To ask how long it took you to 'get back in your jeans' after a baby?

[HelloThursday]

Hello :)

I'm just curious really - I was talking to a friend and said I was hoping to be in my old clothes 3 months after the birth - it's my first baby and I'm naturally very slim, the only weight I've gained in the pregnancy is basically bump/baby. She said I was BU and that it would take at least 12 months! I know losing the weight really isn't the be all and end all but just for my own reasons really I'd love to be in a situation by then where my pre pregnancy clothes would fit (unless of course I have a c sect or very difficult birth that means I can't actually get out for walks and stuff for a while!)

I guess my question is am I being unrealistic? Interested to hear everyone else's stories?!

He honestly thought, as I was no longer pregnant, that I could just wear my normal clothes again! Needless to say, I couldn't.

I never stopped wearing my normal jeans, I just used a hair bobble on the button for the last couple of months. I had no problems with normal leggings or normal tops. So I had nothing to “get back into”. Don’t get me wrong, everything was a lot Wobblier and scarred and not exactly mint condition, but the items of clothing I was wearing were the same pre pregnancy, during pregnancy and after pregnancy.

Anniehm...

I was hospitalised with Prolonged Hormone Induced Migraine for 3 weeks at the start, I was put on IV meds for that time, I was unable to even sit up in bed without blacking out for the rest of the pregnancy through to DD being 4 months old. The hospital held a meeting apparently with 11 healthcare practitioners regarding a birth plan as I was unable to communicate in the way I’d have liked.

I had to resign from my work at 6 months pregnant because it was quite frankly getting embarrassing. I lost all my maternity benefits linked to employment. My body was no longer mine and this child changed my mental and physical form permanently in every aspect.

The pregnancy aggrivated my other illnesses meaning my autoimmune inflammatory arthritis bought on severe asthma attacks & reduced mobility such as sacroillitis & enthesitis.

I had MRI’s because they thought I had a blood clot on the brain at one point.

Oh & all this was after we had invested over £40k on ICSI.

So unfortunately for me your comment is untrue. I wish it was ‘NEVER ’.

It’s not just how much weight you put on in pregnancy. I had twins and didn’t gain a lot for twins. I lost most of the weight really fast but my hips are wider and I still have diastastis recti two years on so my stomach bulges horribly. My body is just a different shape. After I stopped pumping I put on weight - I wasn’t eating much and I was running around constantly. Based on all my symptoms I seem to have some kind of thyroid problem or hormone imbalance but doctors aren’t really interested.

I’d love to lose weight but it’s just not happening no matter what I do so it’s on the back burner for now.

I don't know why belly binding/wrapping after birth isn't more popular in the UK? In many cultures it's the norm. You either use stretchy cloth or a purpose made wrap. It supports your abdominal muscles, lower back and is way more comfortable than letting it all hang out. I had mild diastasis that resolved naturally (probably thanks to the wrap holding it together while everything healed). Even the loose squishy skin seemed to shrink back to normal really fast.

@OneStepSideways

I wish I'd known about these before hand.

I would had bought one ready to use

I read about a special girdle that does the same thing, it pulls in the abs and the lower rib cage.

Just googled them, there's loads on Amazon. I never heard of these when I had my babies.

Oh god, DO NOT bind your belly unless you’re also trussing up your perineum/vagina (EVB shorts kind of do this if you’re after compression)! Your pelvic floor muscles will be stretched and weakened as well as your abs, so if you squeeze your midsection, your pelvic organs will take the path of least resistance through your pelvic floor muscles and quite likely prolapse. I didn’t bind, but do have prolapses from tough instrumental delivery and I would a million times rather have a normal post-partum belly that shrinks in its own good time than know what it’s like to have bits of innards fall out of your fanny.

My little girl is 6 weeks old and I've eaten far worse after her than when I was pregnant. I put on 1st 5lb when pregnant (weighing after she was born and fluid gone and I've actually put on a few lb in the last couple weeks! There seems to be a lot of cake

About 6-8 weeks with all 3. However, with the second, I really squeezed myself into them too soon. They were so tight that I ended up with love-bite type marks across my stomach. Not a good look!

