How Long After Baby Did You Feel like "You" Again?

Lets see my oldest is 4 1/2 so just over 5 year now. LOL sorry but you find a new normal after having kids.

It's been almost 6 years. Still waiting.

It's not bad on this side of the mommy divide, just different.

I still remember the day. I went out for a haircut. My twins were 10 months old. I got it cut and styled again, and I felt like I was walking out of this "dead mommy" fog.

You never go back to just being "you" ever again. Get used to your new normal.

Honey I haven't had a baby in 14 years and I STILL don't feel like 'me' again!

Course I LIKE the new 'me' better, just miss the way the old 'me'; looked is all!

:)

2 years.

My jaw dropped when my oldest friend said it takes a couple years to really feel like yourself again when I was preggers, but sure enough... it was like a lightswitch happened right around the 2 year mark. Talking with other moms, that seems to be pretty normal. 2 years after the birth of your last child. (Aka, if you get preggers before your child is 2... you have another 3 years to go).

Heck S., my son is 14 and I still don't feel like myself. LOL

I don't think it is a matter of feeling the same way as before I had him - I think it is more that my priorities shifted, I finished growing up, and suddenly had someone else completely dependent on me. My horizons actually broadened after I had him - I was (and am) doing things daily that never thought I would ever do.

So, while I don't feel like myself pre-child - I like the self that I have become very much.

Took me 9 months with my last baby to feel great. I was at the weight I wanted to be and in shape. Mentally, I was on medication for anxiety and I had never felt better in my life. :)

Depends on what you define as "you." I define it as being able to function with clear thinking and having some energy. That takes regular sleep, good nutrition, and some "me" time. All of those are out the window with an infant or a nonsleeper. It also depends on your hormones. I'm feeling like I am coming out some dark tunnel with my almost 10 month old (who still isn't sleeping through the night). I remember feeling much better when my first was around 15 - 16 months and I'd weaned her at 13 months AND she was sleeping through the night. I felt great when she was around 2ish ....until I became preggers with number 2. :)

About a year! :(
It seems like that was when I finally was getting enough sleep, had lost enough weight, was no longer leaking milk all over the place, and could finally focus on my own interests rather then BABY BABY BABY all the time.

I don't know if you ever do - that's not all bad. It's just that the baby changes your life forever. Alot for me had to do w/ sleep. If I got some I felt better - if not, I struggled. Just take it as it comes - enjoy every day - they grow sososososososos fast!

My kids are 5, 4, and 2. I am just now starting to feel like myself. Going from pregnant to nursing to pregnant to nursing to pregnant took at least 2 years to bounce back from physically. Mentally - I've been pretty good all along.

J.

I love the responses you have received and I think you are really never yourself again. I am a teacher and I feel much more connected to my students then I did before I had kids and I am much more empathetic of situations around me.

Physically, my first child was a c-section and it really took me at least 6 months to feel "normal". My second child was a VBAC and I delivered in December. I can honestly say that I feel like I am almost back to normal.

I didn't breastfeed (not by choice) so I know that also effects when you feel like you get your body back and sleep does play a big role. In addition, I felt more like myself when I went back to work. Being in that routine again made a difference. So I think for every woman it is a little different. The addition of a child does impact your life forever and you will never be the same, you become a better person...a mom :)

I never have! It's a "new normal" now! Do you mean hormonally, physically, or both? Hormonally, the heavy swings and crying periods abated about 2 months after I stopped breastfeeding. It was tough during that time, honestly. Of course, being up multiple times a night and working full-time by day didn't help the exhaustion factor, so that played a role. When both my kids got to that 1-year point, I definitely felt more "like myself", but I'm serious when I tell you that it's never been the same self as prior to having kids. Physically, I'm still wondering if that old me will ever come back! Part of it is age - as I've gotten older, I have a harder time recovering from a tough workout, I have sciatic nerve pain in one leg, and my PMS symptoms are horrendous. I'm not trying to say that it's ALL bad, but seriously, it's not the same!!!!!! Just my experience.

Physically: 1 year for 1st. 3 months for 2nd, 1 year after 3rd.
As for jogging or rough exercise: at least 6 months for all three for pelvis not to be sore.
Mentally: I felt like myself sometime within first few months after mild post partum stuff was over but I was tired with low sleep for a year after each.

Coming up on 8 years and.....nope...still not the same. Not that that's a "bad" thing! :)

I'm at almost a year (still BFing) and the fact that I can't quite answer this question probably means I'm not there yet :)

5 months after I had my first - but then found out I was prgnant again. Ha Ha.

About 9 months after my daughter bc I lost all her baby weight plus the baby weight from my son (didnt have time to finish getting the weight off before being pregnant again)

And now with my 3rd she is about 3 months and I am slowly getting there.

If you are worried about weight - Just remember it took 9 months to put on the weight - you need at least 9 to take it back off. :)

I had a huge and somewhat freeing transition when my daughter turned 15 months old and weaned. I'll never be the same person (physically, emotionally or spiritually) as I was before children. However, I feel stronger in the person I am now and my body is balanced, fit and not responding to pregnancy or breastfeeding hormones!

For me...never! lol! In a good way though!

A full 9 or 10 months. Then I was a crying mess for another month or so just realizing how big my baby already was and how I wasn't going to be able to freeze time to enjoy it all for just a little longer. I was me, but I cried quite a bit up until her 1st birthday. It was all downhill and happy after that... very few emotionally challenging moments now.

I felt like me after they started sleeping through the night (12 weeks with #1 and 9 MONTHS with #2) though the physical pains were pretty good about 1 month after my vaginal delivery and 2 months after my c-section. Once I quit nursing though I did have a mental "blues" period where my hormones were all over the place for a month or two (that happened when I quit nursing my EBF 12 month old).

I will never be the "you" I was before having babies. Everything about me has changed. My body. My mind. My decisions. My focus.
And I embrace it all!! :)
Seriously, though, to answer your question I don't think I have honestly felt the same as I did before I had my kids. I feel different in every aspect.

about 8 months AFTER they stopped nursing.

For me, within 8 weeks. From reading on here and other places, I'm convinced I had the easiest healing time (physically and mentally) ever. For my friends and family they say around a year or two.

I guess what do you mean by "like you" By the time my son was 2 months I felt like I had my body back to me. No more sore nipples, no more sore body, had more control of my emotions (but I was still hormonal). But I also felt a little like a slave to my son...I exlusivly breastfed (for the first year) so the demand of feeding so often and having to keep such a restricted diet made me feel like not so much me.

I agree with the other moms...I have a new norm now.

Mentally? - you will never be same, kids change you inside out.
Physically? - I am better than before kids - but I am working on it it did not just happened.

Hours! I think it's one of the advantages of homebirth. You don't feel like you're in recovery for days, you don't feel like a patient. You just go back to non-pregnant life as soon as you get out of bed! :) I took a long nap and then I went downstairs and resumed life with the new title of "mommy".