I don't think I want children and even if that would change, I won't be pregnant in the next couple of years but I can't help but still watch every single video if the hormone diaries.
Sounds like the weight change happened around the same time as your period coming back, so I'd say that it's no surprise that you're changing when all that hormonal reset is happening! As long as you feel healthy, I wouldn't say it's anything to be concerned over 💛 Also, thank you for yet another open and honest video. They're invaluable 🧡
well done hanna , i understand your being so open and it helps thousands of people that have chrons and may face sugury and have no idea of what to look forward too ,but you are showing them that life with a bag goes on in full ,thank you .
Just like you and Dan, It took me and my partner a while to conceive. When you got pregnant, I was right behind you, and now my little boy is 8 months old. Now I can't stop devouring your content. I find the way you talk about motherhood so relatable and honest. Very few of my friends have kids, so I'm so glad I found your channel and have somewhere to look to when I'm struggling or feeling lonely. Thanks Hannah x
Thank you so much for being this sensitive about losing weight and body types. Love how honest you are about everything. So glad I've found you on here all those years ago. Truly a safe space for me online and always learning new things. Couldn't ask for more 🙌
I especially liked the part where you talked about still not feeling like a mom even though you are one now. I have been on the fence about having kids and wondering if I’m ready. Its funny how you always imagine what your life will look like when you get older and then one day all of a sudden you are at that age but still feel like a kid 😆
To the person who asked the last question Hannah mentioned: I totally get you. And I that’s one of the reasons why I‘m in therapy now. That fact that you’re afraid about damaging your future kids makes me think that you could benefit from therapy - not because of the risk of you actually f*cking up your children, but just because it might help YOU feel better and less fearful in this regard (and other regards too)❤ also: I‘m reading the Philippa Perry book Hannah mentioned and I can definitely recommend it🙃
But also some people do legitimately need to work on themselves a lot and deal with their own issues before even thinking about having children. Sometimes they even come to the conclusion that having children isn't the right thing for them to do, but that's ok.
I don’t have children personally but didn’t have the best childhood. I’m currently listening to the new podcast: Childproof by two content creators who focus on responsive parenting - mommacusses and tori phantom. I’m enjoying the podcast and their content, and have a lot of respect for their teachings.
Yep, I just recently started therapy and a hard line for myself was that I wanted to go through a decent amount of therapy before I have kids. Not even because I’m scared of messing them up, but because I know that when you have kids your life is so centered around them so I knew I wanted to do what I can while my life is still centered around myself, and hopefully that’ll also mean that my issues will affect them less. Still nowhere near ready for kids yet but I can already tell that it was the right call to make sure to do therapy first.
I was also SO SCARED during high school/college etc that if I had kids, I'd turn into my mom and fuck them up. So far (seven years into having kids) I can report that I am definitely doing way better than my mom every did, building a supportive and opening home where my kids are (so far) blossoming. We can do this.
The way you talk about weight fluctuations is so healing. I’m okay with them but It is annoying to buy new clothes (bc I know it’s the right thing and I don’t want to make myself “fit in” old jeans) and then have another weight fluctuation whatever way and holy shit that’s a lot of money for clothes! And I wanna invest in pieces and not wear smth thrifted/cheap all the time(
Because you are a few years older then me, it always feels like an older sister giving advice! If you are still making videos by the time your going through menopause, I would love to hear about it! 😂
I have had vaginismus since my second c-section FOUR YEARS AGO but didn't see PT or get diagnosed until you & Mama Doctor Jones both talked about it, like six months ago. THANK YOU.
All of my family tells me “girl you need to eat” or “Wait until you’re 40 and the weight doesn’t come off anymore” when I want to talk about loosing SO much weight after my 2nd was born. I was super happy with my weight and size between pregnancies. I’d gained some weight and felt good about my body (I had body image issues that caused me to loose a lot of weight when I was younger). I bought new clothes between pregnancies and got rid of a lot of my smaller stuff because I never thought I’d get so tiny again. Turns out all that new clothes is way too big now and I have to buy all new clothes again🤦♀️ People really should be more accepting about those conversations. There are people in my life who will literally just leave if I start talking about my postpartum experience with my 2nd because it’s not what the “typical” women goes through and it’s rude of me to talk about it
Yes to wearing non nursing bras/ tops during time away from baby! I just started doing that recently (baby is 10 months) and it has felt so great. Before that, comfort and convenience trumped everything. But now, I appreciate feeling a bit more like myself again.
I have been a LOOOOONG time subscriber. Seeing you talk so openly and genuinely about your body has really helped shape my own views on sex, sexuality and bodies. Just wanted to say that as someone here from the original hormone diaries video to now, you have grown in such a cool way and its so interesting to learn about the entore birthing/parenting journey from you. Youre doing great Hannah!
The person who asked about the mental health impact of pregnancy and birth probably won't see this, but I've had lifelong issues with anxiety and was concerned that pregnancy would make it a lot worse. But for the duration of my pregnancy it's like my anxiety was dialled right down to a 0 or 1 out of 10, and it's no worse now (baby is 3.5 months old at this point) than it was before - honestly mostly better, except when I'm reallllly low on sleep.
The internal monologue you have about being a young mum - I had that for real. I come from an area where it is more common to marry and have children young and I moved to another area where thats rather not the case. I worked in a small company, being the youngest employee, first being married, first to have a child. I was the youngest (by far) in pregnancy class and so on. I was 24 at the time, baby was planned.
In regards to taking your temperature. You could always look into something like the temp drop! I’m using it 4 months pp! Just have to put it on when I go to bed and it works well with broken sleep.
just a PSA that I reccomend anyone interested in Tempdrop or any other FAM device or app look into their privacy policies. Unfortunately temp drop does not prioritize user privacy.
The interesting thing about being a person online who has shared your body/outfits over the years, etc is that I have an impression of your thinnest presenting time being when you were extremely ill and made your video about the first hospital stay and surgery, so don’t necessarily associate it with “health” for you, not that size can tell someone’s health at all. But yeah, you sharing that journey and seeing the impact on you really helped me challenge the fatphobic & ableist thoughts I’ve always had about health and weight loss for myself. In a way you just watching your body ~neutrality~ journey over a decade of following you has actually given me some of the language to interact with my body in a more neutral or kind way. Thank you for the thoughtfulness in how you discuss these matters, as always!
Wow, your advice for couples struggling with infertility was so valuable. I’m not even in that situation (yet, I have several factors contributing to me potentially having problems when i start trying), but I want to thank you so much for acknowledging the struggle in realistic way without giving false hopes, and still adding a positive perspective!
Just in regards to weight loss postpartum (mostly for other people reading)... Our thyroid changes in pregnancy, specifically in the third trimester and then some women can experience a return to normal thyroid function postpartum, and others can have hypothyroidism and others still HYPERthyroidism, and if theres an unexplained weight gain or weight loss that don't correlate to food and exercise, it can be beneficial to have a full thyroid panel done with a functional doctor who can help you support your body in any situation! Congrats on your baby (1 year of motherhood)! Your videos are wonderful.
