It's been a long time since I've blogged so I'm going to do a couple of posts today because I have a lot of topics to discuss.

So I'm experiencing some new postnatal body issues that I want to talk about. If any of you that have had babies can corroborate these experiences, I would greatly appreciate it!

My hair is falling out in chunks! It's crazy how much hair I'm losing. About 3 weeks ago, I was taking a shower and bam! A chunk of hair came out while I was washing it. I thought it was a temporary thing, but the next time I washed my hair, same thing! I freaked out and went researching online and found out this is a very common postnatal symptom. Apparently when you are pregnant, your body produced new hormones and these new hormones also produce more hair. After delivery, the pregnancy hormones cease production and all of a sudden, all the excess hair that you produced during pregnancy starts falling out. This is what I'm experiencing...and it's driving me crazy. I have to constantly vacuum the floors in my house b/c I find loose strands of hair all over the floor and it grosses me out.

So what can you do to treat it? I've been using shampoo that strengthens hair and my sister-in-law said flaxseed also helps. In addition, I bought ponytail holders that don't pull out your hair when you put them on or take them off. Other than that, I don't think there is much that I can do. Hopefully this post will help other women know that they are not alone in experiencing this madness!

So the other postnatal thing I was experiencing was really bad joint pain and muscle soreness. I didn't know how to stop it and I thought that going to the gym would stretch my muscles out and get my joints going again, hence stopping the pain. NOPE. I was getting frustrated and at the same time, I decided to hire a personal trainer (because I wanted help losing the last 10 pounds of pregnancy weight). What I like about 24 Hour Fitness is that when you hire a personal trainer, they also give you a meal plan with ideas for meals customized for your goals. They tell you to eat 5 small meals a day, and for every one of those meals, they give you 7 alternate choices. That's a lot of help and gives you no excuse to not eat healthy. I expressed my joint/muscle pain issues to my trainer and he told me to start taking calcium pills. I went to Costco and bought a large bottle. I took one pill when I got home and the next day...NO JOINT PAIN. It was like a miracle, seriously. I've been taking calcium pills everyday and since then, my joint pain has disappeared.

So let me rant and rave about my personal trainer now. The muscle soreness continued so I talked to my trainer about it. He told me to stop going to the aerobics classes because my body wasn't ready for it and also showed me some stretches to do to help the soreness go away. And I had told him when I hired him that I felt my core strength was completely gone and I wanted help restoring it. We've had 4 sessions now and my core strength is almost completely back! I couldn't get up from the floor when I first started, and now I can, along with doing other things. You don't realize how much you use your core until it's gone. Plus I've learned so many new exercises that I love doing! So my recommendation for postnatal care after all this: hire a personal trainer when your doctor approves you to start exercising again, and take calcium, also with your doctor's approval. As for the hair loss, my recommendations are above. And of course if everything fails, just remember the amazing little one that you gave birth to - I'm sure that will put a smile on your face, as it does on mine!