Week 29/30 - Weight and Pregnancy

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This week I made the fatal mistake of weighing myself!

I don't feel like I have put on a lot of weight and I think most of my shape change/weight gain is just bump. My hips have got bigger/wider, but that's part of my body getting ready to give birth. So, I didn't weigh myself to check my weight was 'OK', more out of curiosity. I wish I hadn't bothered!

I've put on about 13kg (28lb), so only just over the 'average' weight gain for pregnancy the NHS website says is the maximum 'most pregnant women'. However, I still have 10 weeks to go; apparently you can put on 1lb a week in the last 10 weeks! That's when I started to worry; worry that I had been eating too much, or too much of the wrong thing. I think I was more worried about the prospect of trying to lose the weight after the baby is born. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to lose the baby weight quickly, that wouldn't be healthy for me or the baby, but just the thought of having that much weight to potentially lose is a bit daunting!

I wouldn't say my eating habits have changed at all since being pregnant, after all 'eating for tow' is a myth. We only need an extra 200 calories in the last trimester. I eat the same things as I did before and I would consider myself a pretty normal/healthy eater. I did go through a stage of finishing other's dinners after finishing my own! But that was really only the odd potato or slice of meat. I would have done that before I was pregnant though, so no change there! I do treat myself to something sweet each day, but again this is no different to before and goes with a pretty balanced diet of home cooked, healthy meals.

The midwife hasn't mentioned my weight, nor anybody else for that matter, but just seeing it on the scales with 10 weeks to go freaked me out! I am now thinking I need to change my diet and just eat salads etc, but that in itself can't be good for me or baby. I need to eat a healthy BALANCED diet. I don't exercise as such, but I am on my feet quite a bit at work and moving around a lot, so that's my exercise, again, not changing since before pregnancy. 

Maybe some women just put on more weight than the 'norm', there have to be exceptions to every rule, right? The bump is measuring exactly as it should, my blood pressure is spot on and I don't feel like I've really gained weight on any other areas of my body.

After worrying about this for most of the morning I thought about calling my midwife, just to check everything was OK and ask if I was over-reacting. But first I spoke to a colleague at work who is pregnant with her third baby. She put my mind totally at ease; what is it they say? 'It's good to talk!' She said she is not going to weigh herself at all this pregnancy and I shouldn't either, or worry about my weight. The measurements etc are all on track and the midwife isn't concerned, so I shouldn't be either. She told me that after giving birth she was amazed how quickly a lot of the weight comes off naturally. We retain so much water and a lot of the weight is baby and increased muscle weight of the uterus...

Everyone is different and pregnancy should be a fun, happy, exciting experience. As long as we and our babies are happy and healthy at the end of it, who cares if we put on a bit more weight than 'most pregnant women'? I have decided not to weigh myself again and just go with the flow, I am having check ups every few weeks now, so any problems will be picked up. I am probably going to do more harm to my baby by worrying about things, so I'm just not going to!

This week we went to our first, of two, ante natal classes. I will report back more on this next week so I can let you know how I got on at both sessions.

Have a happy, healthy week.

Amy x