I love your videos and I find this journey so interesting despite my choice to be child free and not having any personal interest in pregnancy 😂 I would love a video talking about the stigma around being child free and/or not wanting children because why do I get 20 questions about not wanting kids when "I want kids so I'll have kids" is such a widely accepted reason? Thanks so much for your videos ❤
I’ve also lost a lot a weight. For me, I was overweight before falling pregnant. And I gained the healthy amount during pregnancy. Now I am much lighter than I was before falling pregnant. And I haven’t done anything in an attempt to loose the weight. Something that happened to me and I’ve been told by drs that this can be a side affect from pregnancy due to hormones (yay), is I got gallstone attack for the first time 4 month’s postpartum and needed emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder. Now I can’t eat greasy foods (I miss hot chips so much). So I think it’s partially that and that I am still breastfeeding 15 months postpartum. As a side note I feel so much healthier, mentally and physically. But I don’t appreciate the comments like “oh wow you have collarbones now”. Like please don’t comment on my body especially in front of my child
The puberty of motherhood is something i came across listening to a podcast... i forget which one now... might have been 'happy mum, happy baby' but it can take a woman about 3 year years to fully get her head around 'feeling like a mum' as a mother of a now 3 year old i can confirm this is kinda the way it feels lol like you finally relax into it.
Haha, i can so relate to feeling like I'm too young to be a mum (in 33, little one is 2.5). I wonder if it's because in our generation we are quite conscious of the idea that there's no predefined "adulthood starts now", ie we have grown up with the understanding that even the "adults" were just winging it 😅
I also unintentionally lost weight during breastfeeding. It happened over the course of 2 years and at first I didn't really notice or mind. When I was weaning, I lost even more weight, a total of 13 lbs. That wasn't great especially since I was underweight to begin with, and I ended up with a BMI of under 16, feeling weak, dizzy, having low to nonexistent libido and getting sick a lot. We wanted another baby, so we kind of tried, but obviously I wouldn't get pregnant at this weight. It took me over a year but I managed to gain back about 9 lbs and I'm now 22 weeks with our second ❤
Having no expectations with regards to the labor and having it all turn out fine is seriously the secret. I remember the birth story that RawBeautyKristi posted and I just felt so bad for her the whole time because it's like she was mourning her own birth because it was not what she expected which was this whole entire choreographed thing, all during COVID. I think at most you should have certain "preferences when available" but not an entire story and dream scenario where any deviation will be like a "bad labor." That sets you up for so much unnecessary grief and heartbreak.
Not pregnant/TTC at the moment, but a thought just occurred to me, considering one of the main issues you foresee occurring if you try to track your temperature again being sleep: with your stoma schedule and Rowan’s sleep schedule, do you get at least one 3 hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep per night? If so, and if you ever wanted to revisit cycle tracking, I recommend the TempDrop! I started using it because I like tracking but know my sleep is variable enough that I don’t trust (or sleepily forget to do) my morning temperature reads with a thermometer. Because the TempDrop monitors you continuously throughout the night, it’ll find the lowest temp for you (assuming you get enough sleep in one go for it to accurately read it). Just food for thought!
Just to your point about feeling too young to be a mum, I completely get it! I’m pregnant and 27 and I still sometimes feel that people are looking at me like an irresponsible teenager
It's so funny, I'm 29 now, but since 27 and working a more professional job, I get a lot of "do you have kids?" (I do not) but I still feel like I'm at least 5 years off from the age to have kids! Even though many of my peers have toddlers 😂 brains are slow to catch up.
Also love the bits about sexual currency! My partner and I each have medical issues, so sex can be less frequent. Flirting and smaller moments of connection really do add up, even without any kind of sex.
About the „Everyone must be looking at me thinking I‘m such a young mother.“ I‘m 25 and look younger. So hard s a m e. But I haven‘t experienced any negative reaction quite the opposite. Everyone‘s so nice. People have never been nicer.
Thanks Hannah for another insightful vid! I'm over here with my currently 7 month old, nice to hear some similarities 😊 About the weight fluctuation: I actually lost weight after giving birth compared to my starting weight when I got pregnant. And I felt awful. Like unhealthy. It was so weird how people commented "wow you're so thin! I couldn't tell you had a baby!" I've since then gained back some of the lost weight and my body seems to be happy at this set point. I'm also still nursing, no period yet.
You're doing so well post partum, it's so good to hear - I've got six and 8 years old kids and it takes me back and makes me realise how much we go through having our children. Also, with the tight pelvic floor, I went to see a women's health physiotherapist when I was post partum - so helpful!
Long time viewer. I became pregnant six months after you and these videos have been a welcome view of what is ahead of me. Thank you for your curiosity and your kindness and for making everything seem a little bit more interesting and or fun!
I don't plan on having any kids, but some of my friends are getting near the TTC stage, so it's lovely to get some behind the scenes so I can be respectful of their eventual new lives.
Have really enjoyed following your journey so far... it took us 2yrs to conceive, I also had an unplanned c-section, also bf and cosleep... it's been great to be following the parenting journey online and very relatable and also reassuring (the realities of parenting! eg. sleep... i did not expect it to be so broken still one year in, but here we are, and it helps me to know yours is too.... ?! sorry!!!) I definitely related to what you said about the jealousy of Dan's freedom. But my husband said to me tonight he basically feels guilty all the time when he's NOT helping me with our baby (when he can see that I am struggling). I do resent his freedom too but I totally get what you mean about it being my choice to bf and something I had to accept. I think it's so true that aspects of parenting are SO HARD but the fact that they are hard doesn't mean you necessarily want a change/for it to be different. It took me a long time to realise that. One thing i will say is I always wanted two children... before having one!! Now I think I am good with one... because I'm not sure I have it in me to do it again. But I've been amazed how much I have thought about whether or not I want another when my current baby is still SO YOUNG. Who knows what the future holds, maybe I will change my mind. It very much correlates to how hard my husband and I are currently finding parenting ("F**k no, I am never doing this stage again.") whilst still loving our daughter to bits. I also feel like I need to be SO MUCH PHYSICALLY STRONGER if there is a next time. But it's amazing what good (if back breaking) exercise just carrying a baby is! Looking forward to continuing to follow your journey with bubs that are very similar in ages :) I've followed you for years and was so excited when we got pregnant around the same time as you are one of my favourite TH-camrs! Thanks for sharing what you have x
So after my first baby, I also had a sudden weight drop around a year postpartum and even went to my doctor about it because it was sudden and drastic, and ultimately, there was nothing wrong health-wise, but my body shifted how it functions and metabolizes, and I had to really consciously learn new ways to nourish and care for my body, and it was a real mind fuck, frankly, at 31. So far, one year postpartum with my second child, I have not had a massive weight drop and I don't know if that's because it's just not happened yet, or won't happen again, or how I know now to nourish my 30-something body after pregnancy, through breastfeeding, chasing after kids is just more in line with what my body needs. I still have no idea because bodies are wild! absolutely wild! and I'd never heard anything ever about sudden weight loss that wasn't, like, intentional "lose the baby weight" pushes -- and I did get so many "you look so good! look at you losing the baby weight! you're so luck you lost the weight so easily!" but like, that felt so toxic and horrible, especially because it wasn't something I sought to do (and is toxic in any spin of it) but also because I felt so uncomfortable in what was my new body and having to learn it all over again in ways I don't think broad postpartum narratives prepared me for.
