First Ten+ Pounds Gone!!!!

Wow! Finally! I have been the same weight since the birth of my 4 year old son! And that includes pre-pregnancy weight!

I was lucky enough to drop 20 pounds quickly after the birth of my first child, Emily, since I breastfed her almost exclusively for the first 6 months. In fact, I was at least 10 lbs lighter after breastfeeding than I was before I got pregnant. Cool!

Part of this had to do with the fact that I ate very well during my pregnancy if only for the sake of the baby. I ate better during my pregnancy than I had in the previous 10 years, in fact. And I continued to do so during breasfeeding. It was very important to me that she be getting good nutrition through my body and my milk. And I must say that I believe her immune system definately has seen the benefits of it. She has no allergies, she's always had beautiful skin and hair, even form birth, she had a ton of thick hair, and rarely gets sick.

Anyway, as I gained weight with my second child, Blake, I didn't worry. I actually sort of looked forward to the birth because I thought heck, with breastfeeding I'm going to lose another net 10 pounds after this is all said and done! Lol.

But I wasn't so lucky the second time around. Because my son was breach, I had a c-section, and suffered a terrible spinal migraines for several days after the birth, not to mention the pain of the recuperation form the incision. I tried from the very first hours to breastfeed, to no avail. My milk just barely came in. And of course Blake was hungry and crying, which made my head hurt worse,and my stomach was in excruciating pain, so the early days were so hard! :(

Just trying to hold him while dealing with the migraine was beyond tortuous, and of course the poor soul could sense the frustration in me and was desperately frustrated himself, tryign to get some milk out of me. Finally, my milk began flowing but it never came in as fully as with Emily so we supplemented with Formula.....

Anyway, the weight did not fall off like it did before, and of course I could not exercise for weeks because of the cesarean. I suffered from moderate postpartum depression, at least compared to other women, but it was severe enough to severely disrupt my life for quite some time.

So life has had a lot of changes since then and I have been carrying around this extra weight for 4 years. I was already carrying extra weight, lol.

But although I have had some small successes at lsong weight over the years, a couple of pounds here and there, even 5 pounds, I don't know if I have ever lost a full 10 pounds before! I can't remember that I did. I have always gained and lost 2 or 3, 4-5, or 6-8 pounds.... Then with the pregnancies it JUMPEd up!

So even if it is not a big deal to most people, or even if I still have a ways to go....I am flat out EXCITED to have reached this MILESTONE!

So YEAH MELANIE!!!!

As of today, I have officially dropped not 10, but a full 19 pounds from my post pregnancy weight in 2004. But almost all of this has been since moving to San Antonio. I had already lost about 7 pounds steady weight loss over the years, but this summer I have dropped an additional 13 pounds!

I am absolutely thrilled and especially looking forward to our Christmas Party this year! I can't wait to see what I will be able to shop for the Annual Christmas Party this year. They always have a huge shin-dig and I really want to feel like a princess this time around!

I aim to lose at least another 20 pounds by Christmas, get my migraines and seizures completely under control and just get really healthy!

Of course the other aspects of Making Over Melanie, would be just icing on the cake, like being able to get Lasik, or other cosmetic procedures, like skin treatments and and replacing my porcelain veneer that is 20 years old.

So here's to Dreams!