Ceres

might depend on the surgeon. i know my surgeon won't do it on anyone over 60

my surgeon always described it as the range of fill that is the "sweet spot" as having good restriction (without being stuck on solids), not being hungry between meals, small meals of 3 oz, and still losing 2+ pounds (depending on the person) a week.

wow! that's fantastic. i hope i get there with you some day i can't even begin to imagine what's that like. congrats!

not really, postpartum has been mostly mental for me =/

having a similar issue, not with weight gain, but relearning how to eat all over since giving birth. i was fine after i had a partial unfill during the first trimester and was even able to eat bread. those days are over now sadly. i've had quite a few episodes of being stuck from not paying attention, eating too quickly or not taking enough small enough bites, or even with finding a new food that may potentially be off my list of edibles. i think we all go there because most of us spent nine months of not being so restricted on foods that get us stuck. or at least that was my experience. i wouldn't feel like a failure though. we didn't do everything perfectly the first time around when initially banded. now it's a matter of going through that again and relearning what made it work the first go around.

i was told to gain no more than 15 pounds; however i could not keep in that range. i tried. my weight skyrocketed during the first trimester and short of starving myself there was nothing i could do. thank god it leveled off on its own mid pregnancy, but i ended up gaining roughly 30-35 pounds. i've lost about 15 of it so far since giving birth (three weeks ago), but got a ways to go to lose that and get to my goal weight which i wasn't near when i got pregnant (still had a hundred to go at that point). what kind of port do you have? I have a low profile port, but since i'm not near goal weight, that might be why i didn't notice it too much. i could feel it a lot towards the end of pregnancy, but it never hurt me, well not typically. a few times the cat jumped on me when i started my pregnancy i had 6.5 ccs in a 10 cc band. i had to have 3 ccs removed during the first trimester because i was getting stuck on everything, even liquids. towards the end of the pregnancy i had a hard time eating enough to keep my calorie count up. i'd leech ketones which upset the doctors when i was losing weight. (they discover this when you pee in a cup every visit. it's one of the things that is typically tested) so the nutritionist started having me eat cheese sticks and carnation instant breakfasts to get an additional 200-300 calories a day. this was after going through everything i was eating daily. i had GD so i had to be specific on what i could eat that wouldn't screw up my sugars. i got pregnant at 230 pounds. they gave me no buffer when i started losing weight during month eight. they jumped on my butt when i lost three pounds and even more so when i dropped five pounds.

i found that i had less sickness in the morning if i ate something right before i went to bed. something small like Peanut Butter and crackers. my doc also prescribed an Rx prenatal that had ginger added that also helped with the nausea called B-Nexa. other than that, some flat ginger ale sometimes helped, but only occasionally. i wasn't stricken with horrid morning sickness, but only mild nausea that lasted like a few weeks, but the typical suggestions/remedies didn't do much to stop the feelings.

i gained 35 pounds during pregnancy. did you have full restriction removed? i had half of the restriction removed during the first trimester because i was getting stuck on everything. the rest of the pregnancy i had 3.5cc in a 10cc band. i also ate small meals/snacks every 2-3 hours like i did pre-pregnancy.

i've heard of women who do, though my doctor was on my rear when i started dropping weight towards the end of pregnancy because i couldn't eat enough. so my nutritionist started making me drink carnation instant breakfast drinks and eat cheese sticks to keep my calorie count up. i hate cheese sticks now

prior to pregnancy i took chewable prenatals by vitafusion to get my folic acid levels up

i have a low profile port with my realize band. during the last few weeks of my pregnancy, i could definitely feel it when i touched the side of my belly, but the pregnancy wasn't complicated by the port or by having the banding. he wasn't low weight either. c-sec at 37 weeks and still 8 pounds 6 ounces. he'll be two weeks tomorrow.

well it seems the pens did their job in any case. =) gave birth this week to a healthy 8 pound 6 ounce baby boy

Has anyone else that has experienced gestational diabetes had to go on the insulin pens or some variation thereof? I'm curious because while I was fine for the first two and half trimesters, the gestational diabetes issue popped up a few weeks into the third trimester. I tried controlling my blood sugars with my diet and with Glyburide, but the numbers would not stay stay constant. At least one meal would be messed up and be too high. Plus, I couldn't eat any starchy carbs at all without my blood sugars skyrocketing, which made the doctors unhappy. Even though most of the starchy carbs like Pasta or rice get stuck anyhow, they insisted I should be able to a small potato without my body going into meltdown. So my doctors started me on the insulin pens yesterday. I'm not thrilled to see the pens are a cat C medication and I'm not thrilled to see on the handout that it's not known if taking this stuff can harm the baby. I'm just wondering if anyone else has any experience with this?

congrats!

nope, i never kept any of the clothing, except for a single pants from when i started as a reminder as to how far i've come. they also continue to serve as inspiration for where i need to continue to go.

congrats that is quite the feat i'm jealous. i haven't quite made it there yet ....yet again congrats on the progress

good luck and to a quick recovery

i like http://bariatricfoodie.blogspot.com/ myself

i also found that it helped not to rely so much on the numbers of the scale, but the size of the clothing that i wear. it's how i judged my progress and it helps me to not obsess if the numbers go up a few pounds or drop a few pounds. in fact the only time i ever see how much i weigh is when i'm at the doctors office on a follow up. as someone else pointed out, lapband is much slower than the other than the other types of surgery. you cannot compare your progress to someone else's, especially on a different type of surgery. it's not fair to you or the other person. it also takes away the thrill of your own progress.

i cook the same meals for both of us. he just eats more than i do though i notice even he's eating less too because of using smaller plates

well speaking from my own experience, i retain water when i get my period. water retention and swelling will make the band tighter at certain times of the month. granted i didn't ever have to get unfilled. i didn't run myself that tight. i just had to be more careful about what i was eating during that time of the month.

well if you're going longer without being hungry, i'd recommend keeping a food journal to verify that you are taking in enough calories. plus when your nutritionist or doctor asks, you aren't foundering for an answer. you got your answer on paper already. and yeesh i apologize for all the typos in the first reply. i'm surprised anyone understood what i was saying lol. in any case, keep an eye on it, but don't be shocked or horrified if you have to do a partial unfill. i still have 3.5 ccs in my band and instead of being hungry every 4-6 hours i am fine for about three before i need something. still eating five times a day, so there wasn't too much change up and just because you have less restriction doesn't mean you'll eat the house down around you. it felt that way at first watching the numbers go up, but thankfully it finally leveled off around 22 weeks or so.

my doctors left it up to me because i knew had a close contact with my nutritionist and watching my food intake like a hawk. i ended up having a partial until just before the end of the first trimester.i was getting stuck on everything. bear in mind that even with a partial unfill, i still have restriction, just not as much as i did before pregnancy.

never heard of that. is that even legally binding?

i was 18 months out when i got pregnant (and i'm 37).