What has changed about your body since giving birth?

Hi everyone,
I'm just wondering what has changed about your body since giving birth to your twins. Obviously, we're all dealing with tummy issues and twin skin (and if you're not I'm sooo jealous), but I'm wondering about other stuff. For example, mine are:

* More acid reflux than is typical for me while not pregnant (when I was pregnant I had it 24/7), and
* My teeth are really sensitive to sweets and never were before.

 

My hair falling out & the few remaining turning gray.

On the good side, better looking arms & legs from lifting the boys all the time.

 

I've had heart burn a few times and never had it before being pregnant.

I'm also very stinky. I get sweaty and stinky much quicker. I think it's a combination of postpartum hormones and lactating hormones. My breast are also obviously huge, and I'm curious to see what will happen when I stop pumping.

I used to have a flat stomach, but I don't anymore. Im hoping some exercising will help that.

 

Hey my teeth are extra sensitive too!?!?! I thought it was just because I dont have time to floss now
I too also stink quicker and get sweatier faster

 

Glad to see I am not the only one who feels like I can't wear enough deoderant!! Hopefully, it is just related to postpartum or lactating hormones and will get better!

I, too, am losing hair like crazy. I find it everywhere, and it's noticeably thinner (to me) around my forehead.

I am starving, starving, starving...and eat, eat, eat...and yet I'm 7lbs lighter than I was pre-pregnancy. I say this not to annoy anyone, but because it seems crazy to me when I think of the amount of calories I must be consuming everyday as I just grab what's handy because that's what I have time for! I'm going to have to be really careful when I stop nursing!!

 

My breasts are huge! (Well at least for me.) But they sag . I hate to think what they will look like after I quit BF. I also have quite a few more gray hairs. Of course I won't even talk about the twin skin :shok:

 

I am normally a cold person, but I am now constantyly hot. I have to wear layers and am constantly sweating...so strange that it seem to be so common. I have also noticed more sensitive teeth, especially on my right side. I wish I could get rid of my not so beautiful belly. It looks like a one piece this summer!!!

 

my entire digestive tract does not work the way it used to - it's very strange.

i'm also concerned about my breasts. i feel like they may end up somewhere around my knees. <_<

 

QUOTE(miss_bossy18 @ May 14 2009, 02:00 AM) [snapback]1312968[/snapback]
my entire digestive tract does not work the way it used to - it's very strange.

i'm also concerned about my breasts. i feel like they may end up somewhere around my knees. <_<

Oh yeah, I'm constipated all the time.

 

My section wound got infected and is still not healed!!!
I got gallstones while pregnant and then contracted pancreatitus after and had to have my gall bladder removed 6 wks after giving birth!
My hair is alot thicker
My nails grow quicker
My Boobies are nowhere near as small or pert as they were before :-(
I don't weigh myself but i seem to of lost all my baby weight and maybe abit more, although i have a pouch NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO lol

 

My breasts have really changed since giving birth. It was the milk coming in and then drying up that changed them. Now they are like 2 deflated baloons. Very pitiful looking.

 

wow.. there is alot of stuff in common...

-I sweat ALOT now. I will lather on the deoderant and I will still sweat profusely!!! I never used to sweat that much.
-While i was prego, my body hair grew really slowly. I could get away with shaving once a week (which is a good thing since that was quite a feat at 8 months ) but now they are back to the quick growing facilites that they used to be..
-While i only breast fed for 2 1/2 weeks, it seems like my boobs are much more droopier then they were before.. I was suprized that it had that much of an effect!

 

I am hungry all the time, probably because I am nursing. But I eat very little and I'm still 10lbs over my pre-pregnancy weight and have a Buddha belly! :angry: Maybe it will go away when I stop nursing....

My nose runs now, which it never used to do before I got pregnant, but at least it's not blood like it was during pregnancy!

I get tired a lot easier, but that's probably lack of exercise and PTSD from the first few months of no sleep with newborn twins.

Boobs are huge, which is nice, but I'm sure they'll deflate after I stop nursing.

My hair and nails are thicker, which is also nice.

I didn't actually get any stretch marks while I was pregnant, but that's probably because I was laying down in a hospital bed for almost 1/2 of my pregnancy. No gravity to make the belly stretch out! Don't worry, I have plenty of old stretch marks from when I gained weight as an adolescent, so I'm not missing anything. :lol:

I still have a little bit of my linea nigra! :blink:

 

Same here on the very sweaty...and in places that didn't sweat before!
My finger nails seem to be growing a lot faster
I am 10lbs lighter than my pre-pregnancy weight...but my tummy is still bigger than pre-preg
Ditto on the digestive track issues too
Ingrown hairs....this one is crazy, but it started during pregnancy and is still an issue.
Acne i had great skin during pregnancy.
The twin skin, tummy pouch and stretch marks are starting to get me down...I thought they'd be better by now. Also, i still have that dark line from my belly button down (I forgot the name for it)...when does it go away???