Dear Hannah! I love how you talk about your birth but as a birth educator I have a little bit of trouble with the ‘going with the flow’ narrative. It is amazing that this worked for you but science (and I know you love a bit of research ✌🏻) shows that preparing for birth gives you a MUCH bigger chance on a positive experience then going with the flow ❤️ I would love youtube to talk about this more because it can really set you up for trauma when this is in many cases avoidable 💔 Thanks for this amazing episode! Love this series ❤️
I prepared like crazy and had such a traumatic experience. I think I put a loaddd of pressure on myself to have the perfect labour. I wish I hadn’t tried to control it. It seems ridiculous looking back! You have no idea what’s going to happen.
I guess we “prepared” in the sense that we learned about labour and birth in antenatal classes and online but decided our strategy would be to go with the flow with all that knowledge to hand… that make sense?
I prepared a lot for birth, I had a well thought out birth plan and had done a lot of research into having a more positive birth experience/ hypnobirthing etc. Then several unpredictable things happened during my labour with no known causes that lead all of my plans to go astray and the birth to go in my mind 'wrong'. I think actually my preparations and research made my birth more traumatic because knowing what I did made me feel like me and my body had failed and that I should have done things differently. It was more painful because i had such a strong idea of how i wanted my birth to go and it went nothing like that through things that were not within my control or I couldn't have planned for. Obviously I know this is not the case for everybody but this was the case for me personally.
@@vhangel36 so sorry to hear that. a good preparation is about knowing yourself as well as the birth system your are stepping into. The fact that you feel like your body failed you makes me think your preparation was focused on mainly ‘natural birth’ when for most woman the hospital will be a part of their journey. This is what makes this conversation so difficult. What is a good preparation? To go deeper into that I need more then an TH-cam comment. But the numbers don’t lie. A good realistic preparation helps your chances for a positive experience A LOT! But chances are never a 100%
@@hannahwitton yes that makes PERFECT SENSE 👌🏻 I think it might be important to put that side note with the information because it is such a different way of going with the flow! And you were prepared, I so often hear people saying they will not do the classes and don’t want to prepare and then call it going with the flow. With the argument that it is natural. And I agree with the idea of that and I wish the system trusted nature like that 😜 but we are not living in a pure natural world anymore! yeah I can talk about his for days 🙈 HUGE feminist topic ❤️❤️😛
Thank you for being so open. Re suddenly losing a lot of weight after the 1 year mark - it's happened to me as well. I hadn't changed anything in my diet / exercise level, so I think it must've been breastfeeding related. I really disliked all the comments I got about it..
What you said about each pregnancy and postpartum being totally different. I had an easy pregnancy with the first and hard pregnancy with the second, but postpartum was just the opposite with both children. Even now, my kids are just so different from each other.
It is wild that you already have a one year old. Time just flies by!! I also had a four-day birth which ended in a c-section. Also went in without expectations without watching a single video :D Oh, and I think the opposite.... everyone must think that I am such an old mom.... I was 40.
I would love to hear you talk about and with other people who had different postpartum care journeys! I especially thought of this because I found it really shocking to find out how big of an impact to mental health different care options can have and only really learned recently about doulas, Chinese confinement, and many other care structures. It would be really cool to hear you talk with other on that.
I definitely relate to a lot of the points in this video. Feeling like everyone thinks you're really young to have a kid even though you're like 30 (I think it's because I'm mentally trapped as an 18-year-old, and the dialog for the longest time is "don't get pregnant, don't get pregnant" and then suddenly it's "you're pregnant? congrats!"). Being able to talk openly about sex in front of the kid because he doesn't understand it yet (I'm losing this ability now with a 4-year-old :/).
the achy booby have just disappeared for me as well after birth. i used to be able to predict when my periode will start just because of when the boob ache would start. i‘ve had my first periode 6 weeks after birth (and had 7 periodes since theb) and the achy boobs have never returned!🎉 i‘m generally glad because i hated the pain, but also kinda annoyed because it was always a good sign to know when mrs. red will arrive and plan accordingly - now i just get surprised sometimes😅
I've always weighed within the same 3kg, so one time getting on a scale and being 2kg less than my "low normal" was kind of scary. The body mass index was only on the edge of normal and under weight, but it was atypical for me to weigh so "much" less. At least it was easy enough to trace the reason: just moved out of my mom's for the first time to a big city for studying. I concentrated on eating a good daily amount, no matter how stressed or anxious or depressed I happened to feel that day. Didn't stress about _what_ I was eating, 4 bowls of cereal was better than 1 bowl. Thankfully the next time I had access to a scale I was back to my low normal. Having a steady healthy weight without thinking of it makes me fortunate, in this age of overabundance and fatphobia.
I love your honesty in these videos. I have been trying to conceive for 6 years and I'm facing IVF (once I've lost weight but that's a whole other thing that I'm not happy about). I also have an ileostomy, hoping I won't experience too many problems with my stoma once I'm pregnant.
I tracked my cycle for 3 months once and then i knew roughly what day of my cycle i ovulate and start trying a few days before so ive just used that as a guide all my life with a regular cycle. Have been pregnant 4 times.
I appreciate you mentioning about your weight loss. I've struggled with not being able to gain weight my entire life, have had such awful comments from people since I was a child about it and because as you said, we have a very fat phobic culture it almost feels like if things are the other way round people feel entitled to say shite things about your body because your slim? It sounds like it doesn't particularly bother your self esteem which is great, however it's always bothered me but have always felt like I couldn't really talk about it with others because of how our society is set up. It's a shitty double standard tbh!
I was recently re-watching the older hormone diaries videos, using the playlist, and I noticed that the newer hormone diaries episodes (I think from the trying to concieve period onwards, but there might be some from before that was well) are missing from the playlist. I know you're very busy, so no judgement at all that you didn't get around to adding more episodes to the playlist. Just thought I'd let you know in case you wanted to update the playlist at some point. It's so interesting to see you from back then, and remember how much younger we both were when I was watching those videos as they were uploaded.
Make sure to tell your doctor about the sudden weight loss- that's always a symptom any good doctor would want to check asap. It's most likely hormones in your case but follow up because I know people personally with very scary causes. Sorry if that's alarmist, I just learned first hand that sudden weight loss with no obvious lifestyle change should always be looked into.
For the one about mental health, I think it's good to go to therapy before to make sure you're in a right place to become parent in the first place. At least that's my plan for the future. So if you know, you have some mental health problems or you think this might be the trigger, it's better to have therapist around.
(weight discussion) re 23:00 I also unintentionally lost a bunch of weight recently and it was a bit terrifying! I was unwell and not able to eat consistently and felt weak and didn't fit into any of my clothes! big no thank you from me, and appreciate how rough it can feel. I think I'm on the mend now though!!
Tw for issues with pregnancy? Pregnancy negativity? Okay there was one part of this video that stood out so much to me, and it was the concept of after giving birth the visceral disinterest with being pregnant again. And I had *no* idea how to explain this but oh my god I've just had a light bulb moment. I am a trans person and baby making has always been something I've stayed quiet about because it's something I'm not interested in. And my lack of interest has constantly been something people shamed me for. But I guess I've just never really found a way to explain what it feels like, and Hannah just framed it perfectly. I completely acknowledge that this feeling of 'I straight up do not want that, that sounds negative to me' in terms of pregnancy can be a short term thing, it can be a long term thing- but it's just wild to me that it's not talked about more. I feel like a lack of interest in doing something with your uterus if you have one is still really taboo, and I do hope it changes and we can have more conversations surrounding this. Get more voices talking about body autonomy.
