So close . . . yet so far away!!!

[HeatherO 7]

I am only 6 small pounds from goal. Only 6 measly almost insignificant pounds . . . it is unbelievable. I can practically taste my goal it is so close and I had huge plans for when I finally attain it (shopppinnnngg sppprreeeeee).

But now, what can I say, I am not sure I can make those last six pounds. Perhaps it will take me a year to get there. Nutrition is the goal right now with a baby coming.

I gained 67 pounds with my first pregnancy and I was 126 pounds when I got pregnant . . . 67 POUUNNNDDSS!!!!!. I got unbelievable stretch marks that time because you don't just grow by 50% in a few short months without ill affect. This also signalled the beginnings of obesity for me. My first child is now 16 years old. I am really super scared of gaining weight. I am afraid of becoming a diet fanatic, but I really want to eat healthy and well for my baby . . . specially during these early weeks.

I am so thrilled, happy and ecstatic about the new baby, yet I am feeling sad and lost about weight loss stopping. I don't know if I can survive the scale going back in the wrong direction by too much. One minute I feel like laughing, then next I feel like crying. Does anyone else feel this way???

[juno610 1]

I felt that way too -- even though I am nowhere near my goal weight. It is such a head game, and the extra hormones don't help!

Who knows... you may lose a few pounds yet during the first tri. Do you have any morning sickness?

Hang in there!

[kiah12 0]

I know exactly how you feel. I am 55lbs away from my goal when I found out I was pregnant. I have not been on the scale in over a week and I am afraid to do so. I find I don't know what even to eat anymore. My weight is already beginning to shift to my front. My tummy is already getting bigger. And I am terrified and mortified all at the same time. It is a head game. It is hard to switch your mind it to the "its ok if I gain weight" mode.

I gained 18lbs with my last pregnancy. That would be all well in good if I hadn't started out at 214lbs.

Not sure if I have any advice just to say that I understand and you are extremely lucky to be only 6lbs away from your goal weight. the truth is, you won't gain 67lbs this time, and what you do gain will hopefully be gone shortly after your blessed event. And then, if you breast feed you will lose those 6lbs in no time.

I have decided to not weigh myself except for once a week. Maybe.

Hang in there, and I can tell you that if the morning (noon and night) si!ckness hits you, you won't care about the weight gain. You will eat whatever makes you feel better!! LOL

Good luck and congrats on the baby

[HeatherO 7]

I felt that way too -- even though I am nowhere near my goal weight. It is such a head game, and the extra hormones don't help!

Who knows... you may lose a few pounds yet during the first tri. Do you have any morning sickness?

Hang in there!

Strangely enough I donit have any mornıng sıckness at all. I don't know if I am just lucky or if it is just a matter or time.

However, my band got sooo tight . . . I scheduled an appointment for a small unfill on October 14th about a week ago.

Just yesterday I started feeling normal again where I could eat beef and mushrooms with a little yogurt for dinner. I also had a dish called melemen for Breakfast which is ground beef, onions, garlic, and peppers with a little beef "sauce" to give it a softer texture. For the last week previous I have been able to ingest little more than Protein drinks and Soups . . . nothing of real consistency. I am surprised and happy, but I guess I will see how it goes.

Does pregnancy seem to do strange things to band tightness . . . or could it just be something else?

[Daisalana 33]

I felt like that for about a second. I was approx. 30lbs from goal.. and was moving steady right along.. I am back to 220lb and have been bouncing between 218-220 for weeks now.. for literally a minute I dwelled on it.. then I let it go, the band will be there after the baby

We can do it on the other end!

[bushbaby 8]

I was too 20 lbs from goal...but my perspective is a little different...my husband and I went through many challenges to achieve this pregnancy. These twins have brought me 36lbs of joy. It took me two years to loose all but 20lbs from goal... I stopped because one the scale had nothing to do with my looks... no one thought of me as overweight but me...as I am sure it is the same way as you Heather. How proud you should be that you were just 6lbs away from an arbitrary goal and I bet no one thought you needed those 6lbs but you... We as women are too hard on ourselves. I want to applaud your achievement and now you have another that you should focus on... If you lost it the first time, you can and will lose it again... I know I am going to gain another 20lbs at least because each day it seems the twins get bigger... but I lost 110 lbs last time...so what is a measly 64 or 70... when I get to have the most precious thing(s) I could imagine... My own children... Just my 2 cents...