 

*I sweat more easily too. I always feel like I can't have enough deoderant on, or sometimes wish that deoderant worked on my back and controlled the yucky sweating.
*My boobs are smaller and look like tear drops!
*MY hips are bigger. I weigh less than I did before pregnancy and yet my jeans won't budge past my hips.

*On a positiv note, I've learned a lot about myself since pregnancy and having these lovely twins. I was a very productive and successful person pre-baby, but now I find myself wanting to do more to better my life and lifestyle for my girls and their future.

 

I feel like my hips and ribs are shaped differently. I can wear about half of my pre-preg clothes, but most of them fit funny. My old t-shirts seem too short. My b@@bs are bigger (I only breast fed for a couple of months).

Does anyone else have to pee more often? I feel like my bladder has shrunk, or maybe it's more sensitive.

I don't have the reflux or sweating issue. I had sensitive teeth for a while, but it seems to have stopped.

 

QUOTE(aimeethomp @ May 14 2009, 05:20 AM) [snapback]1313065[/snapback]
My breasts have really changed since giving birth. It was the milk coming in and then drying up that changed them. Now they are like 2 deflated baloons. Very pitiful looking.



My boobs were huge (for me at least) while nursing, and I stopped at about 7.5 months. Now they also look like deflated balloons and flop around everywhere. They are still several cup sizes bigger, just look terrible.

Obviously the twin skin, massive strechies (my 'cute' little name for stretch marks...), and still 12 lbs heavier than before that is all in my belly. Ugh....

I've always sweat a little more than the average person (or so I think) so its hard to say if thats different...

 

Wow I didn't really connect the sweating with the twins, but yes I sweat more too now and it doesn't smell sweet!

Definetly saggy boobs, I have nursed 4 kids for at least a couple months each so that's pretty normal.

Twin skin that ain't going away, and I sweat under the fold! <_< So not a pleasant feeling!!

Arms and shoulders are looking better from carrying babies around all day tho!

Killer back pain from carrying babies around too. *sigh*

And my reflux is worse than it was pre-preg.

 

Kind of in response to this question, how long DOES it take to get rid of the belly and the stretch marks? After my daughter was born, I was pretty much back to normal after six weeks. Now, I feel like I'm going to be 50 (I'm 28) before it will happen. Yuck.

 

QUOTE(sullivanre @ May 14 2009, 07:17 AM) [snapback]1313005[/snapback]
Oh yeah, I'm constipated all the time.



I've been on Colace since my 6-week postpartum visit, and am in trouble if I miss it!! My OB said the weight and stress of the pregnancy on everything can mess you up. When will it stop hurting to poop!?!?

 

I'm always hot, and I used to always be cold. I now have a fan going in the bedroom when it's 32 degrees outside. My husband used to be the hot one now I freeze him out of the room.

 

QUOTE(aorcutt @ May 14 2009, 01:49 PM) [snapback]1313708[/snapback]
Kind of in response to this question, how long DOES it take to get rid of the belly and the stretch marks? After my daughter was born, I was pretty much back to normal after six weeks. Now, I feel like I'm going to be 50 (I'm 28) before it will happen. Yuck.

The twin skin is not going to go, but the stretch marks may fade a little. Just remember your body carried two babies for 9 months (or a little less for preemies) that is a remarkable feat, and it is a lot tougher than carrying one baby. I know I was carrying a combined baby weight of 13.5 lbs (not even counting fluid and placenta), so the recovery from that is gonna be a lot more than the recovery from carrying a 7 1/2 pounder.

QUOTE(Adrianna @ May 14 2009, 01:58 PM) [snapback]1313733[/snapback]
I've been on Colace since my 6-week postpartum visit, and am in trouble if I miss it!! My OB said the weight and stress of the pregnancy on everything can mess you up. When will it stop hurting to poop!?!?

I still hurt sometimes and my boys are almost a year old. Someone on this site suggested taking fiber pills, so I take 2 fiber pills a day and the colace only if it gets bad. I definitely wanted to wean myself off the colace. Unfortunately, I now have hemorrhoids, which could also be part of the reason it hurts you to poop.

 

Oh yeah I'm constipated too, I"m going to try the fiber pills thank you Rachel, I'm tired of crying when I use the bathroom!!

