OP, you just had the baby days ago? It takes more than just a few days for the uterus to go back down and the retained fluid in your body to flush out.

I'm a smaller person and lost the baby weight pretty quickly, but at just days out-still had the belly.

I kept on 10 lbs when I nursed my babies. I nursed for 2 years each so I just felt fat for years. If I could do it all over again I’d go straight to formula so my hormones and body could come back faster. I felt postpartum for literally years

I have had two kids and my younger is about to turn 6. It’s only been in the last month that I’ve been looking at my stomach and thinking “wow, it’s finally back to normal.”

It was 90% there two years after birth but there was still loose skin. It took another four years for the last 10%.

You have to give your body a lot of time, OP.

Yeah, you start out all big and squishy. That doesn't last too long. Your abs will start to engage and the water retention will decrease and your uterus swelling will go down. You may still be bigger than pre-pregnancy, but it does keep getting better and pretty quickly. Give it a few weeks.

If you had an IV, you’re almost certainly retaining water. I came home from the hospital at the same weight I walked in. Starting about a week postpartum, I lost 15-20 pounds over the course of 2 weeks.

I wasn’t able to lose much weight with any of my children until after I weaned around a year. Breastfeeding made me starving all the time and I couldn’t lose weight.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was so disappointed that I lost less weight than the birthweight of my baby when I came home from the hospital. It’s totally normal. Just breastfeed and the weight will fall off.

This is such a lie. Weight definitely never fell off me breastfeeding, even with major oversupply.

Same. And I was working part time so we primarily fed on demand, and that kid was voracious.


I just wanted to say in addition to your uterus needing to shrink down. There is so much extra fluid in your body right now. The best thing you can do is have a lie down and rest. I did notice that every day I got good rest things shifted with my healing. Remember the uterus leaves at dinner plate sized wound inside your body. It takes some time to heal that.

Also, you look incredible.

placenta, not uterus

OP, the journey doesn't end with the birth of the baby. This is the fourth trimester. Get back to us when the the baby is 3 months old. Your body will be very different then. Not necessarily close to what it was pre-pregnancy (although for some women it is), but very different from how it is right now.

Yeah, don’t look at anything until after your postpartum visit. And even then, maybe don’t look. There is a lot of healing happening in your body right now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was so disappointed that I lost less weight than the birthweight of my baby when I came home from the hospital. It’s totally normal. Just breastfeed and the weight will fall off.

This is such a lie. Weight definitely never fell off me breastfeeding, even with major oversupply.

Same. And I was working part time so we primarily fed on demand, and that kid was voracious.


I just wanted to say in addition to your uterus needing to shrink down. There is so much extra fluid in your body right now. The best thing you can do is have a lie down and rest. I did notice that every day I got good rest things shifted with my healing. Remember the uterus leaves at dinner plate sized wound inside your body. It takes some time to heal that.

Also, you look incredible.

Yep this was the absolute worst part of pregnancy. My advice is to just not look down and especially don't look in the mirror before 4-6 weeks are up. I never thought I had major body issues, but I felt suicidal looking at my body after birth. Things were much better by 4 weeks. With my 1st I actually left the hospital weighing MORE than when I went in (I was on a saline pump for 3 days). My face was so swollen I could barely open my eyes in the morning because it would pool while I slept.

I worked really hard on it and did get back to pre-pregnancy weight by 12 weeks though. It definitely was a struggle and in no way did it "fly off". Moms walking groups were so much fun. Still took months longer to firm up and look like my old self though.

The first 3 weeks with my newborn just seemed like a hazy memory of sweating and peeing all the time, not to mention bleeding for weeks, too. Within that time I lost 30 lbs…mostly fluid retention that melted away. I ended up maybe 5lbs heavier than my pre-baby weight without much effort.

Anonymous wrote:I was so disappointed that I lost less weight than the birthweight of my baby when I came home from the hospital. It’s totally normal. Just breastfeed and the weight will fall off.

This is such a lie. Weight definitely never fell off me breastfeeding, even with major oversupply.

I was so disappointed that I lost less weight than the birthweight of my baby when I came home from the hospital. It’s totally normal. Just breastfeed and the weight will fall off.