Weight issues (mine)

One thing that happened during my last pregnancy is that I gained very little weight during the first trimester and then for a month after that, I gained in a normal or little higher than normal way. Then around 17-18 weeks, I started to lose weight. I wasn’t very concerned about it because, frankly, I had an extra 10 or so I carried around with me.

Much to my surprise, when my water broke at 22 weeks and I was admitted into the hospital, I was back to my weight at my first ob appointment when I was only 6 weeks along. Over the next week in the hospital, I was given a standard calorie diet based on my weight and the amount I should have been gaining. It was 2000 calories, I think. When I complained to my ob after a week, that I was still hungry with that amount of food, they weighed me. I had lost four pounds in that week. So they kept upping my calories and weighing me.

Finally, I started slowly gaining on 2800 calories a day on complete bedrest. And since I was on a diabetic diet (even though I was NOT diabetic and could get no one to listen to me even though my sugars were ALWAYS normal), these calories had to be from foods that were low fat, low sugar. Imagine it. 2800 calories of baked chicken or fish, salad with fat free dressing, green beans, fruit, etc- nothing calorie dense at all. It was an enormous amount of food. I stuffed myself and was in pain most of the time because I was so concerned about my baby gaining well.

And she did. Margaret was hefty for her gestational age. A big 2 pounds and 15 ounces at 27w6d. The doctors told me that sometimes babies start to develop more rapidly when under extreme stress such as no amniotic fluid. This seemed to be the case with Margaret. I assumed this was the cause for my extreme caloric needs in the hospital.

So since then, I haven’t thought much about my weight issues while pregnant. Until this morning at the OB. At my weigh in, I had lost 2 pounds since my last appointment four weeks ago. The baby is measuring three days ahead of their last estimate, so I know the new monkey is doing fine. Two pounds isn’t much but I can’t help but worry. Why am I losing weight again? I’m eating more than I usually do… a lot more. Do I have some kind of crazy pregnancy metabolism? Did the amount of calories I needed during my last pregnancy really have to do with Margaret’s accelerated development? Or do I need to have my Endo do a workup on me? Luckily I don’t have to wait very long for my next appointment. If I continue to lose weight then, I’ll grill my doctors. Time for more cheese, I guess…