Well, it’s finally happened — I reached my pre-pregnancy weight!
I haven’t really been stressing about this, as I’ve been hovering around 1-4 pounds over my goal weight for a few months. But the other day the scale told me that not only have I reached my pre-Lucy weight, but I’m 1.5 pounds under it! Since I haven’t been counting “Weight Watchers”:/news/2006/weigh-day/ points since the spring, I’m not super-sure how this has happened — maybe all the extra exercise from “chasing around”:/news/2007/early-steps/ our inspired little biped? In any case, I’m not complaining!
In other weight news: at Lucy’s 15-month well-baby appointment, we learned that she has grown 1.25 inches in the past three months — but lost an ounce! That puts Lucy in the 71st percentile in height, but the 7th in weight! (Not typos.) Hmmm — how did “this little girl”:/news/2006/thats-phunnie/ become such a string bean? Dr Minkus didn’t seem too worried about it, so we’ve just been trying to encourage Lucy to eat more foods with butter on them. :) (Don’t worry, it’s healthy, non-hydrogenated Earth Balance butter spread with Omega-3’s.)
We also think that Lucy’s weight maintenance might be due to her distaste for cow’s milk. We even tried giving her some milk spiked with Ovaltine, which she thinks is okay, but she’d prefer water over milk any day. I’m still nursing her 3-4 times a day, but since we are planning to wean in a couple of months, we’d love to get this girl drinking some milk from a cup! Oh well, at least she enjoys cheese now, and (of course) ice cream. Maybe she’ll turn a corner on our Cedar Campus visit next week — stranger things have happened!
Joseph was in the 5-7 percentile for weight at 15 months. We needed to see a nutritionists for awhile. She did suggest butter, peanut butter, or cream cheese on everything. Not very practical. And I really did not want to foster a habit of needing cream cheese…Joseph still does not eat cream cheese. She also told us that ice cream is a great way to add fat to the diet as long as it is in moderation…..Hagen Daz has the most fat by the way.
You look great! Congrats on making your goal. I just dont know if I am ready to start counting the points yet….the girls and I are walking almost every night and I am thinking of training for a 5k. So I hope this indeed will help take off some pounds. But counting the points is more than I can get my head around at this moment.
It was so hard for us to get maddy to drink milk, we used a ton of nesquick(sp?) and then weaned her of that! But the child can eat cheese all day long!
Congrats on the weight!
Congrats on reaching your pre-pregnancy weight! I got to about 5 lbs under my pre-pregnancy weight with Ben and wasn’t dieting or exercising or anything. I credit nursing for that :) I’m hoping the weight comes off as easily with this next one.
Ben won’t drink plain milk either (he’s 50th percentile for height, 25th-50th for weight). He will, however, drink chocolate milk like no tomorrow though. He specifically requests “choc milk”. After I use up our current chocolate powder, I’m going to buy the sugar-free or reduced sugar kind to make it a little more healthy.
Is butter bad for kids? Is it any worse than whole milk? I don’t give Ben much butter but I figured that if they recommend whole milk for toddlers, then butter would be okay as well?
I wouldn’t worry too much about Lucy’s weight. At 9 months of age, Benjamin dropped to the less than 5th percentile, and then less than 3 and then less than 1 (all of which are below the chart for weight). He finally, at his 2 year appointment, got back on the chart at the 7th percentile for weight (he’s in the 50th for height). The doctor said not to worry about it – he eats fine and is developing normally, he’s just super active and generally a petite person. I looked in my baby book and I was the same way – I didn’t hit 20 lbs until I was 2 years old.
Also, with the milk, I was told that milk is a convenient way to give toddlers the fat, calcium, vitamin D, etc. that they need, but that it is not an essential part of their diet. In fact, in many cultures (China for example) they don’t drink much milk at all. You can substitute other things to get the nutrients of milk, it just is perhaps not quite as convenient.
Benjamin loves cocoa – we mix chocolate nesquick with the milk and warm it up in the microwave. He has a cup of it every morning (I drank a ton of cocoa when pregnant with Ella – the protein in the milk seemed to help my morning sickness, so I suppose that’s how he got addicted to it – if I was drinking it he wanted to drink it too). He’ll drink plain milk with his meals though, but it took a while for him to start drinking it very well.
Kaia has always been a beanpole. Sounds like Lucy will be too. Kaia towers over the other 4 year olds, and size 4t anything is too short on her. Of course she’s so skinny that the size 5 are a bit loose around the waist.
Butter is by far the best choice for kids, I just wish it weren’t so expensive. Most nutritionists feel that margarine spreads are inferior and butter is a better choice for everyone as long as it’s used in moderation.
Ann,
I mentioned Lucy’s weight to my lactation consultant and she mentioned that breastfed babies tend to appear underweight on CDC growth charts used by most pediatricians. She suggested comparing her weight on the WHO chart. The link below is an article comparing the two. The WHO charts are under child growth standards. Note: you must convert from lbs to kg.
http://www.who.int/childgrowth/publications/ca_symposium_comparison/en/index.html
Nathan’s growing like a weed, so breastfeeding must be going fine. I’m back to 5-8 lbs from pre-pregnancy weight!
Ann,
after reading everyone else’s comments I have come to realize that I didn’t make breast milk, but breast BUTTER. I guess that is why I lost 15 lbs more than my pre-prego weight 5 months after her birth. But Maddy has been 23 lbs since she was 14 months. Now at 19 mo she is 3 feet tall (taller than most 2 and some 3 year olds) and 25 lbs. I almost can’t carry her any more because of the strain with baby 2. But we are all different and that is a gift from God, if you ask me. Again, congrats on the weight lost, I think you should celebrate with a huge dinner party (complete with butter)!
Congrats Ann!!
Now you are set to start all over for Lucy’s little sib… :P