The life of a baby before they are born has always been so interesting to me. There is a lot going on in their life as a little baby in the womb. We don’t see the majority of it but it is far from boring at any given moment.
Their cells are constantly taking in information from their mom. The information they gather tells them how to prepare for survival in the new world they will soon be living in. This creates the basics of how their body works. This is hard to imagine so I will share with you a story to bring this together a bit better.
Today’s story is focused more on how a baby’s metabolism develops to function. I don’t see many people talking about this so I thought I should share it with you.
My older brother has always had a more difficult time with his weight. It is easy for him to gain it and not exactly easy to lose it. He has to really pay attention to his body to know what works for him. As for me, I can gain weight pretty fast and I can lose it in almost the same pace. I too have to work at it but not with the same amount of effort as my older brother. My younger brother, well, he can gain weight at a slower pace compared to my older brother and I and it practically melts off him the moment he makes a tiny lifestyle change.
How is it that we all have such different metabolisms?
We all have the same mom and dad, we grew up eating the same foods, we all enjoy the same types of foods, we have very few differences in our dislikes with food, we are active adults and grew up playing all the sports available to us. But yet, when we look at how our individual metabolism’s function they are far from the same.
So, what makes our metabolisms so different when there are so many similarities?
Well my friends, the big difference was our expereince in the womb.
Baby #1’s womb experience:
My mom is about 5’3 and before my parents started having children she weighed 115 pounds. When she found out she was pregnant her lifestyle changed a little bit. She wasn’t a breakfast person so she started to make sure she ate breakfast. She didn’t have morning sickness so nothing stopped her from eating as she normally did. She grew up on fried and starchy foods and was not told to eat any differently so she didn’t. She was instructed to eat for two so she did just that. She loved to play baseball but since she was pregnant she was no longer able to. She wanted to be as safe as she could so she took it easy.
Mom:
“I babied myself with my first baby. I didn’t focus on my weight or worried about if I was eating the right kind of foods. I never really thought about buying the healthier oils to cook in. I often ate cookies instead of vegetables and I craved hot dogs like nobody’s business (she said with nervous laugh). I didn’t have morning sickness, I felt good, energetic , and actually I felt better being pregnant than when I wasn’t pregnant. I didn’t realize this was going to affect my son with his weight gain for the rest of his life and if I did I would have done better. I never got that kind of information!”
Baby #1 was born healthy and weighing 7.2 pounds.
About 7 hours from the beginning of contractions to holding her bundle of joy in her arms.
Natural delivery
I could understand where she is coming from! Can’t you?
Think about it. She was an active woman playing baseball and she weighed 115 pounds and never had issues with her weight. When she got pregnant she wasn’t instructed to make any changes so she went with what felt right to her. She ate the same foods she always had but this time in different amounts. She thought she was active but said that perhaps not active enough. Keep in mind that during that time there was really no focus on making sure there was a gym to go workout in or group classes so that didn’t cross her mind. Going to the gym was not a typical thing people did at that time to get physical activity. The activities she liked to do before pregnancy was not an option for her any longer. Besides that, she lived in a small town where the only gym available was for sporting events anyway.
My mom went from weighing 115 pounds to 185 pounds while pregnant with my older brother. She later had the post-partum blues and ate more food and wasn’t exercising at all. She told me that how she felt and having the amount of weight gain she did made her feel depressed as well. This is when things started to change.
Mom:
“Your Dad was the one that started me on exercise and helping me with nutrition. Then my friend and I started to workout together by going on walks and then we started a workout group together at the church. There were mostly older women but it was fun!”
Baby #2’s womb experience (3 years later):
When my mom and dad found out she was expecting another baby things were very different this time around.
Mom:
“When I got pregnant with you” (she is talking about me now) I was 125 pounds to start and only gave myself 25 pounds to gain. When I found out I was pregnant that is when I really made sure I was exercising regularly and was very careful with what I ate. I had been going to Jazzercise prior to my pregnancy with you and I actually continued exercising the whole time with you! This time I was also more active during the day anyway because I was chasing your brother around and playing with him. With you I also made sure I ate healthier snacks. I knew what healthier snacks I should have because this was taught in the Jazzercise classes I attended. They gave me information on what my healthier options were for meals and snacks. I would also go to the library to find books and read magazines to find more information on any other healthier options I could have. Again I felt good, energetic, and still felt better being pregnant than not. This time however, I was afraid that it was going to be harder to lose weight after baby number 2 because that is what I was told. I was more conscious of my weight, what I ate, and how much I exercised than when I was pregnant with your brother.”
