After 3 1/2 Years Pregnant – How Do I Get Back to the Real Me?

How do I get back to the “real me” after 3 pregnancies back to back? I had three babies in 3 1/2 years, which is no small feat for any woman. Add in complications and 5 surgeries, plus 10 months of breastfeeding, and you’ve got a combination that would do a number on anyone’s body.
Now, I’m left looking and feeling like a different person – not the “real me” that I remember.  Young, pretty and thin, that’s what I remember.  I know it’s important to have pictures of me with my sweet babies.  But when I see the pictures, it looks like a stranger holding my girls – not me.
Below are some pictures to illustrate my point.  Here I am before and after 3 pregnancies in a row.
Then:                                                                                 Now:


 
Here are a few of the things that are different about me post-pregnancy:

1. I have someone else’s appetite.  I can no longer tell whether or not I am hungry.  3 1/2 years of eating constantly for someone else or for milk production has left me with a broken hunger sensor.  I really can’t tell when I’m eating because I need to or because I feel like it’s been too long since my last snack.
2. I have someone else’s body.  My body used to be small (I weigh in at 97 pounds normally), muscular and strong.  Now I’m a robust 155 pounds.  My abs were to die for.  Now, after 3 pregnancies in a row (the last one had me at a heaviest weight of 185 pounds), my body may as well be a complete stranger’s.  I certainly don’t recognize it.  Even 2 months after my baby, I still have to wear size 2x clothes and maternity pants.
3. I used to be strong– I mean strong.  Not like, “Ooh, look at me make a muscle!” strong, really strong.  I was a competitive athlete, for crying out loud!  Now, my body is weak.  I can’t even do half of the workouts I used to do with ease.  I can’t do simple stretches that I never found difficult before.  The 5 pound dumbbells are too heavy for my workouts.  What happened to my body?
4. I used to have a different face.  Lack of energy, lack of sleep, and a body that’s on 24-hr production for someone else adds up to a beauty regimen that saps, rather than replenishes, your good looks.  The dark color under my eyes from interrupted rest for 3 1/2 years doesn’t make for the prettiest complexion.
5. I used to have a different life. Having 1 child is quite different from having 4.  Having 3 children under 3 can be just plain chaos.  Every little thing has to be master-planned eons in advance.  I long for a date with my husband that doesn’t have to be shorter than 3 hours because I have to come home to pump!

I looked back at the pictures from before these clustered pregnancies, and I saw the pictures of the real me that I remember.  Now I want to get back to that.
It’s going to be an interesting journey to transition from baby factory back to regular mom!  The biggest transition is in the mind, I think.  Beginning to realize that my body belongs to me again and that I no longer have limiting factors (for foods, medicines, exercises, traveling, etc.) is quite an adjustment.  Knowing that I won’t be having any more babies takes some getting used to also.
How did you get back to the “real you” after you finished having your children?  Let us know in the comments.