It's amazing how so many on this thread are back in their size 8s within a month, I see about 10-15 women a day in my job and I've only ever met one person that bounced back so quick

Haha yes @Penguin34 you'd think from this thread the UK has no problem with obesity and the 65% or so women who are classified as overweight or obese are non-existent. (Although I was back in my jeans after 2 weeks!)

I’m really surprised to read so many people saying they got back to shape so soon. I have two children - one is 15 and one is 6 and of all the mums I’ve met during that time no one has got back to their previous shape. We’ve all stayed a bit curvier and most of us are a dress size larger or so than we were. None of us really care about it at all.

First time about 2 weeks, but I can't remember for the second one. DD1 was back in her jeans after 3 days, but she had a hellish pregnancy and lost weight during it. Everyone is different.

I was back into my jeans the next day but only because I was horrendously nauseous until about an hour before dc was born so lost loads of weight (had plenty spare!)

A friend of mine who is very athletic and kept fit and active was back into hers after about a month.

I'm back out of mine now because when ds was a baby I lived on biscuits, toast and coffee and put on two stone and haven't been able to shift it since.

Straight away with DD. Same with DS. Then I stopped bf and carrying on troughing the same amount of food 🙈. Sorting my weight out is on my to do list when I go back to work and have more mental space to actually think about what we should have for tea

Not RTFT but I had lost quite a lot of weight before I became pregnant, so had jeans in about 3 sizes. I got back into the largest size immediately, unsurprisingly and it didn't take long to get into the middle size again although I put weight on after I gave birth, thinking I had to eat more than I did because I was bf.

But ds was about 4 (years old) before I got back into the smallest size.

I think your shape changes though. I weigh less now than I did when I was at university and pre-pregnancy but I don't think I would be able to fit into a balldress I had at the time. I need to try sometime as I still have it. My wedding dress would be too big though.

A couple of weeks.

I was gutted. My maternity jeans week so comfortable but wouldn't bloody stay up without a baby in there.

I walked out of the birth centre in them with my first, and its been a few days each time after that.

Seen a lot of mums saying they got into their clothes / jeans after 3-6 months , just to re assure everyone I was a size 4/6 in jeans before pregnancy and after pregnancy I’m a size 10 (my LO is10months old) and to be honest I still can’t wear jeans , I’m 5ft 6 and I literally can’t find any jeans to fit me, my hips grew a lot and also my rib cage expanded not to mention the little pouch, I was 23 when I gave birth and I naively thought that being young I would go back to a size six with in 6 months … nope! Always look bloated too… don’t worry if you’re not back in your old sizes girls, we’re all different and all beautiful no matter what!

The day after, both times. Naturally slim and only had a baby bump when pregnant, I didn't put weight on anywhere else.

OP it doesn't matter, a happy baby is the most important thing.

Thirty years so far.

I was a size 4-6 beforehand. And a size 6-8 within a week of birth - but with a size 26 'waist'. Just under 8lb baby, EBF, but the butchery job they did during my planned section was ridiculous - the epidural didn't take by the time they started cutting, I started making a little fuss, they shoved a fuckton of drugs into me through a mask and the cannula and by the sounds of what the ex told me, frantically started pulling my stomach muscles apart with their hands to get her out as quickly as possible. his description was 'one tugged on her legs, another reached in and got her head out and then they turned her over three times (unravelling the cord) and practically threw her to the paediatrician'. They didn't even have the chance to get him out of theatre, instead the anaesthetist pulled him back behind the monitors and told him 'Watch your baby, watch your baby'.

Add to that the inevitable post birth infection at that shitty dump which meant the skin burst open again on day three and I would never have something even remotely resembling a normal figure again; it took me months before I could even stand up straight and the adhesions were still snapping and absolutely taking my breath away with pain years later.

On a positive note, I eventually regained some sensation in my abdominal muscles. But the pressure to 'get back in your jeans' and the snarky comments about how some women walked out of the hospital wearing the same supertight ones they'd worn pre-pregnancy and weren't a disgusting blob like me really, really made me feel like crap.

Two days after DC2- size 10. About 18 months after DC1! DC2 was 10lbs and I don't think I put on much additional weight. I couldn't; no appetite with a giant baby inside me!