Mothering Corner

I was asked if I could fit in my jeans in the first month after I gave birth. Oh boy, how I wish! But I think I could fit some of my old clothes, if the material is stretchable.

Most women will talk about this topic, like if you are losing weight faster, how long to get to your pre-pregnancy weight, or d you sign up with slimming program and etc. Well, I was worried about this too when I just gave birth to my kids. I certainly do not want to be fat and ugly after child bearing. But breastfeeding helps a lot, and I don’t have to skip a meal to get back in shape.

So, can you fit in your old jeans? How long did it take you to do so?

If it’s in the first month, you are GREAT!

When I had my spa a few days ago, the masseur didn’t know that I have got married. So when she told me she would be massaging my breasts, I told her I’m still breastfeeding, and please do not put any essential oil on my breasts. She was surprised to know that I was married with 2 kids. She said my body didn’t have any signs of child birth like stretch marks, cellulite, or lost my shape. LOL! It’s a good compliment, but she didn’t see carefully. I have some marks, lines and cellulite, but maybe they are not obvious.

Anyway, if you want to get back in shape faster, just breastfeed like a cow. Of course, you can try colon cleanse to clear your body system too. I did this when I was in uni, but don’t when I am breastfeeding. Frankly, if you breastfeed exclusively, the weight will go off faster. Besides, I’m not sleeping much. Even if I eat a lot, I still look good.

A friend of mine told me that she has just started belly dancing recently. She was asking me to join her class too since she knew that I used to dance last time. If the schedule fits mine, I may join the class.

Belly dancing is not something new, and in fact it has become one of the popular dances here. A lot if women join the class because it helps to trim down their waist lines and enhance their curves. If you still have the post natal baby fat at your tummy area, do consider signing up the class as belly dance will definitely help!

Don’t worry about exposing your tummy in the class, most of the time, there are only women who are joining it. So far, I haven’t heard of men joining any belly dancing class. LOL!

If I’m joining the class, I will try to get one of those hip scarfs with silver coins from Turkish Store.

My friend got hers already, and she said it made the class more fun lovely sounds created when she moved. So, I better get one too. It’s just too bad that the free shipping policy over $75.00 orders only applicable in US.

I didn’t have confinement lady for both babies. MIL helped with the cooking, and washing for my first baby and then my maid came along for the second baby. I was all alone with the newborn babies, struggling with baby care, breastfeeding, post natal baby fat, baby blues, and hubby not being around. I was amazed that I didn’t get post natal depression since those 30 days were nightmares to me!

But most of my friends told me that there is one thing they missed about confinement—- the nice Chinese confinement food. I have to agree that some of the food is great, but I can’t take alcohol and ginger, so I missed out lots of dishes. However, MIL was great. She cooked black pepper salmon for me, and I love it! She stopped cooking that after confinement. Oh boy, I really miss that dish!

Some mothers are so blessed that they will easily shed off the postnatal baby fat as soon as after confinement. Too bad, I was not one of them. I ate a long during confinement as I was breastfeeding and I felt hungry all the time. But I was lucky. Even if I eat a lot, with some exercising and exclusive breastfeeding, I managed to lose my baby fat and get back to my pregnancy weight 6 months later.

However, if you are not breastfeeding and you found that you can lose weight fast enough, you can try health supplements, herbal appetite suppressant like Tenuate, or slimming program packages. No matter which you choose, please consult your general practitioner first. Not everyone will have the same results or suitable for this.

 I don’t have thick hair, and thus I was worried about postnatal hair loss during my confinement. If order to make my hair looks thicker, I permed it not long after confinement, and it really did the trick. However, in actual fact, this is not encouraged. Some mothers will react badly to the chemical substances used in hair perm and lose more hair instead.

Frankly, there is nothing to be worried about postnatal hair lost. It’s only that our hair don’t not shed much during pregnancy. Thus, approximately 3 months after delivery, the hair follicles that have been extended phrase of growth begin to shed off and resulting in significant hair loss. But it is only temporary, not a permanent effect.

However, if you think you are losing too much, especially if you have thin hair like me, you can consider getting a Hair Transplant. For me, I just perm it.

I have thin fine hair all the while. If you see Isabelle’s photo, and was wondering why she doesn’t have much hair, well, she got the genes from me. Thus, it’s really frightening to me when I started losing my hair after having my babies.

I had to be very gentle when I was washing my hair, so that I won’t pull or break them further. I was worried when I saw the bunch of hair strand stuck in the draining hole. It’s quite a lot! Thus, I surfed around and found info like this from slashhair.net.

The usual reason for postnatal hair loss is ‘hormonal change’. Hormonal changes in general are a very common cause of female hair loss, although not the only cause.

About 98% of all women who have given birth, experience some extra hair loss. During the pregnancy however, hair is often at it’s best because of the high levels of female hormones oestrogen (good for hair growth) and progesterone (bad for hair growth), more hair follicles enter the growth phase than normal. After childbirth hormone levels change dramatically, often causing the hair growth cycle to become ‘disturbed’. The normal hair growth cycle soon returns and many hairs re-enter the resting phase, which causes excessive moulting. It’s at this point that most women notice the hair loss, there is often a massive collection of hairs in the plug-hole after washing, especially if one has long hair. Hair loss occurs from the sixth week to the thirtieth week after childbirth. This type of hair loss is common and the condition is temporary, once the body has settled down and returned to the pre-pregnancy state, normally at around the twenty-eighth week after childbirth, the moulting spontaneously stops. If the loss continues for more than thirty four weeks, one is entering into the realms of androgenetic alopecia (time to see a dermatologist - general practitioner - gynecologist).

If you are really worried, and wish to get help on hair restoration, check out Phila hair restoration (http://www.drpistone.com/).

I was not the lucky one who slimmed down effortlessly as soon as giving birth. Since I was breastfeeding exclusively, I couldn’t go on diet, and dare not try any supplementing slimming products that claimed to be safe for breastfeeding. I didn’t want to risk my milk production and was forced to wean off my babies earlier.

Thus, I went for yoga and pilates class for at least once a week. It’s a group class, with only one instructor and about 10 students. Not all students were trying to get back into prenatal shape like me. If you can afford it, and would like to see faster results, it’s better to have a personal trainer, such as San Diego personal training (http://www.theboxingclub.net/), which designs a program specific to your needs and goals and motivates you to achieve the body shape you wish to have.

So, like they were say, there is no ugly woman in the world, only lazy ones.