Edited October 6, 2008 by bushbaby

[kiah12 0]

Wonderful outlook! Beautiful and so true. Congratulations on your babies. What a blessing.

[bushbaby 8]

Thanks Mikki...

[Daisalana 33]

Wow I didn't know you had a 16 year old already!! That'll be fun

I have a friend who just had a daughter graduate college, they got pregnant with their son right when she was graduating high school. Their 2nd kid is like the perfect kid, it's amazing. He doesn't cry, he doesn't fight, and he never has to be told twice. I don't know why but I always thought it had to do with him having a much older sister.

[HeatherO 7]

It is funny, looking back at this thread I must have been hormonal when I wrote it, lol. A few pounds isn't the end of the world . . . and I am still moving down on the scale, just a little slower and I can live with it going up a little. I have actually gone down to 144 since this post so I am only 4 pounds away from goal. I might just end up there before the first trimester finishes.

I think I had my first craving yesterday, my husband bought fresh salmon for dinner and I was gong to cook lemon pepper salmon with some cucumber/garlic/dill yogurt sauce with some salad. I came home after work and I did NOT want fish for some odd reason, and I love fish usually, it is a favorite of mine. All I wanted was to forget dinner and go directly to the Turkish restaurant immediately and have Iskender (it is toasted bread chunks in a Tomato sauce covered with a meat similar to gyro's with lots of yogurt). The odd thing about it is that I wanted to go that very second, knew exactly what I wanted without looking at the menu and thought "to hell with all of the fresh fish in my fridge." This is so unlike me, lol.

. . . but alas, my husband painfully reminded me that the Turkish restaurant is closed on Monday's, so we had fish. The fish was good but I WANTED Iskender. Now I don't care if I have it or not, it must have been a passing craving.

[eejaydiva 3]

Ok HeatherO, this one's for you baby, cuz I adore ya and all the rest of you banded preggos. WHY I did this? Only out of affection and sheer craziness, as I myself am NOT YET PREGNANT, but hoping to be any day now, and hoping you will all deal with me when I'm being neurotic (NOT to say you are neurotic, just warning you that I will be, fo sho) It took me some time, but here goes.

Experiment:confused:

I checked the threads on here regarding how much bandsters reported gaining with band and baby...also checked threads on a few other lapband sites (obesityhelp.com, among others). Basically did a sampling and count of how many women responded and what they gained. This is by no means a perfectly scientific study, but I used a fairly high amount of reponses, so here goes. As well, I stole a little bit of data from New England Medical Journal study of weight related issues in banded women during pregnancy.

Bandsters gained an average of 18.4 lbs during their entire pregnancy. Those who had SEVERE sickness lasting more than 3 months gained 9 lbs. A few who went over their due date by 1 or 2 weeks still only gained about 19.6 lbs.

As well, it took less than 2 months to return to their pre-baby/goal weight, depending on what they were at. Almost all of these women had all or almost all of their Fluid removed by the 2nd trimester, so these figures are from women who mostly had little to no restriction other than the band for the bulk of their pregnancies.

So if you move alot during pregnancy and focus on nutrition, I'd imagine you may gain about 10 lbs. Those who said they used pregnancy as a fun little "band vacation" and ate alot or suffered from major bed rest/fatique and didn't exercise much were more in the 20 lbs gained range.

HUGS! I truly hope this makes you feel better about the possible gaining that will go on! Think about it this way: If you gain 16 lbs and have an 8 lb baby, you only have 8 to lose! :wink2:

[kimmcneely 1]

I had my band in '05, got pregnant in '06 and had my son in '07. I only gained 9 lbs during my pregnancy and he was 7 lbs 1oz. Big difference from the 50 lbs I gained with my first one 11 years ago without the band. Of course my band got pulled and I had to have it replaced when he was 3 months old. I had gotten very anemic because I wasn't able to eat any protien. But I liked what the scale was saying. Of course now I am back at around 160. I have stayed there consistantly.

