Flip or Flop’s Christina El Moussa gets ‘brutally honest’ about postpartum difficulty, reveals pregnancy complications

It turns out that the most recent Christina El Moussa pregnancy wasn’t as smooth as the Flip Or Flop star’s fans believed. Now, she’s turning heads and starting conversations about the difficulties of postpartum adjustments, thanks to a “brutally honest” new interview between Christina and the woman who’s helped her most in the wake of four-month-old son Brayden’s birth.

Flip or Flop‘s Tarek and Christina El Moussa are usually one of the most chipper couples on TV, and they’ve got the social media updates to prove it. And, when the story of Tarek’s cancer scare broke late last year, most fans assumed that it was the most difficult thing the couple had had to deal with in 2015. It turns out, though, that the most recent Christina El Moussa pregnancy–her oldest child, daughter Taylor, was born in 2012–involved some unexpected complications, and that postpartum life was a lot more difficult the second time around.

Christina opened up about her second pregnancy in a new interview with nutritionist Cara Clark (pictured to Christina’s left in the photo above). Clark herself calls the exchange “brutally honest,” and references Brayden’s “traumatic” birth in the interview’s preface.

Christina described how her second delivery “didn’t go as planned”:

 

Since my delivery with Taylor was so fast and easy, everyone (including myself) thought this labor and delivery would be the same… but everything was different. When I arrived at L&D my contractions were 4 minutes apart and  I was only dilated 3 cm. They told me I could go home. I was in so much pain, they recommended I go for a walk and see if it helped. After an hour walking around Frys Electronics, contractions were 3 minutes apart and hurt worse than ever. Still, I was only 4 cm dilated.  After trying all labor inducing techniques, I was finally ready to push five hours later. I pushed HARD for 2 hours but his shoulders were stuck and his heart rate kept dropping. In the end, I had to go in for an emergency c-section. Because he was such a big boy, my Doctor was concerned he just was too big to make it out of me.

 

And, as Christina explained, recovering from a c-section was much different from a vaginal delivery’s recovery:

 

C-sections suck. I felt like I got beat up by a world champion boxer. My entire body hurt, literally my entire body… and it felt like my stomach was going to fall open when I stood up. It is such a gross feeling. I wore this girdle thing to keep my stomach in and that helped….For 2 weeks I felt like sh*t. Really, like sh*t. So I asked for help, which I don’t normally do.  I took it really really easy and followed the doctors orders. After the two week mark, I finally felt more normal. By 6 weeks I was back to my old self.  I wasn’t allowed to workout for 6 weeks. After six weeks,  I started with yoga (my prenatal power yoga Dvd) and walks (about 1.5-2 miles). My current routine is pushing the double stroller about 3 miles/ 3 days per week. I also love doing a Pilates workout (super hard) at a studio by my house called House of Burn, when I can.  Honestly, I’m not working out like I would like to be but I just would rather be with my kids right now.

 

While she said she does wish she had more hours in the day, Christina also addressed the issue of postpartum depression, and said she’s happy to report how good she feels:

 

I suffer from a lot of mommy guilt. I went back to work at 5 weeks and that was pretty hard on me. My daughter got pretty jealous of the time I was spending with Brayden, so I try to do my girlie stuff with my daughter when I can. We go get our nails done, go to lunch and a movie or Disneyland.  For myself, I love a good massage! I make sure I get one every other week. Since I just want to be with my kids as much as possible, I try to incorporate my workouts with my kids. I love to push the double to Starbucks and relax there with the kids for a bit….Baby Brayden is such a good baby boy, which does help emotionally. I am SO lucky to have such a happy baby. He is such a joy to be around it’s incredible. I feel pretty good but recently with Christmas and the holidays I’m more tired than usual.. It probably all those desserts I’ve been eating. Bad sugar!

 

To read the entire interview–and to pick up a few diet tips from Christina El Moussa and Cara Clark–head over to Clark’s page.

Flip or Flop airs Thursdays at 9 PM EST on HGTV.

 

(Photo credits: Christina El Moussa pregnancy via Instagram)