Being a mom is such a blessing. Even though I had a couple days of not connecting with my baby well enough as I was in the worst kind of pain from episiotomy and endless headaches from loosing so much blood, but after the initial blue feeling, you fall so deeply in love you wanna EAT your baby Haha
We hit town to get some feedback from some of our mommies on their journey to motherhood including the mistakes they made especially while nursing . This should give our first time preggos (who we also blogged about here) and our waiting to conceive moms something to look forward to…
Let’s kick off with the BEAUTIFUL mama with the MOST BEAUTIFUL name, Raine.
Raine shares her Journey…
Being a mum is awesome!
However, the journey to being a mum might not be an easy one.
For my son I had morning sickness till the day I was in the delivery room. I was very active during pregnancy, everyone thought the baby will fly out. Lol.
So the D-day came.
After being induced, labor for almost 12 hours, an episiotomy, trial to suction baby, I ended up having an emergency Caesarean Section (CS).
I was in shock for days but as a woman I still did this again. Haha.
The mistake I made was believing the ‘eat plenty food so baby can have milk’ story, I didn’t watch my diet. And also the myth that ‘CS mums shouldn’t exercise or tie their tummy till forever’. From 68kg pre-baby to 85kg before delivery. It took me 3 years to decide to go healthy and work out. I joined a 10 day meal plan to learn how to do this.
Funny thing is as soon as I went clean, BOOM! baby number 2 entered. People still make fun of me that it’s the dieting and too much sexiness that caused the pregnancy. See me that was planning the year after.
Thank God o.
I decided immediately I was going to be serious with my diet and exercise. I contacted CoachE for details.
Since all pregnancies are not the same, this came with spotting and then bleeding, abdominal pains, weakness and morning sickness. I realized I had placenta previa, Pheeew. I was put on bed rest for months. Again from about 71kg pre-baby to almost 100kg.
Second time a new mum, my mind was made up not let fear get me depressed in any form. I decided to get a planned CS. Although I wasn’t allowed to exercise I watched what I ate. As soon as my princess made her grand entry it was immediate meal planning. 6 weeks later I got my doctors clearance and joined the CoachE squad. Right now at 3 months, I’ve lost at least 10kg after delivery weight while exclusively breastfeeding.
My mind is filled with pure joy living a healthy and active life. If I get pregnant again just know it’s because of Coach E.
Hahahahahahaha Raine just go to the Family Planning section of any hospital ma. Haha. Enjoyed reading this and most moms can relate especially with weight gain during the breastfeeding period.
Thankfully with our squads, we flip that on its head and help breastfeeding moms lose weight and bring HEALTHY (and sexy) back.
Well done, Raine.
Tomi my sister girl is up next. She stalled me all through her pregnancy and joined the squad on delivery. I love her candidness on how STRETCHING it can be. Somedays I almost wanna give my baby away for a season…
Hear Tomi’s experience…
Thank you so much for the opportunity to share my journey/ experience as a first time mom. I do not take the opportunity for granted.
So for me, Life as a first time mom has been a bit of so many things. Amazing, Stretching, beautiful, weakness-exposing, its been a journey of learning and unlearning, a journey of responsibilities and discoveries.
Beautiful & Amazing –
When I had my baby, the joy of motherhood overwhelmed me. I believe the joy of motherhood is divine and having experienced a baby loss, I sort of understood the joy the devil robbed me of. But hey, its all to the glory of God.
The joy of motherhood is soooo priceless. It cannot be explained. It is better experienced. Being a first time mom has taught me gratitude. I stare at my baby and I am just in awe of God’s goodness.
“How can another blessed human being come out of me?” “How did I get so blessed and favored?”
“How did I carry a whole human being in my belly for nine (9) whole months?”, are questions that keeps me in awe of God.
Stretching, Learning & Unlearning –
Being a first time mom has stretched me in so many ways. I could no longer choose to do anything without first considering my baby.
From changing diapers, to exclusive breastfeeding to pumping milk at home and at work, to extreme cleanliness, to washing clothes, to keeping my job, to cooking, to taking care of my husband, to taking care of myself, to eating well, to sleepless nights, to keeping my home, to staying sane, to keeping my spiritual life, the struggle to pray and all, to learning how to use drugs for my baby, to dealing with my mother-in-law with wisdom (we legit had several issues. Lol), to being careful and observant of my baby, to choosing to trust God when I had challenges, to not allowing what people say get at me and everything in between has stretched me and still in so many ways. I am learning everyday that this motherhood journey would require plenty of God-doses and wisdom.
Strengths &Weakness Exposing –
This is where I would laugh loud at myself. Whew!
