Motherhood is a beautiful journey and a unique experience for each woman. I had a chat with one of Beijing’s newest moms, Camilla Kongshavn Jovanovic, about the birth of baby Iva and her first few weeks of motherhood.
Kongshavn Jovanovic is a former actress and fitness instructor, and I can’t wait to see how this super mom creates a postnatal fitness routine.
First of all, congratulations on your beautiful baby girl! Thanks for taking the time to chat with us. Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do here in Beijing?
My name is Camilla. I’m 26 yrs old and overall a very simple Norwegian girl that has been in Beijing for 8 years now. I used to work at a martial arts gym and ran fitness and stretching/mobility classes. I moved on last year and started studying towards my human body movement certificate and nutrition specialist certificate through the National Academy of Sports Medicine USA. Aside from this I have my own consultant company in Beijing which I launched in 2015.
What has your pregnancy been like?
It was very emotional at first for many reasons. The further we went along the road, the more I realized how extremely rewarding this journey was. My husband already knew it would be and reassured me from the start. Overall it’s been an incredible bonding experience for my husband and I and also the greatest self-development experience I’ve ever had. It was actually very busy up until the delivery of our baby. I could’ve written a whole book about it. Long story short, in the end it all worked out perfectly.
Can you tell us a bit about the ups and downs of the experience?
Pregnancy ups:
I got so many chances to develop and work on becoming a stronger and better character. That’s something I’ve been trying to do for a very long time – make lasting changes. I was quite emotional and broken before I met my husband, and after we met him, for the first time in my life, I 100 percent decided that I wanted to become the absolute best version of myself – no matter what. This pregnancy was the perfect opportunity to put that plan into action and start to improve. I got a completely new drive and willingness to succeed. Life completely changed purpose and it became even easier to introduce new changes and make sure they stayed with me. My husband and I never had a single fight during the whole pregnancy. Since the beginning of our relationship both of us were 100 percent ready to commit to parenthood and give everything to each other, so during hardship we only focused on proper communication, love, and respect to resolve the issues. During the pregnancy, I only started crying a few times because I was hormonal and very emotional. He was always there with me. He told me to never cry alone and to always come and cry on his shoulder. It felt very nice to not have to hide my tears anymore.
Pregnancy downsides:
If I have to pick something it would only be the usual discomfort you feel when you’re pregnant, and constantly feeling tired. I struggled a lot with back pain, headaches, hip pain and heat flashes. It was very exhausting and in most cases, I couldn’t even get myself out to socialize. I simply didn’t have the energy for it because of the exhaustion from the pain I had to deal with. With that said, all pregnancies are different, and I’ve heard if you have several kids, each pregnancy is as well very different, so my situation might of course not be the case for others, not even for myself if we’re lucky to have a second child.
Did you give birth naturally? What was that experience like?
Yes I did. It was like a dream. Haha! I feared this moment, because I expected a lot of pain and long hours of pushing, and didn’t really believe what other mothers had said about the pain they felt – how it’s all forgotten when you meet your baby. It’s really true though, no amount of pain in this world can take away the happiness of becoming a mother.
I only had excruciating pain when my contractions got worse. Once I started noticing them at home, they very quickly progressed in intensity, and at one point I though my pelvis bones were going to rupture and break. I never wish that pain upon anyone. I finally got the epidural after four hours of contractions. From the moment the epidural started working, the whole labor went smooth as a baby’s butt. When my doctor said it was time to push, it took about 10-15 minutes and she was in my arms. No pain, no injuries, no complications, and no stitches.
How supportive has your partner been throughout your pregnancy and the birth of your daughter?
He has been everything I ever needed and is the proudest dad I know. Ever since he found out about the pregnancy he has been my hero and number one support throughout everything. Since day one he’s been completely in love with our baby and our family. We had to go through so much to finally be able to be together, and never has a man ever fought so hard and given so much of himself to make sure that happened. I’ve never felt safer or more loved and respected by anyone.
What has the first week of motherhood been like for you?
Incredible and also, of course, hard. We’re completely in love with her, with our family and each other. No matter how long the nights are (and they really are – I breastfed for five and a half hours last night with an immense amount of headache), we’re in this together and work as a team. My husband is in charge of the diaper changing and keeps her safe when I need to shower, eat, etc. He is also doing great making sure our home is tidy and feeds me food when my hands are full. I basically stay with our girl more or less all the time, to feed her, give her love, warmth and make sure she is and feel safe. At this stage of her life she needs that from mommy. I also stay up with her during night time to make sure my husband gets more sleep during the nights in order to go to work the next day. It’s been exhausting a few times because of postpartum headache and breastfeeding pain. Getting in a completely different sleep routine is also not easy, but nothing is going to stop us from giving our best to our girl, so we are hanging in there and will get through the tough times no matter the cost. We’ve heard there are still plenty of those ahead of us, haha. If we are extremely exhausted, we always remember, this too shall pass. Just looking at her also gets us into zen mode. Nothing else matters in that exact moment.
You have one of the most amazing figures of anyone I’ve ever seen. What’s your post-natal fitness and dieting routine going to be?
Oh wow, thank you. I am not stressing about getting back to that same shape as before pregnancy. It would have required a lot of time on workout and focus on food, time and focus I only want to put in my daughter, as my daughter is first priority. With breastfeeding there is an added bonus though, you do lose a lot of weight from breastfeeding, which is now my phase one postnatal fitness routine, haha. Eat clean and breastfeed – that combination does wonders! In a few months, once she is strong enough I’ll start to exercise with her by my side and cook food together with her. Contact me again then and I’ll be happy to share phase two with you.