We don't have a child yet, but gosh the age thing I understand. We've been married several years, are financially stable, and are objectively totally 'normal' ages to be parents. But I feel so young!
Really love your openness and glad you seem to be adjusting well 💕 As my wedding gets closer and closer my brain is more focused on planning for my next steps in life and this is so helpful!
I feel you on the non nursing bra thing! Went back to work after 1 year and went for a bra fitting to get some nice new ones and it made me feel great when my boobs looked much better in tops!
So, for phobia/ ED reasons I won't get into, I use strawberry toothpaste for kids. I always feel really self conscious when I buy these toothpastes because of an interaction I had buying some when I was 21. The woman at the counter looked me up and down and said "you can't possibly be needing to buy these yet". So I was like "oh, they're for me" and she replied "oh thank God for that, you're far too young to have a child". And it was just the way she said it, like I would have been some sort of criminal for having a child. This was in the same year that airport security stopped me because "under 11's go that way please", but people can be so judgemental if you have a young face, it's so frustrating! I'm now 25, I still look about 16 and I still don't have a child yet, but I do feel like I would be judged if I did, even though it's a perfectly reasonable age.
I was 24 when I had my daughter, and I'm very short with long hair so people always assumed I was a teenager, and people were SO RUDE. I would get glared at or outright scolded on the street all the time when she was a baby. I even got several racist comments. I'm 32 now, and I want to have a second child but the way people treated me the first time is making me consider if it's worth the harassment.
I have the same thing with feeling like "a real mom". I'm 31, I have a 3.5yo and a 1.5yo and I still feel like I'm playing pretend. And when I'm alone and out and about all I'm thinking of is "nobody knows I'm a mom!". Don't know what that's about 😂
My husband and I are TTC right now and going on about 6 months of being unsuccessful. We had an early loss at 5 weeks in February which really sucked and my cycle is only now starting to regulate a bit (I think). I'm going to try and take your advice of trying to be grateful and in the moment through this process 🙏
2 weeks postpartum here, and it's gone a lot better than I feared but the one thing is how much sleep you need to recover. Even if you're able to sleep when the baby sleeps half the time, you somehow need more sleep 😂
the sudden weight change could be a hormonal thing, but it could also be something you bring up with a medical provider if you're concerned about it. unexplained weight loss can be a sign of something being "off"
There are cycle tracking methods that are mostly based on discharge an cervix tracking - and also there are allegadely courses specifically catering to people with specific circumstances (shift work, small kids, unstable cycles). As me and partner use cycle tracking as primary method of both TTC and TTA I have high hopes that they work - I am 4 months in 1st pregnancy now so haha we'll see. EDIT: I'm 27 and I honestly feel like a pregnant highschooler most times haha. "I'm just a teenage girl, only 23 years old" literally
@hannah witton I doubt you'll see this. However, my sister had her pregnancy and baby at almost exactly the same time as you and she lost a lot of weight (more than expected) and has been diagnosed with a thyroid condition that can be caused by birth. If you are concerned, definitely mention it to your GP.
Man I understand the weight thing. Everyone thinks I should be so happy to be small and thin but I HATE it. I'm unhealthily thin and I'm not doing it on purpose but weight gain is so hard and I can't find any help or support for it. The whole drinks and smoothies don't work, I'm so picky with taste and texture. I want to be in a healthy place physically and mentally for a kid. I know I won't have the funds for 5 years, but I'd rather it be sooner rather then later.
I also lost a lot of weight suddenly between 10-15 months with both babies. I was still breastfeeding so it might be that too. I was floored too. Weight came back on by time babies were 2.5
I like your advice but I would say that if someone is worried about their post partum mental health, they could consider lining up someone to speak to like a counsellor in case it’s needed. I also think if she can afford it (I couldn’t ) a post partum doula might be something to consider. It’s about self care! Totally agree that mental health impact may not actually happen in the end - I had a friend who lined up therapeutic support and totally didn’t need it! Best wishes to that person.
After both my babies I didnt lose any weight till 9 months-1 yr post partum. And both times I lost 3 stone in like 3 months… I dont know what it was it must be hormonal! Still breastfeeding too. I hated that everyone praised me for it but it literally happened without me noticing. Post partum is so individual isnt it.
My 2 yo started daycare for half days 5 days a week, on Feb 6. We expected to catch some bugs. We encountered plague. We were sick with something we could not identify despite many rounds of testing until last week...
That awful back pain with a period is what I experienced all my life with endometriosis, and it's quite possible it's caused by tight pelvic muscles 😅 so loads of fun
On the real mum talk - I'm 27, and have two kids (2.5 year old, and am almost 4 month old). My "realization" moment was yesterday. We went to the zoo, for the first time as a family. We also had 8 other family members/friends with us. My best friend took a photo of my partner and I with our kids, when we weren't paying attention. When she sent it to me, I saw myself standing there, baby wearing the youngest, wearing my short overalls, sun hat, hiking shoes. And it hit me - I looked like a mom. Pointing out an animal to my toddler. Despite being covered in tattoos, despite everything I think of myself, there's a photo of me that I've seen repeated with countless other parents. There's a photo my kids will look at and say "that's my mom (and dad)"
I was talking about my previous abdominal surgeries which was open surgery and they cut from a few inches above my belly button, through my belly button and down to about an inch before where my c-scar now is. I imagine that surgery DID cut through muscle 😅😅
Dan wanting to take out Rowan to soft play for his birthday is the sweetest thing, awwwww. 😍❤
I don't think I want children and even if that would change, I won't be pregnant in the next couple of years but I can't help but still watch every single video if the hormone diaries.
I read that as chicken and was trying to figure out what chicken had to do with being pregnant.
Same! I actually have no desire to have children AT ALL, yet find these videos fascinating!
Sounds like the weight change happened around the same time as your period coming back, so I'd say that it's no surprise that you're changing when all that hormonal reset is happening! As long as you feel healthy, I wouldn't say it's anything to be concerned over 💛 Also, thank you for yet another open and honest video. They're invaluable 🧡
well done hanna , i understand your being so open and it helps thousands of people that have chrons and may face sugury and have no idea of what to look forward too ,but you are showing them that life with a bag goes on in full ,thank you .
Just like you and Dan, It took me and my partner a while to conceive. When you got pregnant, I was right behind you, and now my little boy is 8 months old. Now I can't stop devouring your content. I find the way you talk about motherhood so relatable and honest. Very few of my friends have kids, so I'm so glad I found your channel and have somewhere to look to when I'm struggling or feeling lonely. Thanks Hannah x
Thank you so much for being this sensitive about losing weight and body types. Love how honest you are about everything. So glad I've found you on here all those years ago. Truly a safe space for me online and always learning new things. Couldn't ask for more 🙌
I especially liked the part where you talked about still not feeling like a mom even though you are one now. I have been on the fence about having kids and wondering if I’m ready. Its funny how you always imagine what your life will look like when you get older and then one day all of a sudden you are at that age but still feel like a kid 😆
To the person who asked the last question Hannah mentioned: I totally get you. And I that’s one of the reasons why I‘m in therapy now. That fact that you’re afraid about damaging your future kids makes me think that you could benefit from therapy - not because of the risk of you actually f*cking up your children, but just because it might help YOU feel better and less fearful in this regard (and other regards too)❤ also: I‘m reading the Philippa Perry book Hannah mentioned and I can definitely recommend it🙃
But also some people do legitimately need to work on themselves a lot and deal with their own issues before even thinking about having children. Sometimes they even come to the conclusion that having children isn't the right thing for them to do, but that's ok.
