remaining two weeks. So that may have contributed to it.

DS was a screaming nightmare for the first three months though. I'd have happily hung on to a few more pounds in exchange for a chilled baby!

DS1 was a EMCS. I developed symptoms of PE late in the labour and my liver function went wappy. When I was transferred from HDU to main ward, the MW struggled to shove my sloppy boots onto my swollen feet- they'd been fine through the pregnancy despite the water retention pooling up from the SPD.

I'd lost weight from the nausea in the early months of the pregnancy, but then gained 50% of my bodyweight in less than 6 months as the SPD kicked in wrecking my metabolism, and leaving comfort eating one of the few things I could physically do (carpal tunnel syndrome kindly joined the party to trash my hands).

DS was 8lb 10 (I'm rather small), the placenta was also large, and I'd lost a swiming pool of fluids, but my body was still a good 3 stones more than normal. I sweated and peed away a stone of that pretty quickly leaving about 2 stones of real weight to lose after. I actually got lighter by the time I'd lost that.

DS2 was different. I got crutches and kept more mobile keeping one stone lighter by the birth. He was then a VBAC. I didn't gain the excess fluids, just the same 2 stones to lose long term (which I managed again).

It's early days and it takes a little time for the water to go and make the true picture clearer.