-Swelling: holy crap I had NO idea this was a thing! If you thought swelling while pregnant was bad, it is nothing compared to the post partum swelling you get. At one point I was sure my feet were going to explode. They said it had to do with the fact that I had so many IV bags (I had 8-9 by the time Cara came out), but I figured that HAD to only be a couple days worth of swelling...this couldn't be normal (I am so happy it's basically gone now). The annoying thing is they told us it was normal in the hospital and it would go down, I looked it up online to see if there was a point I should worry and they said by a week it would be down (A WEEK I have to have these blimp feet?! Really?). Then I popped open my "What to Expect..." book and it said to roll your ankles clockwise and counter clockwise 10 times each and that helps. I started doing that while pumping and it has helped TREMENDOUSLY! I just wish ANYONE else could have told me that sooner. So to anyone out there wondering, definitely try it! Oh and I would pour cold water on them in the tub as well to help, I think that helped a tiny bit too.
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| Sadly, this wasn't the worst of it! |
-Nursing: Let me tell you how much this one blew me away. We took nursing classes, I read up on all things breast feeding, I talked to everyone I knew about it when I felt it was appropriate. I heard it was difficult, but with how prepared I was making myself I disregarded all the warnings (DON'T do that!). I didn't even pay attention to anything bottle related (one reason being that I was the babysitter growing up so I knew how bottles worked, another reason being that I didn't want to bottle feed so why focus on it at all?). When Cara was born she had latching issues and then sucking issues. She wouldn't suck a finger, a bottle, or anything else. She'd latch on and just stare off. It was REALLY difficult when the nurses and lactation consultants weren't sure what to do (they didn't give up on us, they just kept mentioning how she was having issues with it and all the things they tried that usually works). Finally we got her to finger feed with a syringe and Larry's finger, but of course that's not enough to keep her going so we had to work our way up to a bottle. People, let me tell you, no matter what, the most important thing is your baby is fed. PLEASE don't be stubborn about HOW they are fed if there are issues with it. When they told us she had to be eating more or she'd be taken to the higher up NICU (they don't have a well baby nursery so the NICU is technically that if you need it) I was panicked. I sprung into mom mode and was like "tell me what you need her to be at" and we got her there. They let me pump in the hospital, but I never really got anything more than a couple drops. By the time we got home one side had quit producing colostrum entirely. I FREAKED out. I was hoping to still be able to nurse and this just wasn't happening even closely to how I wanted it to. We're to the point now where I can pump enough to store and we give her a bottle of that in the morning, followed by formula for the other feedings. She's got some nipple confusion so I doubt nursing will ever be in our future with her, but it's okay. I'm still able to give her my milk and feed her AND we have the added bonus that daddy can help out whenever since it's not just me feeding her.
-Hormones/emotions: So I was constantly warned about PPD. I didn't get super depressed or hormonal during pregnancy, but I wasn't about to ignore anything regarding this and then have it hit me. I remember the last day in the hospital I woke up from a really weird dream and I was about to tell Larry about it and all I got out was "I just had a weird" and then I started to cry...like for no reason. There was absolutely nothing sad in my thoughts, I just wanted to tell him about this weird dream. So I told him about it, but through the biggest tears and choked up voice ever. It was the craziest thing. I was able to pull myself together, but I wondered what brought it on. Then we had issues with nursing and our first couple days at home every time I pumped I'd have a mini breakdown - it was hard not being able to feed her the way I wanted and planned, it was hard to look down and see my body all swollen and wrinkled and not being able to workout or do anything about it, it was hard to know if I was EVER going to get my milk supply, it was just a hard time mentally. After those couple of days though and talking to Larry about my fears I felt MUCH better and things improved drastically. I'm chalking it up to my estrogen levels dropping so quickly (which happens). I did find out that it's not just sadness though. At one point Cara made a silly face (it reminded me of when you pause a movie and the eyes are semi-rolled back and they have a crooked smile and it's just weird) and I laughed SO hard I started to cry. Over a face! She spit up on me once in front of visitors and I laughed really hard at that too. I'm glad I can laugh at those moments, but even I knew it was excessive. She's really a silly girl and I love just watching her because of these moments though.
-Depends: Oh my gosh! These things have been amazing in this post partum period. The hospital has these mesh boy shorts with gigantic pads...everyone knows this. They work well, there isn't anything fundamentally wrong with them, but to me, Depends are where it's at! If you're pregnant buy these as you get closer to the end, I promise it's worth it!
-Diastasis Recti (split/separated ab muscles): Yes, unfortunately, this happened to me. I consider it a good and bad thing though. Bad because it's something to add to the list of things I'll need to work on and get back to normal, but good because I call them my little ab workouts to do, which makes me feel like I'm actually working towards getting back to normal and they aren't too hard to do. Plus, it IS pretty cool to see how deep Larry's fingers go in when checking how far apart I am haha.
-Hospital Bags: oh wow did I over pack ours. I found a helpful list of things online and everything sounded like it made sense to bring, but most of it was completely useless. For example, I ordered nursing tank tops and brought a robe and some non-slip socks, but I didn't change out of my hospital gown the whole entire time (for one I didn't feel like I had time to ever "get ready" and two, I hate changing. Once I'm comfortable I'd rather just stay in what I'm in) and the hospital gave me their own non-slip socks so that was nice. I also packed makeup and things to make myself presentable, but ya know what? Who cares? I just pushed a human out of me, be glad that I'm awake if you come visit haha. The best things we did include was an extra pillow (I liked the hospital one but Larry got to use the extra one and I think he appreciated that), my own bath towel (I don't even know what the hospital ones were like, but I heard they were tiny), and candy for the nurses (they liked having snacks when they came to check on me and I'd recommend doing something similar).
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