I don’t have children personally but didn’t have the best childhood. I’m currently listening to the new podcast: Childproof by two content creators who focus on responsive parenting - mommacusses and tori phantom. I’m enjoying the podcast and their content, and have a lot of respect for their teachings.
Yep, I just recently started therapy and a hard line for myself was that I wanted to go through a decent amount of therapy before I have kids. Not even because I’m scared of messing them up, but because I know that when you have kids your life is so centered around them so I knew I wanted to do what I can while my life is still centered around myself, and hopefully that’ll also mean that my issues will affect them less. Still nowhere near ready for kids yet but I can already tell that it was the right call to make sure to do therapy first.
I was also SO SCARED during high school/college etc that if I had kids, I'd turn into my mom and fuck them up. So far (seven years into having kids) I can report that I am definitely doing way better than my mom every did, building a supportive and opening home where my kids are (so far) blossoming. We can do this.
The way you talk about weight fluctuations is so healing. I’m okay with them but
It is annoying to buy new clothes (bc I know it’s the right thing and I don’t want to make myself “fit in” old jeans) and then have another weight fluctuation whatever way and holy shit that’s a lot of money for clothes! And I wanna invest in pieces and not wear smth thrifted/cheap all the time(
As someone with gastro issues this is so real!
Because you are a few years older then me, it always feels like an older sister giving advice! If you are still making videos by the time your going through menopause, I would love to hear about it! 😂
+
Damn Hannah you're so shitting positive and strong it's actually so uplifting to watch you in this season of your life 🙌🏼💚
@daniellewride8644 Yes but please don't say💩LOL! 🤗♥🌹🙏
I have had vaginismus since my second c-section FOUR YEARS AGO but didn't see PT or get diagnosed until you & Mama Doctor Jones both talked about it, like six months ago.
THANK YOU.
All of my family tells me “girl you need to eat” or “Wait until you’re 40 and the weight doesn’t come off anymore” when I want to talk about loosing SO much weight after my 2nd was born. I was super happy with my weight and size between pregnancies. I’d gained some weight and felt good about my body (I had body image issues that caused me to loose a lot of weight when I was younger).
I bought new clothes between pregnancies and got rid of a lot of my smaller stuff because I never thought I’d get so tiny again. Turns out all that new clothes is way too big now and I have to buy all new clothes again🤦♀️
People really should be more accepting about those conversations. There are people in my life who will literally just leave if I start talking about my postpartum experience with my 2nd because it’s not what the “typical” women goes through and it’s rude of me to talk about it
Love this video Hannah, thank you for being so open (and especially appreciated your advice on anxiety since I also worry about that!) ❤
Yes to wearing non nursing bras/ tops during time away from baby!
I just started doing that recently (baby is 10 months) and it has felt so great.
Before that, comfort and convenience trumped everything. But now, I appreciate feeling a bit more like myself again.
100%!!
On the flirting point, my parents have always flirted infront of me and I'm 25 now 😂
Same with my parents! I think it’s cute but we might hold back on the explicit sexual references in front of him 😅😅
You can save the scarring for later!
I have been a LOOOOONG time subscriber. Seeing you talk so openly and genuinely about your body has really helped shape my own views on sex, sexuality and bodies. Just wanted to say that as someone here from the original hormone diaries video to now, you have grown in such a cool way and its so interesting to learn about the entore birthing/parenting journey from you. Youre doing great Hannah!
The person who asked about the mental health impact of pregnancy and birth probably won't see this, but I've had lifelong issues with anxiety and was concerned that pregnancy would make it a lot worse. But for the duration of my pregnancy it's like my anxiety was dialled right down to a 0 or 1 out of 10, and it's no worse now (baby is 3.5 months old at this point) than it was before - honestly mostly better, except when I'm reallllly low on sleep.
The internal monologue you have about being a young mum - I had that for real. I come from an area where it is more common to marry and have children young and I moved to another area where thats rather not the case. I worked in a small company, being the youngest employee, first being married, first to have a child. I was the youngest (by far) in pregnancy class and so on. I was 24 at the time, baby was planned.
this blue is YOUR colour!!! and that contrast with that orange?! Hannah!!! you are killing the use of the seasonal-colouring analysis
🤩
In regards to taking your temperature. You could always look into something like the temp drop! I’m using it 4 months pp! Just have to put it on when I go to bed and it works well with broken sleep.
just a PSA that I reccomend anyone interested in Tempdrop or any other FAM device or app look into their privacy policies. Unfortunately temp drop does not prioritize user privacy.
The interesting thing about being a person online who has shared your body/outfits over the years, etc is that I have an impression of your thinnest presenting time being when you were extremely ill and made your video about the first hospital stay and surgery, so don’t necessarily associate it with “health” for you, not that size can tell someone’s health at all. But yeah, you sharing that journey and seeing the impact on you really helped me challenge the fatphobic & ableist thoughts I’ve always had about health and weight loss for myself. In a way you just watching your body ~neutrality~ journey over a decade of following you has actually given me some of the language to interact with my body in a more neutral or kind way. Thank you for the thoughtfulness in how you discuss these matters, as always!
Wow, your advice for couples struggling with infertility was so valuable. I’m not even in that situation (yet, I have several factors contributing to me potentially having problems when i start trying), but I want to thank you so much for acknowledging the struggle in realistic way without giving false hopes, and still adding a positive perspective!
Just in regards to weight loss postpartum (mostly for other people reading)... Our thyroid changes in pregnancy, specifically in the third trimester and then some women can experience a return to normal thyroid function postpartum, and others can have hypothyroidism and others still HYPERthyroidism, and if theres an unexplained weight gain or weight loss that don't correlate to food and exercise, it can be beneficial to have a full thyroid panel done with a functional doctor who can help you support your body in any situation! Congrats on your baby (1 year of motherhood)! Your videos are wonderful.
I love your videos and I find this journey so interesting despite my choice to be child free and not having any personal interest in pregnancy 😂 I would love a video talking about the stigma around being child free and/or not wanting children because why do I get 20 questions about not wanting kids when "I want kids so I'll have kids" is such a widely accepted reason? Thanks so much for your videos ❤
I’ve also lost a lot a weight. For me, I was overweight before falling pregnant. And I gained the healthy amount during pregnancy. Now I am much lighter than I was before falling pregnant. And I haven’t done anything in an attempt to loose the weight. Something that happened to me and I’ve been told by drs that this can be a side affect from pregnancy due to hormones (yay), is I got gallstone attack for the first time 4 month’s postpartum and needed emergency surgery to remove my gallbladder. Now I can’t eat greasy foods (I miss hot chips so much). So I think it’s partially that and that I am still breastfeeding 15 months postpartum. As a side note I feel so much healthier, mentally and physically. But I don’t appreciate the comments like “oh wow you have collarbones now”. Like please don’t comment on my body especially in front of my child
The puberty of motherhood is something i came across listening to a podcast... i forget which one now... might have been 'happy mum, happy baby' but it can take a woman about 3 year years to fully get her head around 'feeling like a mum' as a mother of a now 3 year old i can confirm this is kinda the way it feels lol like you finally relax into it.
