CONGRATULATIONS!

You’ve survived the first 3 months of Motherhood without any major trauma (other than the birth of course!), you’re getting used to this new regime of feeding, changing, bouncing, singing, cleaning, changing, feeding, bouncing, feeding, changing…

You’re finally managing to get your pyjamas off before 2pm and actually mastered the art of having a 6 minute shower. You’ve joined some mother and baby groups,  and met some lovely like minded mummies and best of all you’re just squeezed back into your pre-pregnancy jeans – life is good!

BANG!

One day you notice loads of hair in the hoover, then you realise it’s everywhere, everywhere you’ve been there’s hair, the sofa, the car, the bed – YOUR hair is everywhere. It’s falling out in handfuls, every time you wash your hair, your biggest fear is pulling metres of wet hair out of the plug hole.

Why?  I hear you wail!

Next goes your nails, for a year now your nails have been the healthiest they’ve ever been, and growing to lengths you’ve never know, but now along with the hair loss, you’re nails are weak, flaking and peeling until they bleed. What’s worse is suddenly your pre-pregnancy jeans actually don’t fit, oh please don’t say the washing machines packed up now too?! Nope, alas it’s not the machine, it’s you! No matter how much salad or even how little passes your lips the pounds are piling on at an uncontrollable rate of not’s…

What Is Happening To Me?!

I’m fat, balding, falling apart, and my wonderful little bundle of joy has stopped sleeping the 6 hours each night and is now waking on the hour, shouting at me, I’m just a walking food supply. I’m knackered, physically and mentally ruined!

Well, I can’t tell you about a magic cure, there’s no lotion or shampoo, cream or tonic to stop all this happening, alas this is pretty familiar for most Mums.

This was in fact me, tragically my first baby was stillborn, these symptoms seemed to show at a much earlier stage, I put it down to stress, of course my body was mourning just as much as soul.

Then with my second baby George, these symptoms appeared when he was around 3 months old, he’d been sleeping through since he was just a few weeks old, but by 14 weeks he was such a hungry baby, waking constantly, I tried the hungry baby formula to no avail, so at 4 months we started weaning and he began to sleep through again.

I put the hair loss this time down to hormones, it seemed to be the point when my body was getting back to normal so seemed to make sense.

This time round I was ready…. Ready and prepared for Mother Nature to do her worst! It was literally 12 weeks on the dot, I remember scratching my hair and there it was the tell tale handful of hair, almost the same day it seemed my nails all ripped off and I was ready to don my baggy Superdry tracky bottoms and hoody to disguise the immanent bulge!

Elodie my 3rd baby was so different to George who was 3 and a half, she never slept through, this was down to her dairy intolerance, with constant breathing problems and sickness, even now at a year old I’ve not managed a full night sleep. We also now had the roaming pre-schooler, who regularly climbed into our bed, so on the rare nights Elodie slept, George managed to wake us. Sleep is now alien in the Wyatt household.

This time round I wanted to analyse my eating, exercise and sleep, just to see if there was any link to the timing of my post pregnancy collapse, I have studied my health for 6 months with the hope I could share my findings on a blog post, and here it is!

Christmas 2015 two months before my baby was due, my husband gave me a Fitbit, I didn’t do much with this thing until Elodie was a few weeks old and then used it to prove to the doctors how often she was waking, by showing them my sleep patterns, it then dawned on me that it could be just this, the common link was …. SLEEP!

After I lost Chloe I didn’t sleep, I threw myself immediately into starting an awareness campaign to try to prevent others from the trauma of Stillbirth, this campaign turned into a whirlwind that swept me along, I founded Count The Kicks (now known as Kicks Count). This kept my mind occupied and helped me focus on something other than grief, but it was all consuming, I worked day and night, I probably slept for a couple of hours each night at the most for over a year.

With George, it wasn’t until he started his big growth spurts at 3 months that my sleep patterns were badly affected, Boom! Bye Bye hair! Then teething struck… On goes the weight!

Now, with Elodie the culmination of having a pre-schooler and a sleepless baby, along with the stress of doctors appointments on top of having to juggle work, it became clear to me this is the point my body starts to fall apart.

