A new Wednesday, so a new World Mama. After Egypt, California and Bonaire, we are traveling to Australia for our fourth World Mama of 2017! I would love for you to meet Sahar, a first time mama who lives in Brisbane. She has the cutest little baby girl. Atiya is seven months old. Sahar is sharing her story of how she became a mother. How she felt about her pregnancy, her feelings on being a mom and getting back into shape after Atiya was born.

Being a mother is such a beautiful thing. It’s a journey that most women decide to take and it is one of those journeys that is truly a blessing. For me, my journey started in September 2015 which is when I found out I was pregnant.

My name is Sahar and I am the mother of a 7 month old baby girl named Atiya. We live in Brisbane, Australia and Atiya is my first baby. My baby was born in May 2016 and she is the reason for all that I do. Your bond with your baby is so great and I believe no one can get in the way of that and I only now truly understand what it means when you hear the saying “A love of a mother’s is like no other”.

I was never the type of girl who would get clucky or liked babies or kids. My husband and I knew that after we got married we would have kids eventually but we didn’t realise it would happen as soon as it did. I fell pregnant 3 months into our marriage and everyday I am so thankful that I have the most beautiful baby girl that has filled my life with more love that you could possibly imagine. My days are filled now with purpose. I worked in the mining industry for 3 years prior to falling pregnant and I loved my job however, I love being a mother a whole lot more. My job was never my career and I was never that kind of girl that wanted a career but being a mum is a lifetime career which I chose to have. Everyday is a new day with Atiya. She is a routine baby and she became a routine baby on her own. I just followed in her suit but even though she is a routine baby, somehow our days are never the same. In the beginning it was hard when she was a new born and waking up every few hours. That was tough mentally and physically as my body had to adjust to little or no sleep. But now that she is older and sleeping through the night, which only started happening when she was about 5 months old, It’s not as a tough as it use to be.

During my pregnancy I was one of those women that was fortunate that I didn’t get sick or have any complications. I went through my pregnancy, enjoying every minute. The only downfall in my pregnancy was the major weight gain of 21 kilos which apparently is pretty normal however the doctors say that between 12 and 16 kilos is recommended. It wasn’t pleasant gaining that much weight and gaining it so quickly. I gained majority of my weight in the first and second trimester. I really did relax with my eating and in my mind I thought the baby needs to be healthy and if I need to stack on some weight for her to be healthy then so be it but I went through my pregnancy being cautious of what I ate but also indulged in things that I could eat, especially sweets.

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My pregnancy was in Australia’s summer which let me tell you is really hot and humid. Even when there is a breeze it’s a hot one. I spent a lot of time in the pool and went to the gym as often as I could which was roughly 3-4 times a week. I knew that I needed to keep up my normal routine which was to go to the gym and be active. Being pregnant was not an excuse for me to just sit around and do nothing however even though I exercised, the weight just piled on. Normally I am so hungry after a workout but with a baby growing in my stomach I was 10 times hungrier than normal so I would eat literally for 2 people. When I informed my doctor about my weight gain and that I was a little concerned about it because I was gaining weight pretty quickly, she told me that before I fell pregnant my weight was below what it should normally be for my height and frame, so the weight that I was gaining during this pregnancy was a good thing.

I’m in the process now of trying to loose the baby weight and I only have another 1.5kgs to go! I am pretty proud of myself because trying to loose that much weight is extremely difficult. Everyone told me because I was breastfeeding it would just fall off but in my case it didn’t. Two weeks after I gave birth I started going for walks every day. I started off with half an hour walks then increased it to an hour with hill walks. After 4 weeks, I went back to the gym. The weight started to slowly come off week by week. I watched what I ate also. I went on a no carb diet which I believe helped however the downside of my diet is that my milk dried up when Atiya was about 3 and half months old. I was pretty upset that I couldn’t continue feeding my baby breast milk and it was my fault entirely. However I’m glad that 3 and half months of her life she had breast milk and the transition to formula was very easy. She took to formula straight away which was great. Atiya has been such a cool, calm and easy baby. Even my labour and birth was very easy and calm with her.

I am very blessed and I am so thankful that I have her and I have gone through my experience the way I have. I was so petrified of giving birth and going through motherhood blind but she has helped me and made this experience for both of us so easy and I am so grateful to her.

x
Sahar

You can follow Sahar’s journey through motherhood on her blog called Milk, Boobs and Baby. Here she also sells the cutest baby items, so be sure to check it out. And don’t forgot to follow her Instagram and Facebook