I'm breastfeeding but putting on weight a week after giving birth

[Scampynoodle]

Do any of you know why this could be?

Immeditately after giving birth just over a week ago I lost a stone in weight, leaving me with only a stone to lose. I've breastfed since then but now, just a week on, I've put on 5lbs! My fingers and feet also look swollen, something I never had trouble with during my pregnancy. And as for diet, it's barely three meals a day at the mo, because the baby is keeping me busy.

I'm no Victoria Beckham so am not desperate to get back into skinny jeans, but it's disheartening to be putting on weight when I thought it would start to shift by now.

Have any of you experienced this or do you have any idea why this is happening? I intend to grill my midwife when I see her next but if you can help I'd be chuffed.

Thanks!

Sx

Could be mostly down to water retention - I had very swollen feet for a week or two after birth when I never had problems in PG. I would give it another week or so for everything to settle.

yeah you can get water retention, best to do the opposite of what you'd think and drink loads of water as this helps

I don't want to worry you but if you think that you look swollen rather than postpregnancy chubby I'd advise you to get your BP checked and your uurine checked for protein. You can get pre-eclampsia developing up to 3 weeks after you've given birth and this should be ruled out.

Sounds like water retention -- do as LaDiDaDi advises to be on the safe side, but the chances are you'll be fine. I was more swollen with water retention after the birth than before, then around ten days later I had 24 hours of sweating and peeing for England and got it out of my system.

keep drinking water so your body doesn't hold on to it. After my son was born I had bad water retention and the doc gave me water tablets, but they can stop milk production (and they did) so try and avoid it if you want to breast feed.

Not eating won't help either as the body goes in to starvation mode so that when you next eat, it stores the food away because it doesn't know when its next meal is coming.

Try to eat little and often if you can't (understandably!) get time for a full meal / don't feel like eating lots in one go.

Get checked, drink lots and eat little and often - and remember your body is still in shock!

Congratulations

Agree with LaDiDaDi, get your blood pressure checked.

Thanks for the advice. I'll certainly get it checked - the midwife is due to poke and prod me tomorrow. I've also started to notice that my joints feel really painful, especially on my right side. Crikey, I'm falling apart! And there was I thinking that the moment I gave birth I'd be back to my old itchy-footed, distance-running, aerobic-bashing ways. How foolishly naive...

Thanks again, angels!

Sx

any news?