I’ve read lots of info and it seems sleep or the lack of plays havoc with our bodies, sleep is the time when our bodies rejuvenate, heal and grow, so obviously if you are deprived of sleep your body doesn’t have time to sort itself out. Also if you don’t get enough sleep your body tires quickly, so to compensate your body begins to store fat and sugar to gain energy, and so you gain weight!

Lack of sleep, irregular meal times and a bad diet are all contributing factors.

The sad news is, other than regularly allowing yourself time to sleep, most Mothers just have to carry on, accept that this is all part of the journey, and just be comforted in the knowledge that in just a couple of years our babies will  become adolescents, we will regain our sleep once more, our hair will be thick and glossy, our nails beautifully kept, our size 12 skinny jeans are comfy and we will be desperate for our kids to get out of bed! Or will we……?!

Along side sleep your body needs water and a good balanced diet.

How to keep your nails healthy

Vitamin B is known to encourage healthy nail grown in particular Biotin is a supplement to help weak nails.

Enjoy nail polish, it wont harm your nails, I prefer CND Shellac because it can be removed without using files, but take regular breaks from nail polish and try to remove polish with an acetone free remover.

Moisturise your hands regularly especially your cuticles, I like OPI Avoplex Oil or CND Solar Oil

Strengthener  Apply a coat of nail strengthener 2-3 times each day, I like OPI Nail Envy

Wear gloves when cleaning and washing up, detergents and cleaning products dry your skin and nails.

Keep nails trimmed – The  current fashion trend is to have neat, more natural-looking, shorter nails and not the long talons of the past. Trimming nails regularly helps  to maintain healthy nails and helps to avoid snagging or breaking. How frequently you trim will depend on how fast your nails grow. Use a fine file to smooth out the edges of your nails. As part of your manicures, you can also lightly buff the surface of your nails, especially if you tend to get ridges.

How To Keep Hair Healthy

Iron deficiency is known to be the main reason for hair loss, a balanced diet should provide you with the right vitamins and minerals but an iron supplement and multi vitamin may give you that boost you need, I like Spatone sachets as these are liquid form, added to a small glass of orange juice which will give you the added vitamin C that will help carry the iron in your blood.

Spinach and Kale: Super foods packed with Iron, vitamin A, C and protein. Milk, yogurt, cheese, eggs etc. are loaded with essential nutrients such as proteins, Vitamin B12, iron, zinc and Omega 6 fatty acids. Dairy products are also a great source of biotin (Vitamin B7) that is known to fight hair loss.

Oats: Include a big bowl of oats in your morning meal to bid goodbye to hair fall. Oats are rich in fibre, zinc, iron, omega-6 fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) that stimulate hair growth and will make your hair thick and healthy.

Walnuts: Add walnuts to your diet to prevent hair loss. It is the only known nut to contain biotin, B vitamins (B1, B6 and B9), Vitamin E, plenty of protein and magnesium, all of which strengthen hair cuticles and nourish the scalp. It helps protect your cells from DNA damage which may be caused due to sun exposure.

Lentils: Lentils are loaded with protein, iron, zinc, and biotin. Besides this, lentils are full of folic acid which is necessary for restoring the health of red blood cells that supply skin and scalp with the much-needed oxygen. Chicken: Poultry meat is rich in high quality protein which strengthens fragile hair and prevents breakage. Since hair and nails are composed of proteins, one should include them in their daily diet.

Strawberry: Strawberries contain high levels of silica. Silica is a trace mineral vital for hair strength and hair growth. Other silica rich foods include rice, oats, onion, cabbage, cucumber and cauliflower.

Yogurt: Yogurt is packed with Vitamin B5 and Vitamin D that are known to promote hair follicle health. Alternatively, you can also use yogurt to make a hair mask every once in a while.

Foods rich in Vitamin-C: Vitamin C supports the absorption of iron in our body, the deficiency of which may lead to hair loss. Vitamin C is also known for its antioxidant properties which reduces the damage caused by free radicals that may make your hair brittle and weak. Add fruits like oranges, papaya, blueberries, lime and kiwi to your diet. Vitamin C also helps in the production of an essential protein called collagen which strengthens blood vessels that supports the hair shafts.

Water. Water. Water.

Most importantly try to get as much sleep as you can!