Kissmygrits

When it comes to pregnancy I have one rule....if I'm hungry- EAT. When I was too restricted to eat enough to meet my hunger, I got unfilled. This extra hunger is nature's way of insuring that your baby gets enough nutrients. This is very different from emotional eating.

I got unfilled at around 15 weeks. One of the reasons was because my fill wasn't working anyway. My Band was no match for Pregnancy hormones and related hunger so I was eating pretty good. I got unfilled because I didn't want to do any damage to my pouch. I have gained a lot of weight so far (I'm 29 weeks), but I'm okay with it. I know that once I have the baby, I'll get my fill back and the hunger hormones will subside and I'll get back to where I want to be. I got unfilled also because I was worried about getting too tight in later pregnancy (as the uterus pushes up into your stomach anyway- giving the feeling of restriction) and having some sort of complications from that.

The thing that really sucks about PCOS is that it is so different for different people. Some people's weight is really impacted by it, but there are plenty of thin people with PCOS where weight loss doesn't help their PCOS at all. Fertility is similarly impacted. For some people the condition wreaks havoc on the hormones- killing fertility, for some people PCOS doesn't harm their fertility at all. Some people's PCOS responds to moderate diet changes or metformin. Other people need to drop significant weight to see improvements. If you are overweight with PCOS, I think you are lucky because there's a good chance that weight loss can help your symptoms.

I've just recently had port discomfort (I'm 29 weeks). I guess it makes sense, the port is sewn into our abdominal wall muscles and these muscles are stretched out of place (along with everything else) in pregnancy. I can't really lie on my left side unless I put a pillow under my torso- otherwise it feels like my port is being ripped out. Ouch!

We used the Clearblue ovulation monitor also (before the Band I had PCOS which made my ovulations very irregular, so I wanted to monitor the situation). We got pregnant on the 2nd month we tried. It is all because of the Band because I was very infertile prior to weight loss.

I am astounded at how many bandsters have gained so little weight during pregnancy. Well, I can tell you that for me, the lap band has been no match for pregnancy hormones which have kept me eating constantly up until this point (14 weeks). I have definitely gained a good amount of weight already and I still have my fill. I don't have much restriction although you'd think I would. Still, I don't want to develop a complex about it, so I'm trying not to make it a big deal. I am eating out of genuine physical hunger, not for emotional issues (which was the cause of my weight problems before)-- so I believe in doing what my body tells me to do. I know that after my pregnancy, when all these hormones are out of my system and I have my normal energy back, I'll be back on track eating my tiny meals and working out like crazy. But I just refuse to obsess about weightloss/weight gain during pregnancy.

Telly, I am so sorry for your loss. My prayers are with you. EVERYTHING I've read is that most miscarriages are caused by random chomosomal abnormalities in the baby- there is nothing you could have done and it is certainly not your fault. You are a healthy, vibrant woman! I wish you a speedy recovery and best wishes on your endeavors to conceive again. I'm sending you a cyber hug! I think (I've heard this from my sister) that your doctor will monitor you by ultrasound to determine when your uterus will get back to normal size. That usually means you are ready to try again.

HI again, everybody, Wish me luck tomorrow. We're going in for our 8 week ultrasound to hopefully see a strong heartbeat. I'm soooo nervous. Since I really haven't had symptoms, the labs and ultrasounds are my only reassurance that things are okay. I haven't had any morning sickness- just a tiny bit queasy if I don't eat anything. I've been real lucky!

I'm currently 7 weeks pregnant with previously diagnosed PCOS. Before surgery, my ovaries were riddled with cysts. My ovaries were so bad that the ached constantly and I couldn't sleep on my right side (hurt too much). I was on Met and Avandia (before it was pulled from the market), but they never really worked. My gyn said "you will never be able to get pregnant naturally if your ovaries look like this." That was the last straw- that was really the driving force for me to finally look at weight loss surgery as a permanent solution. After surgery and about 25 pounds down, I had an ultrasound to check on my ovaries and all the cysts were gone. I stayed on birth control to calm things down even more- for about a year and half. I also exercised a lot, which is supposed to help with glucose metabolism (even though my insulin and glucose levels were always normal- even before surgery). I came off the pill and we tried for 2 months to get pregnant and I got pregnant right away (the 2nd month). Still no cysts. No PCOS complications either (progesterone normal, etc.). PCOS never goes away- even if the cysts disappear, the underlying endocrine condition is always there, but for me the weight loss (that was ONLY achievable by LapBand) tamped it down to undetectable levels. I fully believe that LapBand made pregnancy possible for me- and without fertility meds or other medical intervention (which we were praying to avoid anyway). Of course, if I could only get all the hair back that I lost due to androgenic alopecia caused by PCOS that would be a true miracle!

Congratulations webenchant and juno!! It's good to see you both here.

Congratulations! So happy for you!

It's great reading all these posts. I'm so glad that I'm not the only one wondering/worrying about these things. For me, the part that is the most disturbing about the inevitable weight gain during pregnancy is the return of that old "food is king" feeling, that I had managed to get past because of the band. Literally, I can feel my old obsession with food coming back. My ob doctor said not to worry- it's the hormones and my body's way of making sure I get enough nutrients. And I know deep down that if I'm truly hungry (as opposed to head hunger or emotional eating), there's nothing wrong with eating- even if it's more than what I'm used to. But it kinda scares me to feel this way again. I feel like an alcoholic who's being told to drink for the sake of my baby. I know this is an extreme analogy- but that's the fear that have about my previous food addiction.

For purely ecological or environmental reasons- I did read somewhere that cloth is actually worse than disposable. The carbon footprint needed to manufacture and CLEAN the cloth diapers is bigger than the manufacture and disposal of the disposable ones. The cleaning was the issue- the energy used to clean the cloth properly was the bad part. Of course, cloth vs. disposable a personal preference issue, but I did read that analysis on environmental impact. NO JUDGMENTS HERE. Unfortuntely, there is no "good" choice for diapering.