Haha, i can so relate to feeling like I'm too young to be a mum (in 33, little one is 2.5). I wonder if it's because in our generation we are quite conscious of the idea that there's no predefined "adulthood starts now", ie we have grown up with the understanding that even the "adults" were just winging it 😅
I also unintentionally lost weight during breastfeeding. It happened over the course of 2 years and at first I didn't really notice or mind. When I was weaning, I lost even more weight, a total of 13 lbs. That wasn't great especially since I was underweight to begin with, and I ended up with a BMI of under 16, feeling weak, dizzy, having low to nonexistent libido and getting sick a lot. We wanted another baby, so we kind of tried, but obviously I wouldn't get pregnant at this weight. It took me over a year but I managed to gain back about 9 lbs and I'm now 22 weeks with our second ❤
Having no expectations with regards to the labor and having it all turn out fine is seriously the secret. I remember the birth story that RawBeautyKristi posted and I just felt so bad for her the whole time because it's like she was mourning her own birth because it was not what she expected which was this whole entire choreographed thing, all during COVID. I think at most you should have certain "preferences when available" but not an entire story and dream scenario where any deviation will be like a "bad labor." That sets you up for so much unnecessary grief and heartbreak.
Not pregnant/TTC at the moment, but a thought just occurred to me, considering one of the main issues you foresee occurring if you try to track your temperature again being sleep: with your stoma schedule and Rowan’s sleep schedule, do you get at least one 3 hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep per night? If so, and if you ever wanted to revisit cycle tracking, I recommend the TempDrop! I started using it because I like tracking but know my sleep is variable enough that I don’t trust (or sleepily forget to do) my morning temperature reads with a thermometer. Because the TempDrop monitors you continuously throughout the night, it’ll find the lowest temp for you (assuming you get enough sleep in one go for it to accurately read it). Just food for thought!
OMG I've never had to call out sick as much as after my kid started going to day care!!!
Just to your point about feeling too young to be a mum, I completely get it! I’m pregnant and 27 and I still sometimes feel that people are looking at me like an irresponsible teenager
It's so funny, I'm 29 now, but since 27 and working a more professional job, I get a lot of "do you have kids?" (I do not) but I still feel like I'm at least 5 years off from the age to have kids! Even though many of my peers have toddlers 😂 brains are slow to catch up.
Also love the bits about sexual currency! My partner and I each have medical issues, so sex can be less frequent. Flirting and smaller moments of connection really do add up, even without any kind of sex.
About the „Everyone must be looking at me thinking I‘m such a young mother.“ I‘m 25 and look younger. So hard s a m e. But I haven‘t experienced any negative reaction quite the opposite. Everyone‘s so nice. People have never been nicer.
Thanks Hannah for another insightful vid! I'm over here with my currently 7 month old, nice to hear some similarities 😊 About the weight fluctuation: I actually lost weight after giving birth compared to my starting weight when I got pregnant. And I felt awful. Like unhealthy. It was so weird how people commented "wow you're so thin! I couldn't tell you had a baby!" I've since then gained back some of the lost weight and my body seems to be happy at this set point. I'm also still nursing, no period yet.
You're doing so well post partum, it's so good to hear - I've got six and 8 years old kids and it takes me back and makes me realise how much we go through having our children. Also, with the tight pelvic floor, I went to see a women's health physiotherapist when I was post partum - so helpful!
Long time viewer. I became pregnant six months after you and these videos have been a welcome view of what is ahead of me. Thank you for your curiosity and your kindness and for making everything seem a little bit more interesting and or fun!
I don't plan on having any kids, but some of my friends are getting near the TTC stage, so it's lovely to get some behind the scenes so I can be respectful of their eventual new lives.
Have really enjoyed following your journey so far... it took us 2yrs to conceive, I also had an unplanned c-section, also bf and cosleep... it's been great to be following the parenting journey online and very relatable and also reassuring (the realities of parenting! eg. sleep... i did not expect it to be so broken still one year in, but here we are, and it helps me to know yours is too.... ?! sorry!!!) I definitely related to what you said about the jealousy of Dan's freedom. But my husband said to me tonight he basically feels guilty all the time when he's NOT helping me with our baby (when he can see that I am struggling). I do resent his freedom too but I totally get what you mean about it being my choice to bf and something I had to accept. I think it's so true that aspects of parenting are SO HARD but the fact that they are hard doesn't mean you necessarily want a change/for it to be different. It took me a long time to realise that. One thing i will say is I always wanted two children... before having one!! Now I think I am good with one... because I'm not sure I have it in me to do it again. But I've been amazed how much I have thought about whether or not I want another when my current baby is still SO YOUNG. Who knows what the future holds, maybe I will change my mind. It very much correlates to how hard my husband and I are currently finding parenting ("F**k no, I am never doing this stage again.") whilst still loving our daughter to bits. I also feel like I need to be SO MUCH PHYSICALLY STRONGER if there is a next time. But it's amazing what good (if back breaking) exercise just carrying a baby is! Looking forward to continuing to follow your journey with bubs that are very similar in ages :) I've followed you for years and was so excited when we got pregnant around the same time as you are one of my favourite TH-camrs! Thanks for sharing what you have x
So after my first baby, I also had a sudden weight drop around a year postpartum and even went to my doctor about it because it was sudden and drastic, and ultimately, there was nothing wrong health-wise, but my body shifted how it functions and metabolizes, and I had to really consciously learn new ways to nourish and care for my body, and it was a real mind fuck, frankly, at 31. So far, one year postpartum with my second child, I have not had a massive weight drop and I don't know if that's because it's just not happened yet, or won't happen again, or how I know now to nourish my 30-something body after pregnancy, through breastfeeding, chasing after kids is just more in line with what my body needs. I still have no idea because bodies are wild! absolutely wild! and I'd never heard anything ever about sudden weight loss that wasn't, like, intentional "lose the baby weight" pushes -- and I did get so many "you look so good! look at you losing the baby weight! you're so luck you lost the weight so easily!" but like, that felt so toxic and horrible, especially because it wasn't something I sought to do (and is toxic in any spin of it) but also because I felt so uncomfortable in what was my new body and having to learn it all over again in ways I don't think broad postpartum narratives prepared me for.
Dear Hannah! I love how you talk about your birth but as a birth educator I have a little bit of trouble with the ‘going with the flow’ narrative. It is amazing that this worked for you but science (and I know you love a bit of research ✌🏻) shows that preparing for birth gives you a MUCH bigger chance on a positive experience then going with the flow ❤️ I would love youtube to talk about this more because it can really set you up for trauma when this is in many cases avoidable 💔
Thanks for this amazing episode! Love this series ❤️
I prepared like crazy and had such a traumatic experience. I think I put a loaddd of pressure on myself to have the perfect labour. I wish I hadn’t tried to control it. It seems ridiculous looking back! You have no idea what’s going to happen.
I guess we “prepared” in the sense that we learned about labour and birth in antenatal classes and online but decided our strategy would be to go with the flow with all that knowledge to hand… that make sense?
I prepared a lot for birth, I had a well thought out birth plan and had done a lot of research into having a more positive birth experience/ hypnobirthing etc. Then several unpredictable things happened during my labour with no known causes that lead all of my plans to go astray and the birth to go in my mind 'wrong'. I think actually my preparations and research made my birth more traumatic because knowing what I did made me feel like me and my body had failed and that I should have done things differently. It was more painful because i had such a strong idea of how i wanted my birth to go and it went nothing like that through things that were not within my control or I couldn't have planned for.
Obviously I know this is not the case for everybody but this was the case for me personally.
@@vhangel36 so sorry to hear that. a good preparation is about knowing yourself as well as the birth system your are stepping into. The fact that you feel like your body failed you makes me think your preparation was focused on mainly ‘natural birth’ when for most woman the hospital will be a part of their journey. This is what makes this conversation so difficult. What is a good preparation? To go deeper into that I need more then an TH-cam comment.
But the numbers don’t lie. A good realistic preparation helps your chances for a positive experience A LOT! But chances are never a 100%
@@hannahwitton yes that makes PERFECT SENSE 👌🏻 I think it might be important to put that side note with the information because it is such a different way of going with the flow! And you were prepared, I so often hear people saying they will not do the classes and don’t want to prepare and then call it going with the flow. With the argument that it is natural. And I agree with the idea of that and I wish the system trusted nature like that 😜 but we are not living in a pure natural world anymore! yeah I can talk about his for days 🙈 HUGE feminist topic ❤️❤️😛
I fully laughed out loud when Hannah made it sound like her immune system was a lad’s lad on a night out
Lads lads lads!!!
Thank you for being so open. Re suddenly losing a lot of weight after the 1 year mark - it's happened to me as well. I hadn't changed anything in my diet / exercise level, so I think it must've been breastfeeding related. I really disliked all the comments I got about it..
thank you for sharing your journey hannah, this was so great and informative! hope dan has a lovely birthday and gets his soft play trip
What you said about each pregnancy and postpartum being totally different. I had an easy pregnancy with the first and hard pregnancy with the second, but postpartum was just the opposite with both children. Even now, my kids are just so different from each other.
It is wild that you already have a one year old. Time just flies by!!
I also had a four-day birth which ended in a c-section. Also went in without expectations without watching a single video :D
Oh, and I think the opposite.... everyone must think that I am such an old mom.... I was 40.
It is worth having your thyroid function checked if any unexpected weight change! ♥️ GP just sends a blood test
I would love to hear you talk about and with other people who had different postpartum care journeys! I especially thought of this because I found it really shocking to find out how big of an impact to mental health different care options can have and only really learned recently about doulas, Chinese confinement, and many other care structures. It would be really cool to hear you talk with other on that.
I definitely relate to a lot of the points in this video. Feeling like everyone thinks you're really young to have a kid even though you're like 30 (I think it's because I'm mentally trapped as an 18-year-old, and the dialog for the longest time is "don't get pregnant, don't get pregnant" and then suddenly it's "you're pregnant? congrats!"). Being able to talk openly about sex in front of the kid because he doesn't understand it yet (I'm losing this ability now with a 4-year-old :/).
the achy booby have just disappeared for me as well after birth. i used to be able to predict when my periode will start just because of when the boob ache would start. i‘ve had my first periode 6 weeks after birth (and had 7 periodes since theb) and the achy boobs have never returned!🎉
i‘m generally glad because i hated the pain, but also kinda annoyed because it was always a good sign to know when mrs. red will arrive and plan accordingly - now i just get surprised sometimes😅
I've always weighed within the same 3kg, so one time getting on a scale and being 2kg less than my "low normal" was kind of scary. The body mass index was only on the edge of normal and under weight, but it was atypical for me to weigh so "much" less.
At least it was easy enough to trace the reason: just moved out of my mom's for the first time to a big city for studying. I concentrated on eating a good daily amount, no matter how stressed or anxious or depressed I happened to feel that day. Didn't stress about _what_ I was eating, 4 bowls of cereal was better than 1 bowl.
Thankfully the next time I had access to a scale I was back to my low normal. Having a steady healthy weight without thinking of it makes me fortunate, in this age of overabundance and fatphobia.
I'm 2.5 weeks postpartum, it's a journey!! X
I love your honesty in these videos. I have been trying to conceive for 6 years and I'm facing IVF (once I've lost weight but that's a whole other thing that I'm not happy about). I also have an ileostomy, hoping I won't experience too many problems with my stoma once I'm pregnant.
I tracked my cycle for 3 months once and then i knew roughly what day of my cycle i ovulate and start trying a few days before so ive just used that as a guide all my life with a regular cycle. Have been pregnant 4 times.
I appreciate you mentioning about your weight loss. I've struggled with not being able to gain weight my entire life, have had such awful comments from people since I was a child about it and because as you said, we have a very fat phobic culture it almost feels like if things are the other way round people feel entitled to say shite things about your body because your slim? It sounds like it doesn't particularly bother your self esteem which is great, however it's always bothered me but have always felt like I couldn't really talk about it with others because of how our society is set up. It's a shitty double standard tbh!
I was recently re-watching the older hormone diaries videos, using the playlist, and I noticed that the newer hormone diaries episodes (I think from the trying to concieve period onwards, but there might be some from before that was well) are missing from the playlist. I know you're very busy, so no judgement at all that you didn't get around to adding more episodes to the playlist. Just thought I'd let you know in case you wanted to update the playlist at some point.
It's so interesting to see you from back then, and remember how much younger we both were when I was watching those videos as they were uploaded.
omg, the sweats! I totally forgot! My little boy just turned 1. Love your content Hannah :)
Make sure to tell your doctor about the sudden weight loss- that's always a symptom any good doctor would want to check asap. It's most likely hormones in your case but follow up because I know people personally with very scary causes. Sorry if that's alarmist, I just learned first hand that sudden weight loss with no obvious lifestyle change should always be looked into.
For the one about mental health, I think it's good to go to therapy before to make sure you're in a right place to become parent in the first place. At least that's my plan for the future. So if you know, you have some mental health problems or you think this might be the trigger, it's better to have therapist around.
(weight discussion) re 23:00 I also unintentionally lost a bunch of weight recently and it was a bit terrifying! I was unwell and not able to eat consistently and felt weak and didn't fit into any of my clothes! big no thank you from me, and appreciate how rough it can feel. I think I'm on the mend now though!!
Tw for issues with pregnancy? Pregnancy negativity?
Okay there was one part of this video that stood out so much to me, and it was the concept of after giving birth the visceral disinterest with being pregnant again. And I had *no* idea how to explain this but oh my god I've just had a light bulb moment. I am a trans person and baby making has always been something I've stayed quiet about because it's something I'm not interested in. And my lack of interest has constantly been something people shamed me for. But I guess I've just never really found a way to explain what it feels like, and Hannah just framed it perfectly. I completely acknowledge that this feeling of 'I straight up do not want that, that sounds negative to me' in terms of pregnancy can be a short term thing, it can be a long term thing- but it's just wild to me that it's not talked about more. I feel like a lack of interest in doing something with your uterus if you have one is still really taboo, and I do hope it changes and we can have more conversations surrounding this. Get more voices talking about body autonomy.