[Daisalana 33]

I was super tight around when I found out, and had a small unfill. That swelling has completely gone way, I am wide open, and I have not reigned myself in. I'm eating all the foods the band usually won't let me eat, and eating more than I should be. (I am hungry all the time) I went from 212lb Aug 19th when I found out.. to 224lb a couple days ago.. 12lbs in just under 2 months. My gyno was not happy about it, and I'm not either.. BUT I am getting a re-fill next week, to pull me back to my band reality. I'm not too concerned, as I do plan to stay filled throughout as long as I am able to.. and whatever I gain, I can lose again. But between beginning of Sept + now (I already had oct. 15th appointment scheduled, so decided to just wait for it), it's like I have no band. Good to know, if I didn't have my band I'd get fat again :biggrin:

[HeatherO 7]

Ok HeatherO, this one's for you baby, cuz I adore ya and all the rest of you banded preggos. WHY I did this? Only out of affection and sheer craziness, as I myself am NOT YET PREGNANT, but hoping to be any day now, and hoping you will all deal with me when I'm being neurotic (NOT to say you are neurotic, just warning you that I will be, fo sho) It took me some time, but here goes.

Experiment:confused:

I checked the threads on here regarding how much bandsters reported gaining with band and baby...also checked threads on a few other lapband sites (obesityhelp.com, among others). Basically did a sampling and count of how many women responded and what they gained. This is by no means a perfectly scientific study, but I used a fairly high amount of reponses, so here goes. As well, I stole a little bit of data from New England Medical Journal study of weight related issues in banded women during pregnancy.

Bandsters gained an average of 18.4 lbs during their entire pregnancy. Those who had SEVERE sickness lasting more than 3 months gained 9 lbs. A few who went over their due date by 1 or 2 weeks still only gained about 19.6 lbs.

As well, it took less than 2 months to return to their pre-baby/goal weight, depending on what they were at. Almost all of these women had all or almost all of their Fluid removed by the 2nd trimester, so these figures are from women who mostly had little to no restriction other than the band for the bulk of their pregnancies.

So if you move alot during pregnancy and focus on nutrition, I'd imagine you may gain about 10 lbs. Those who said they used pregnancy as a fun little "band vacation" and ate alot or suffered from major bed rest/fatique and didn't exercise much were more in the 20 lbs gained range.

HUGS! I truly hope this makes you feel better about the possible gaining that will go on! Think about it this way: If you gain 16 lbs and have an 8 lb baby, you only have 8 to lose! :biggrin:

Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for sharing . . . that is great to know.

I am also still being very, very careful with my diet so I feel like I will be on the good side with weight gain. So far I am still losing, slowly, but losing.

[HeatherO 7]

I was super tight around when I found out, and had a small unfill. That swelling has completely gone way, I am wide open, and I have not reigned myself in. I'm eating all the foods the band usually won't let me eat, and eating more than I should be. (I am hungry all the time) I went from 212lb Aug 19th when I found out.. to 224lb a couple days ago.. 12lbs in just under 2 months. My gyno was not happy about it, and I'm not either.. BUT I am getting a re-fill next week, to pull me back to my band reality. I'm not too concerned, as I do plan to stay filled throughout as long as I am able to.. and whatever I gain, I can lose again. But between beginning of Sept + now (I already had oct. 15th appointment scheduled, so decided to just wait for it), it's like I have no band. Good to know, if I didn't have my band I'd get fat again :biggrin:

I have been having some band problems since mid-September. My last fill prior was obtained in April and I was at my sweet spot forever. I then got super tight which got progressively worse until I could not eat or drink a thing over a few days. I went for an emergency unfill (-2) and then got a small refill (+1.5) about 10 days later.

That small partial refill has been much to much and I am getting another small unfill next Tuesday. I can get things down, but not the things I want to eat (healthy Proteins & salads). I am still maintaining a healthy diet but am starting to understand the risk of going to slider foods when things wont go down . . . because it really just sucks not being able to eat anything comfortably.

Anyway, I realize now that my band problems happened at pregnancy, I just didn't know I was pregnant at the time. There is a perfect correlation with the timing. I need another unfill, not for morning sickness . . . because my band is much too tight.

Are other people noticing band tightness changes with pregnancy???

(I am going to also post this on the main thread in the hopes of more responses . . . so if you see it twice, I haven't lost my mind, lol)