 

QUOTE(Danibell @ May 14 2009, 03:36 PM) [snapback]1313906[/snapback]
Oh yeah I'm constipated too, I"m going to try the fiber pills thank you Rachel, I'm tired of crying when I use the bathroom!!


My OB suggested I be careful with the fiber (I was downing Fiber One bars in bulk before my 6-week visit) because fiber can increase the volume/caliber of your output, which won't help! She checked me...no hemroids (sp?), but did have two fissures (tears), probably because of the increased volume. Supposedly, you cannot become dependent on Colace, it just softens the stools, doesn't actually make you go or go more. Sorry you have to endure this too, but glad I'm not the only one. It's nice to know it's "normal."

 

My hemorrhoids (which developed during the 2nd tri) never went away.

Other than that, and the twin skin, mummy tummy, and floppy bbs, nothing much has changed. It seems to function pretty much the way it used to...

 

Strange about the sweating. I have had to use the 'clinical' stuff since I had the twins or there is constant wetness. :bad: Gross.

 

My hair is still thinner on the top and falls out more than usual. I have always had reflux and IBS so that is normal. My dr said to take Miralax everyday, it is not a stool softener it is fiber. I have the twin skin, big belly, saggy boobies, skin under the chin floppy. My clothes don't fit right even on top. I am still about 20 pounds over my normal weight. My feet and toes will get numb and tingly and my skin is super dry.

Jen

 

I am almost 1 year out and I can say my hair is different (way more wirery grays) but overall texture has changed. I did sweat more but I think that has passed now. Boobs are saggy...middle is showing no signs of firming up either. Is it called a spare tire? I had a pretty big diastasis until I started working on it around 6 months. I think I am down to a few fingers gap now. I have to remember to do my kegals when I sneeze or cough or you know what happens...;P Oh yeah...monster veins on my wrist and hands! But thank GOD my feet went back to their normal size!

 

Oh, I forgot to add that I found my first gray hair (and a few more since then) after my twins were born.

I've heard great things about Miralax too for IBS - my MIL swears by it. I haven't tried it myself, but I'm thinking about it.

 

QUOTE(becky5 @ May 14 2009, 04:12 PM) [snapback]1313979[/snapback]
Strange about the sweating. I have had to use the 'clinical' stuff since I had the twins or there is constant wetness. :bad: Gross.

It could also be all the energy it takes to chase around two babies.

 

My body is different since I was pregnant in many ways. Here is my list:

- I had to have a root canal and crown put on a tooth due to my pregnancy (dentist told me that you can lose a tooth per pregnancy- sounds weird but that is what he said)
- I have a slightly larger waist and smaller hips and breasts
- I have irritable bowels due to c-diff infection
- I have infarction of my lung due to pulmonary embolism
- I have a blood clot(DVT) that goes from my heal to almost my heart and my leg is swollen and purple when I don't wear my compression stocking
- I have scars on my neck from catheters being put in

I want all to know how DVT and PE can be complications due to child birth or pregnancy. It has changed my life and my body forever.

 

Lydia I'm sorry you had such complications! :hug:

I forgot the tooth stuff, I had to have a root canal with my dd, then another one afterwards, a cap put on during one of my m/c's, and then a re-root canal on one of my previous ones at 9 wks with the twins. Pregnancy really did kill my teeth!

 

Let's see...I am hungrier now than I was when I was pregnant. Of course I am pumping so that would explain that. While I've lost all the pregnancy weight I'm trying to shrink that pouch a little. However my belly button has not returned to where it came from. I also have that stupid line that runs down my like a huge scar. My MIL told me to scrub in the shower and it would go away. I've been scrubbing and it's still there!

 

QUOTE(aimeethomp @ May 14 2009, 07:20 AM) [snapback]1313065[/snapback]
My breasts have really changed since giving birth. It was the milk coming in and then drying up that changed them. Now they are like 2 deflated baloons. Very pitiful looking.



absolutely! i was an A cup before i was pregnant and i swear i could MAYBE fill out a training bra now....very sad.

 

QUOTE(Kerry Culvert @ May 14 2009, 08:32 PM) [snapback]1314525[/snapback]
Let's see...I am hungrier now than I was when I was pregnant. Of course I am pumping so that would explain that. While I've lost all the pregnancy weight I'm trying to shrink that pouch a little. However my belly button has not returned to where it came from. I also have that stupid line that runs down my like a huge scar. My MIL told me to scrub in the shower and it would go away. I've been scrubbing and it's still there!



Your MIL is right...mine turned into just dry skin that after several months pp I realized I could just scrub/exfoliate it off. A friend had told me to do that, but I thought she didn't know what she was talking about... :unknw: