OT - Getting to be a Fatso!

RonKiley · Post by **RonKiley** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 3:25 pm

You look great Jessie. Maybe you will be one of the luckie ones. My daughter had her 3rd boy a month ago and weighs less now than she did before she got pregnant. Of course, she did have a 9 lb 15 oz baby. I wish you luck. I had to have my wedding ring cut off for my bypass surgery. It had been on my finger for 45 years. I used to have some jewelry tools but I haven't done any silver work for years.

Keep whistling
Ron

jonharl · Post by **jonharl** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 3:59 pm

I second the motion that you look great. My wife has had four boys with me and even though she has changed from since I married her I would'nt have it any other way. The boys have been great and Gwen is wonderful.

chas · Post by **chas** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 4:42 pm

Jessie, don't try to lose weight too fast. If you're nursing, it's very important for your baby's health as well as your own to take in enough calories and nutrients. (I presume you know this, but it's important enough that you shouldn't mind a gentle reminder.) My wife craved ice cream as soon as she started nursing, and went through at least a gallon a week for a few months. Presumably her body saying it needed calcium.

You do look great, and I love the avatar.

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 4:50 pm

chas wrote:Jessie, don't try to lose weight too fast. If you're nursing, it's very important for your baby's health as well as your own to take in enough calories and nutrients.

Yes, I know all that. I will probably not be nursing. Though I believe breastfeeding to be absolutely beneficial to babies, I made a decision to have surgery when I was 16 years old that prevents me from being able to provide all of the baby's nutrition, and I would have to supplement anyway, and it would REALLY hurt me physically to breastfeed. Anyway, I couldn't sit up when I was 16 and I don't regret the surgery, but my kids will probably have to get their immunities on their own. If I change my mind and end up trying it, I know not to take nutrition away from the baby.

Thanks for the compliments, guys.

It helps to hear it. Dan asked me the other day how many times he has to tell me he finds me attractive before I'll believe him...I told him a few times a day until I lose the baby weight (so that's about a thousand times, hee).

PhilO · Post by **PhilO** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 4:50 pm

Hi Jessie. My wife has had two children - 19 years apart; and she looks wonderful as do you! All the best.

PhilO

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 6:45 pm

Normally I would lobby sharply for breastfeeding, but I sympathize with the physical situation which is impacting that choice for you!
Those of us who are designed by nature without any extra upholstery (Shaker style, I like to call it,) don't realize, especially at 16, what the advantages of that morphology can be. We're too busy fretting that no man could ever love us...which...uh...didn't turn out to be a problem. But every time I read Jim mc's sign off (B flat and be proud,) I laugh because I'm both!

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 6:49 pm

emmline wrote:every time I read Jim mc's sign off (B flat and be proud,) I laugh because I'm both!

I envy you! Mine have freakin' grown back!!! Arrgghhh!

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 6:54 pm

JessieK wrote:
I envy you! Mine have freakin' grown back!!! Arrgghhh!

They shrink some post partum. It's just gonna hurt like...well, alot...for about a week.

dDave · Post by **dDave** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 7:11 pm

Howdy,

JessieK wrote:There is a lot of great stuff going on, but some hard stuff, too.

Nothing compared to the next eighteen years

Enjoy the quiet while you can!

Best,

Dave

trisha · Post by **trisha** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 7:12 pm

[quote="JessieKThough I believe breastfeeding to be absolutely beneficial to babies, I made a decision to have surgery when I was 16 years old that prevents me from being able to provide all of the baby's nutrition, and I would have to supplement anyway, and it would REALLY hurt me physically to breastfeed. [/quote]

Have you had a look at the bfar.org site at all? Breastfeeding is rarely totally easy for any of us, but wow is it worthwhile when it works out. As you know I have five children, but can't make up a bottle to save my life and have never bought formula. And no it has not always been easy, but after the initial few weeks niggles, it's so worth it.

Aside from all the health benefits to the baby...it also keeps your sanity intact as you almost never need to get up at night and can go anywhere, anytime without all that extra kit! If you can, go for it. If not, baby'll love you just the same

.

Trisha

JessieK · Post by **JessieK** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 8:12 pm

trisha wrote:Have you had a look at the bfar.org site at all?

Yup, and I have the book, too. It talks of defining your own success by coming up with a satisfying "breastfeeding relationship". This means that the writer (and supporters) of this thing think it doesn't matter if the baby is getting enough nutrition from the breast, but just how important it is for bonding for the baby to be fed "at the breast" (there are all sorts of contraptions to be worn over the neck and come down to the nipple), meaning as a decoy, if necessary. I don't want to mess with contraptions like that. I will bond with the baby just as deeply if I feed her with a bottle. I DO think that breast milk is great for babies, both for immunity and for healthy gastrointestinal stuff, but it seems like it would be more trouble than it's worth for a little bit of milk. In truth, I have not completely made up my mind yet.

Redwolf · Post by **Redwolf** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 9:27 pm

JessieK wrote:
trisha wrote:Have you had a look at the bfar.org site at all?
Yup, and I have the book, too. It talks of defining your own success by coming up with a satisfying "breastfeeding relationship". This means that the writer (and supporters) of this thing think it doesn't matter if the baby is getting enough nutrition from the breast, but just how important it is for bonding for the baby to be fed "at the breast" (there are all sorts of contraptions to be worn over the neck and come down to the nipple), meaning as a decoy, if necessary. I don't want to mess with contraptions like that. I will bond with the baby just as deeply if I feed her with a bottle. I DO think that breast milk is great for babies, both for immunity and for healthy gastrointestinal stuff, but it seems like it would be more trouble than it's worth for a little bit of milk. In truth, I have not completely made up my mind yet.

One nice thing about babies is, they're fairly adaptable little people. I nursed my daughter for three years (I can still remember the day she told me "mommy, I don't want milkie...I'd rather have daddy read me a story tonight." I managed a smile, said "OK honey," then went into the bathroom and cried my eyes out), but I myself wasn't breastfed, being an adoptee, and I bonded very closely with my mother all the same. What babies need most is a lot of love...everything else just kind of flows from that, no matter how they are fed.

You may want to speak with a lactation consultant, however, because...well...sometimes mother nature can surprise us, and finds creative ways to bypass obstacles. Perhaps you already have. Whatever happens, it will all work out.

I can tell you one reason I was glad I nursed, however. My daughter was colicky...for the first six months of her life, if she wasn't sleeping or nursing, she was crying...and she wouldn't have ANYTHING to do with a pacifier! My husband called me "Audrey the walking binky," but I swear it was the only way I got any sleep! My nights consisted of "stagger to crib, attach baby to relevant portion of anatomy, collapse on sofa."

Redwolf

ErikT · Post by **ErikT** » Mon Jan 05, 2004 11:30 pm

I'm sorry, Jessie, I don't have any current pictures of Julie - maybe I should work on that - but I do have one of the eventual results....

LeeMarsh · Post by **LeeMarsh** » Tue Jan 06, 2004 12:28 am

Jessie,

For me and perhaps most men,
the mystery of a woman's love is always attractive.
That the love grows is beyond understanding,
a magic that facinates and draws us.

With a woman's love,
Though I, and my kind, feel it,
and try to wrap our minds around it,
We also find it unbelieveable,
a thing hoped for, but still making no sense.

At 6 months, the swelling demonstration
of the mother-to-be fills the eye
with nothing but Beauty and Wonder.

So when Dan say he finds you attractive,
it's gross understatement.

cj · Post by cj » Tue Jan 06, 2004 7:29 am

Regarding the breastfeeding issue, I tried it for a week after I had my son. I had no role models in this since I was born in the 60s when the bottle was mostly what was used. It was sooooo painful and hard, which no one tells you beforehand. It turns out that the only women I knew who did it successfully were stay-at-home moms, one of whom had to join a support group to keep from quitting. In desperation I asked the lactation consultant how long the pain would continue, and she said a month. I was getting to where I dreaded feeding time (which was every 1 1/2 to 2 hours and lasted about 1/2 hour) and was crying from pain, so my wise mother said it was time to go get formula. This was the best way for me since I then enjoyed feeding him, and his father and everyone else could feed him and bond with him too. And he's happy and healthy at 7 years old now.

Don't let anyone tell you that you're not a good mother because you didn't breastfeed (and they will try--there are breastfeeding mafioso types out there who believe that if one drop of formula touches a baby's mouth, the child will be indelibly warped). To my mind it's a wonder humans survived this long since the "natural" way is so painful and women used to have 12ish kids! (Of course, without birth control they had no control over the matter either . . . )

Thankfully my breasts didn't shrink any since I'm not very endowed!

And Lee, as usual, your poetry is moving and sweet.