Post Partum Story & Belly Bandit Review

I cant believe last time i wrote on this blog i was only a few weeks pregnant and here i am now, a mother to a beautiful almost 3 month old baby girl.
I can really say no one can prepare you for motherhood , you just simply adjust and its all in your instincts. its a pretty beautiful thing. A lot of people ask how long it took to drop the baby weight etc. I know that was one of my concerns. I gained a total of 20lbs during my pregnancy. I didn't go crazy and ate for two but i definitely indulged. before pregnancy I avoided starches like bread, pasta and rice (even wholewheat) but during my 9 months I was obsessed with panera bread. I also had a big craving for M&M mcflurrys from Mc donalds. I have been exclusively breast feeding since the day she was born and I dropped all the baby weight within the first 10 days. Now of course certain parts of my body  are now covered in stretch marks and my stomach is very far from being "tight" but the human body is truly amazing! little by little and day by day you start feeling like your old self again! (pre-partum)

This picture was taken 3 weeks after I had danielle. What I did right after the recovery room was put my belly bandit on.( a compression garment for post partum) I read tons of reviews on it (both positive and negative) but i still decided to give it a try. I do feel like this and the combination of breast feeding helped immensly, I liked that right after labor the garment gave me some sort of comfort,  without it i felt a strange empty feeling in my stomach! I purchased the Bamboo one because it was supposed to be most comfortable. 

Now I am not going to lie it wasn't the most comfortable at times , especially when nursing.

I had to remove it several times a day since you nurse a newborn every 2-3 hours. It also did show through your clothes (not since you will be going out anywhere lol) but it didn't really matter to me because everyday I saw my stomach shrink more and more. The instructions stated to wear for the next 6 weeks or so. Since i had tons of family over and by the second week everything really felt right i stopped using it.

Bio-Oil is another product that i swear by! during my first trimester my best friend gave me the coco butter lotion set for stretch marks and it smelled awful! So for the first 2-4 months i really didn't put anything on. I start researching lotions and oils to prevent stretchmarks and i came across bio-oil.

the scent is far from pleasant but the oil formula really soothes your skin especially when your stomach starts getting itchy!! I Used it from 4-9 months DAILY in the evenings and I'm proud to say i have not 1 stretch mark on my stomach. However i do have them on my thighs and chest . I wish i would have listened to my mom when she told me to moisturize my thighs and bum :( 

Me and My sister have started a new blog all things mommy, fashion , nutrition and fitness please check it out!

http://gigi-elle.blogspot.com/