The Flourished Files Blog

The ” Weight” of Pregnancy

Pregnancy is one the most exciting times in a women’s life. To experience the joy of bringing a new life into this world. Throughout the stages of pregnancy and three trimesters the body will go through a series of changes one of the most notable things being weight. That may be the one part women dread the most about pregnancy the weight gain that comes with it. Then you start to think will I be able to lose this weight after?

For me weight gain was not a major issue in the beginning of my pregnancy. During my journey I was not able to eat much at all. Once the nausea started it pretty much stayed with me throughout my whole pregnancy and never went away. For most women nausea usually goes away by the second trimester. It was a tough battle to tackle the nausea and dry heaving on top of already having a history of acid reflux. Most days I didn’t even feel hungry I had no appetite because of the nausea but I still made sure to eat anything I could of course not anything but nutritious foods for me and the baby. Then eventually as time went on I had to drink ensures for extra calories.
My weight pretty much stayed stable until about  25 weeks of pregnancy. I started weighing 138 pounds and by the end of my pregnancy I was 160 pounds. Not bad right? A month after giving birth I weighed in at 146 pounds. Now today I am 156 pounds so I am almost back to my end pregnancy weight. Even though I instantly lost weight I seemed to gain it back. Even though the pregnancy is over the real work has just begun and postpartum weight also counts.

How did I get back 156 pounds ? Well the good news is that it wasn’t instantly but gradually. During postpartum you go through a whirlwind of emotions.  Your getting used to having a new baby, juggling bottles, diapers, pumping, or breastfeeding and no sleep is not easy! And in between all of that you have to figure out when will you have time to eat and do you even have time to cook?
For me, I just pretty much ate anything whenever I could. Most days I wouldn’t eat until at 4 PM.  I ate a lot of chips , chocolate and anything that was easy fast food. It seemed as though all my healthy ways of eating had gone through the window.

Now to this present day I am getting back on track with how I used to be I am eating healthier, meal planning, and even exercising something that I never was really used to doing much at all. I am making sure to drink a lot more water and not beat myself about my current weight. 
The point of this post is to tell you mamas out their not to be upset about weight gain and to embrace it.  The post postpartum journey is not easy but once you ease into a routine and also fit in time to take care of YOU, everything will fall into place.

Blogmas Day 18 – Keeping Christmas Simple

I love the holiday season even though Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday because I just love to eat! Over the years I always kept Christmas pretty simple. When I was younger I love Christmas and opening presents. But as I got older and into my teens there were Christmases that I did not receive any presents and that was ok because to me I just loved spending time with friends and family. I still continued to buy gifts, especially for my younger cousins because I wanted them to enjoy Christmas but it wasn’t a big deal if I didn’t receive anything. My goal was just to see everyone else happy.

This year now that I have a child all the holidays are extra special. At first I wasn’t going to buy a tree but then my husband was like we have to get a tree it’s our son’s first Christmas. So we decided to get a 4ft tree and just buy Christmas lights no ornaments and it looks just as beautiful as any other tree. Sometimes during the holidays we set up to much expectations for ourselves and get stressed out. But the beauty in the holidays is already there and all we have to do is keep it simple!

Our Christmas Tree!

Our Christmas Tree

Blogmas Day 17 – Breastfeeding Bags

As a new mom breastfeeding was a high priority for me but I struggled to do it and my son could not latch on correctly. Even though I was sad about it I still wanted my son to get the nutrients from breast milk. So a little after giving birth I got my breast pump and was excited to start. Little did I know pumping is a full time job and can get messy at times. For me I don’t have a large supply of breast milk but even if it was a little bit I wanted my son to have it. 

I didn’t realize how messy it could get to transfer breast milk into breast milk storage bags and back into the bottle. So I finally stumbled upon the Kiinde bottle. My husband had gotten a free bottle in a sample box sent to us but I didn’t notice how good the storage bags are. The kiinde storage bag allows you to pump directly into the bag by using adapters that can connect to any breast pump and the storage bags come with a cap which makes it easier then the traditional storage bags to use.

I absolutely love it and now i’m not spilling  all over the place!

Blogmas Day 16 – Let’s Stay Hydrated

Photo by Kobu Agency on Unsplash

You hear it pretty much all the time drink 8 glasses of water a day. Even though it seems simple, it’s not always easy to do. Many times I have even struggled to get in 4 glasses a day. Why is that? I’m not sure so people say that it is because they do not like the taste of water, or water is just plain for them. To be honest I love drinking water it’s refreshing but sometimes I do forget and have to remind myself.

When you do not drink water, the body becomes dehydrated and it can happen very quickly. Our bodies need water because our cells need water to carry out its functions in the body. Water is the most essential part of life and we can only survive 3 days without water. Thank goodness we can obtain water from other food sources but there is nothing like drinking water itself.

While I was completing my nutrition coaching course there was a chapter on drinking water and it brought up some interesting things that I didn’t associate with not drinking water. This part of the chapter explained that not drinking water can actually cause some of the most common symptoms we experience just because the body may be dehydrated such as heartburn, backaches, and headaches. I will leave the link below so you can read about this:

Reference:

http://www.watercure.com/wondersofwater.html

Remember this holiday and into the new year to stay hydrated!

Blogmas Day 15: Current Favorite Holiday Movies

One of my favorite things about this time of the year is to be with family and watch holiday movies, you can’t help but love them!. Settle in to grab some snacks , maybe some hot chocolate (easy on the hot chocolate if you have reflux!) and let’s just say you have a movie night.

Oh and how about matching family Pjs to make the mood more festive. Many networks start showing their holiday movies very early as early as July!. But I like to wait until this time of the year to watch holiday movies. For the past two years I have been watching Lifetime network to watch my holiday movies. They usually start in Mid November up until Christmas Day. Below is a list of my top 5 favorite movies 2019 :

  1. Merry Liddle Christmas 
  2. A Christmas Winter Song
  3. A Date By Christmas Eve
  4. A Very Vintage Christmas 
  5. Christmas Reservations 

Happy Holidays Everyone!