We don't have a child yet, but gosh the age thing I understand. We've been married several years, are financially stable, and are objectively totally 'normal' ages to be parents. But I feel so young!
Looking great in these spring colours!
Really love your openness and glad you seem to be adjusting well 💕 As my wedding gets closer and closer my brain is more focused on planning for my next steps in life and this is so helpful!
Just about 11 weeks and super nervous
I like your outfit! those colours go really well together and they suit you 💙🧡
I feel you on the non nursing bra thing! Went back to work after 1 year and went for a bra fitting to get some nice new ones and it made me feel great when my boobs looked much better in tops!
So, for phobia/ ED reasons I won't get into, I use strawberry toothpaste for kids. I always feel really self conscious when I buy these toothpastes because of an interaction I had buying some when I was 21. The woman at the counter looked me up and down and said "you can't possibly be needing to buy these yet". So I was like "oh, they're for me" and she replied "oh thank God for that, you're far too young to have a child". And it was just the way she said it, like I would have been some sort of criminal for having a child. This was in the same year that airport security stopped me because "under 11's go that way please", but people can be so judgemental if you have a young face, it's so frustrating! I'm now 25, I still look about 16 and I still don't have a child yet, but I do feel like I would be judged if I did, even though it's a perfectly reasonable age.
I was 24 when I had my daughter, and I'm very short with long hair so people always assumed I was a teenager, and people were SO RUDE. I would get glared at or outright scolded on the street all the time when she was a baby. I even got several racist comments. I'm 32 now, and I want to have a second child but the way people treated me the first time is making me consider if it's worth the harassment.
Can you do an update video of colour analysis. How new colours is working for clothes, how you feel etc?
I have the same thing with feeling like "a real mom". I'm 31, I have a 3.5yo and a 1.5yo and I still feel like I'm playing pretend. And when I'm alone and out and about all I'm thinking of is "nobody knows I'm a mom!". Don't know what that's about 😂
having surgery soon and will definitely take your "moving" advice on board, thank you!
Listen to what your doctors/physios recommend first and foremost!
It's insane that it feels like just yesterday I was watching you try to conceive, and now Rowan is one! It goes so quickly!
I can't believe it's already been a year!
not a parent, don't wish to become one, still adore all your videos on the topic!
My son is an adult and I still don't always feel like a mom lol
I also lost a lot of weight while breastfeeding. Stopped 15 months post partum and gained about 7lbs
Wow, it's already been a year? That's crazy!
My husband and I are TTC right now and going on about 6 months of being unsuccessful. We had an early loss at 5 weeks in February which really sucked and my cycle is only now starting to regulate a bit (I think). I'm going to try and take your advice of trying to be grateful and in the moment through this process 🙏
Great video! Also, I would definitely say yes to a menopause hormone diaries 🤭
2 weeks postpartum here, and it's gone a lot better than I feared but the one thing is how much sleep you need to recover. Even if you're able to sleep when the baby sleeps half the time, you somehow need more sleep 😂
the sudden weight change could be a hormonal thing, but it could also be something you bring up with a medical provider if you're concerned about it. unexplained weight loss can be a sign of something being "off"
There are cycle tracking methods that are mostly based on discharge an cervix tracking - and also there are allegadely courses specifically catering to people with specific circumstances (shift work, small kids, unstable cycles). As me and partner use cycle tracking as primary method of both TTC and TTA I have high hopes that they work - I am 4 months in 1st pregnancy now so haha we'll see.
EDIT: I'm 27 and I honestly feel like a pregnant highschooler most times haha. "I'm just a teenage girl, only 23 years old" literally
@hannah witton I doubt you'll see this. However, my sister had her pregnancy and baby at almost exactly the same time as you and she lost a lot of weight (more than expected) and has been diagnosed with a thyroid condition that can be caused by birth. If you are concerned, definitely mention it to your GP.
Man I understand the weight thing. Everyone thinks I should be so happy to be small and thin but I HATE it. I'm unhealthily thin and I'm not doing it on purpose but weight gain is so hard and I can't find any help or support for it. The whole drinks and smoothies don't work, I'm so picky with taste and texture. I want to be in a healthy place physically and mentally for a kid. I know I won't have the funds for 5 years, but I'd rather it be sooner rather then later.
I also lost a lot of weight suddenly between 10-15 months with both babies. I was still breastfeeding so it might be that too. I was floored too. Weight came back on by time babies were 2.5
Omg THE SWEATS!!!! No one told me about that either and it was so startling the first time it happened 😂
I like your advice but I would say that if someone is worried about their post partum mental health, they could consider lining up someone to speak to like a counsellor in case it’s needed. I also think if she can afford it (I couldn’t ) a post partum doula might be something to consider. It’s about self care! Totally agree that mental health impact may not actually happen in the end - I had a friend who lined up therapeutic support and totally didn’t need it! Best wishes to that person.
I’m not even a mom and the getting sick thing still hits home. Every third time I spend time with my brother’s kids, I end up sick with something.
After both my babies I didnt lose any weight till 9 months-1 yr post partum. And both times I lost 3 stone in like 3 months… I dont know what it was it must be hormonal! Still breastfeeding too. I hated that everyone praised me for it but it literally happened without me noticing. Post partum is so individual isnt it.
Also wreaks havoc with your wardrobe! You have to have a million different sized things.
My 2 yo started daycare for half days 5 days a week, on Feb 6. We expected to catch some bugs. We encountered plague. We were sick with something we could not identify despite many rounds of testing until last week...
That awful back pain with a period is what I experienced all my life with endometriosis, and it's quite possible it's caused by tight pelvic muscles 😅 so loads of fun
On the real mum talk - I'm 27, and have two kids (2.5 year old, and am almost 4 month old). My "realization" moment was yesterday. We went to the zoo, for the first time as a family. We also had 8 other family members/friends with us.
My best friend took a photo of my partner and I with our kids, when we weren't paying attention.
When she sent it to me, I saw myself standing there, baby wearing the youngest, wearing my short overalls, sun hat, hiking shoes. And it hit me - I looked like a mom. Pointing out an animal to my toddler. Despite being covered in tattoos, despite everything I think of myself, there's a photo of me that I've seen repeated with countless other parents. There's a photo my kids will look at and say "that's my mom (and dad)"
Please make a video on sexual currency! I've tried explaining it to my partner but having a video to send him would be so convenient
Thanks
yes, agree about the feeling of a non-nursing bra or top ❤
I would love a full video about sexual currency! I haven’t heard it before and it sounds very interesting!😊
They actually don’t cut the muscle tissue in C-sections, they just move it apart. They cut fascia and skin (aside from the uterus and the sack itself)
I was talking about my previous abdominal surgeries which was open surgery and they cut from a few inches above my belly button, through my belly button and down to about an inch before where my c-scar now is. I imagine that surgery DID cut through muscle 😅😅
But again I could be completely wrong because I’m not a doctor 😂
The sweats you get after having a baby are like what you get in menopause…. Hot flushes and night sweats…!
I am VERY proud of you. Please take care. You are in my thoughts and prayers.