Baby #2 was born healthy and weighing 7.7 pounds
About 1 hour from beginning of contractions to holding her bundle of joy in her arms.
Natural delivery
See how there is already a whole other experience in the womb from Baby #1 to Baby #2?
She felt great in both pregnancies and still no morning sickness. The differences this time is she was more aware of what her healthier options where, how much activity she did, and how much weight she felt comfortable gaining. Still at this time no one told her how this all affected her baby but she knew how much it affected her and that was very life changing for her. Many of you may be feeling like you share a similar story to her, as if it was about you too. Sometimes we just have to figure it out as we go and that is okay! Both times she loved being pregnant, she cared for her baby, and she did the best that she could with what she knew to do.
Baby #3’s womb experience (4 years later from baby #2):
Before Baby #3 came into our lives my mom got back down 125 pounds. She said she even had more muscle tone because she was still going to Jazzercise regularly (I still remember going with her and sometimes I would even try to do it next to her), she swam with my older brother and I, chased us around, played with us at the park and took us on nature walks.
Then Baby #3 comes along! She started off weighing 125 pounds (this time with more muscle tone than when she was pregnant with me) and again gave herself 25 pounds to gain for her pregnancy. Again she felt great and still no morning sickness.
Mom:
“I had two kids now so I was already more active every day chasing two kids, working out and really watched what I ate. I ate less fried food, a lot of salads, watched my bread intake, I baked, broiled, or boiled a lot too. I also used Pam often when I cooked, it was a life saver! I loved fries, I still do actually, but I made sure I had salads constantly. Again I exercised the whole time through by doing Jazzercise and I loved it!”I remember her exercising with her cute baby bump showing.
“Thank goodness for Don caring for me and helping me exercise and eating differently. He helped so much with the last two pregnancies to make sure I didn’t gain the weight I had with my first.”
Baby #3 was born healthy and weighing 7.11 pounds
About 4 hours from beginning of contractions to holding her bundle of joy in her arms.
Natural delivery
As you can see there is even quite a difference in her lifestyle when comparing my womb life story with my younger brother’s. They are more similar than if either is compared with our older brother’s story but each one of these experiences affected all three of us and how our metabolism’s where going to work after birth.
My mom had no clue how these lifestyle habits where going to affect our lives. All she knew was how she felt, how her body responded to her pregnancies and that she was doing her best each time to have healthy babies. That is all we can ever do right? Our best with what we know at that time.
As I started to close up my post I kept thinking about something my mom said. There was this one statement that kept ringing in my mind.
Mom:
“I didn’t realize this was going to affect my son with his weight gain for the rest of his life and if I did I would have done better. I never got that kind of information!”
You know what; I don’t think many expecting moms get this kind of information still! Have you been told that how you eat and how often you are active actually influences how your baby’s metabolism will work from here on out?
Goodness! Here we are trying to prevent childhood obesity and adult obesity when it is already an issue! Why not try to do something to mitigate that at the most basic level and time when our bodies are developing to work?
Now don’t get me wrong, I have definitely put on the pounds a couple times in my life and my younger brother can also gain weight too. The difference is how long it takes us to get to that point where it is unhealthy and how long it takes to get back to a healthier state. We are not immune to weight gain but our experience with weight is very different than our older brother’s.
There are also some interesting similarities between my older brother and myself when it comes to where we gain weight and our “trouble” areas. We also have similar food sensitivities that our younger brother does not have. I will save these womb expeiences for another post when I talk about GI health so you are going to have to wait 😉
The things I want you to take away from this post:
- Do the best you can with what you know. Embrace the fact that your best will always be different.
- Be active during your pregnancy by doing what you LOVE! This will keep you consistent.
- Eat as healthy as you can and if you don’t know what that means for YOU ask someone to help….. Ahem, maybe the person who’s blog your reading might have an idea or two 😉
- Find a workout buddy and ask your spouse for some added support if needed. Keep in mind that when you ask for support you must tell people what that means 🙂
- Don’t focus on just the weight, focus on the lifestyle habits. My mom chose to give herself 25 pounds as a pregnancy weight gain goal because she is petite and that is what felt good for HER. Remember she started out at 115 pounds and had stayed there until she had her first baby. 125 pounds became her norm afterwards. Moral of the story, if you need a number on a scale to keep you in check then pick what feels physically comfortable for you. If you would rather keep in check by how often you eat foods that energize you and how often you are active then do that.
Now that we are at a close for today I want to know what is going through your mind.
Tell me, what interested you the most about this post?