Being a first time mom exposed both my strengths and weakness. I was not very good with keeping a neat room, disorganized is a better word. When baby came, my room was always upside down and it made me feel worse, I had to learn it by force.
I do not give up easily, so when I had my baby, I had to breastfeed exclusively. That choice tested my resilience and I am glad I was able to achieve it.
In conclusion, I would say motherhood for me has been a journey of Intentionality.
I love love love all she shared. Truly, you will become SO CLEAN you won’t believe it. You would not wanna do anything to jeopardize the baby’s health. Also that decision of leave your job or keep your job? Phew. I left mine and I recall how HARD it was but a new baby, CoachE’Squad Ltd was birthed from it. Tomi kept hers and got help as that was the wise thing to do at the time
I actually visited with Tomi when her baby came.
UCHECHI shares her journey
Now let’s hear from UC. UC and I have done some major fitness miles together from her single days to preparing to be a bride, to preggo and now new mom, and she is just sunshine walahi. Hear her journey to motherhood…
I had my baby on the 9th of May, the child birth experience was smooth. I was in labor for about 1hr 30 mins.
Prior to that I had signed up to CoachE’s ‘Preggo Moms’ squad. I was there for roughly twelve (12) weeks(an amazing time). I very much liked the accountability of the group, because there was always this tension to not eat bad and gain too much weight.
I wanted to gain under 15kg but unfortunately, from my second trimester my eating days were inconsistent. I would have good weeks and bad weeks. Overall I gained about 23kg and after delivery I lost about 17kg within 6 – 8 weeks.
After having my baby, I was more particular about what I ate. I wanted to make sure I didn’t gain any weight with breastfeeding, cause I had heard that some women gained the weight they didn’t even gain in pregnancy. This made me determined not to gain weight.
Thankfully my baby is 5 months now and I haven’t put on EXTRA weight. Even though I still have about 6kg from the pregnancy to lose, I’m happy I haven’t gained any weight even while breastfeeding.
I still eat relatively healthy because, I want to have enough nutrition in my milk for my baby.
Being a new mom was really hard, especially the first 6 weeks. It was my first experience, so the sleepless nights really got to me and I low key had the postpartum blues. But I’m grateful to my family who helped me during that period because I’m not much of a night crawler, I value my beauty sleep very much. Once I have 6-8hrs of good sleep, I’m ready for the day. But with the baby, I couldn’t even get a full 2hr sleep at night because they still have their day and night mixed up.
It was a whole new challenge navigating, studying my baby, learning what she likes and doesn’t like, coming up with a routine morning and night. It was such a huge task, but God saw me through.
She’s 5 months old now and just a blessing.
I’m happy about the routine I put in place. I can’t really stress the important of having a routine enough.
Initially, it might seem like it not helpful but when your child is about 3/4 months they begin to understand the routine. They tie those activities as part of your routine to what to expect next. My baby knows that after her bath at night, she goes to sleep immediately. I put her down by 7:30pm (max) and she’s up by 5:30am. She started this around 4 months and I’m so grateful because I never thought I would have 8/9 hrs. stretch of sleep this early. I attribute it to the routine which I started when I got back from the hospital. It didn’t seem like it was working initially but now I see that it was working.
She is a very good eater. I think the variety of food I ate while pregnant and now that I am breastfeeding is not making her a picky eater. I breastfed exclusively for 5 months, so I introduced solid foods (apple and banana purees) to her recently. I’m just happy she takes them and isn’t so picky.
Being a mom is a blessing, you can’t really describe the love and joy you feel in your heart. At the same time, it is the most tasking duty any mom can ever have. I think of my baby 24/7, I want to make sure she’s perfectly okay. I want time for myself but at the same time be with her.
It’s indescribable.
I’m just grateful for the gift of motherhood and the ability to create life.
Working with God to create this process is Awesome. Also very grateful for the knowledge I gained from ‘preggo squad’ with CoachE.
Now I know what to do during my second pregnancy, and I’m looking forward to it.
What a beautiful way to end this blog. What UC said about routines is SO TRUE and hopefully gives new moms hope. One day, your baby will sleep longer hours so hang in there mama.
And take help as often as you need it when people offer. Dont be afraid or ashamed to ask for help too. Time away from baby occasionally to do YOU is HEALTHY.
Hope you all enjoyed these stories? Loved it and absolutely love the #CEOriginals series too. Do you have something else you want us to run an original on? Or something you wanna share from this post? Drop a line below. And if you need help on your fitness journey to bringing healthy back whether as a preggo, nursing mom or regular chick, we are HERE FOR IT
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