What to expect after birth?

Do you mind sharing your experiences after you gave birth? Was it an easy recovery? Painful? Any good tips?

What did you do with baby when you came home? How did you know what to do?

Thanks!!

Re: What to expect after birth?

I was really sore for a few days but was walking around fine. You will be bleeding a lot, umm without getting too gross hemroids were something i didnt realize were common to get after giving birth.

I was fine with caring for ds when I took him home. I think I prepared myself a lot from reading on here and taking a baby care class and everything seemed to come somewhat natural. The lack of sleep gets really hard though and breastfeeding was another story.

Re: What to expect after birth?

It wasn't horrible. You are sore for a few days. Peeing burns and you have to spray water with this bottle for a little bit. You cant use toilet paper right away. The bleeding sucks but its not horrible. The hospital has these heavy pads and witch hasle pads, and cream (or at least mine did.) to help with all of this. I recommend taking them home! Ask for more after a day or so. I had a vaginal both with DS.

I was up walking an hour later (thats when they let me). You don't go number two for a long while.


Any questions FM me :)

Edit: You will be so busy with everything else you dont care so much about all of that.

You will know what to do. Something just kicks in. Then you learn from there.

Message edited 12/7/2012 9:18:23 PM.

Re: What to expect after birth?

I read this after I had my dd and was shaking my head in agreement to almost every single one of these! Every woman should know this going into it

10 things they don't tell you

What to expect after birth?

Thanks so much! I appreciate the honest feed back!

What to expect after birth?

I had to have an unscheduled c-section. I felt great the first day, mainly because I was still drugged up. lol. After the meds wore off, the pain was horrible. I had an ileus and was in an incredible amount of pain. I had to spend 5 days in the hospital after I had ds and could not eat for 4 of those days straight because I could not stop throwing up. I felt so bad for dh cause he had to help me

1. Shower
2. Put on my underwear
3. Put on a pad
4. Get dressed
5. Walk around the hospital

When dh and I had to get ds dressed to come home, we were so lost because we did not even know how to put his clothes on, because neither of us had ever dressed a newborn. We went back to our house straight from the hospital, but because our bed is so high I screamed in pain when I attempted to climb onto it, so we packed up all of our stuff and spent the first 2 and a half weeks at my Mother's house, she really helped us ALOTTTT. Cause we had no clue how to care for a newborn.

What to expect after birth?

I had a planned c-section and my recovery was amazing. I was definitely a little sore getting up and down the first few days, but I didn't need pain meds! I bled a lot the first few days, but apparently I had some scar tissue from a prior gynecological procedure I had and that caused some excess bleeding.

We were in the hospital for 5 days, and honestly I wish I could have lived there for 6 weeks. I had NO clue on what to do with this little baby when we first got home and DH was far more clueless then I was. I had difficulty nursing and I put a lot of pressure on myself to do so, which I feel was a significant contributing factor to the PPD I had for a few weeks. I also had zero help. DH works 12 hour days and my MIL and sister didn't help out that much...so it was me and a newborn all day long crying together.

But now we are settled into an amazing routine and I love every crazy busy minute of being a FTWM.

What to expect after birth?

With my first...the labor and delivery part was a breeze, but the recovery was a b****! I remember being sore and afraid to go to the bathroom.Lol. The bleeding scared the crap out of me but they said it was normal. The nurses were great and helped me out while I was recovering.

Once we came home I was comfortable with taking care of DD my only fear was if she was getting enough breast milk.

With my DS I had a c-section. Getting out of bed was difficult. I needed a lot of help. I think I paged the nurses every time I had to get up. Once home I stayed on the upper floor(my house is a split level) for 2 weeks.

Taking care of your baby will come natural once you are home.

Re: What to expect after birth?

Posted by MaZz

I read this after I had my dd and was shaking my head in agreement to almost every single one of these! Every woman should know this going into it

10 things they don't tell you

What to expect after birth?

I agree with all of the above. I was pretty sore after but it only lasted a few days. Getting up from a sitting position, getting in and out of the car and moving around in bed were the hardest part.

I would ask for colace after delivery. It will help with the bathroom business. I kept taking it for a few days.

What to expect after birth?

I had a vaginal birth and an episiotomy, so I was in pain for about two weeks. The hosp will give you a spray and a cream for your lady parts. Also, I needed a stool softener because I had a hard time going to the bathroom for a few days. Mmmmm...Childbirth...good times.

Re: What to expect after birth?

Honestly each person is different.

I ended up with a csection after pushing for quite sometime. Had very little pain after and had a great recovery. No heavy bleeding. After having a horrible pregnancy I expected the worst. But other than taking time to lose the weight I was feeling great within days.

Re: What to expect after birth?

Posted by MaZz

I read this after I had my dd and was shaking my head in agreement to almost every single one of these! Every woman should know this going into it

10 things they don't tell you

What to expect after birth?

Wow!! Thanks for your honesty! I seriously didn't think of the pain and discomfort after birth. I just knew about the bleeding. It's nice to know exactly what i should expect and hope for the best!

Re: What to expect after birth?

Omg I was not prepared for the pain in my bottom - I felt like the baby came out of my butt! Ouch! My girl parts weren't so bad but a few days late after the swelling went down it did start to hurt more. I agree with an above poster than getting up and down hurt and sometimes sitting too long hurt. I was a huge fan of the icepack pads - if your hospital has them then take advantage!

While at the hospital we asked lots of questions to the nurses and pediatrician. We also read lots of books and took a class but some things just came natural! You feed the baby when they cry or rock them. Keep them warm and change their diapers! You just figure it out!!

Once we got home I needed help with little things like someone (DH) to get me water and snacks while I nursed! We froze a bunch of meals in advance and had our parents visiting so they did a lot of cooking too!

Message edited 12/8/2012 4:31:49 PM.

Re: What to expect after birth?

I had anxiety about post partum recovery...mostly hemorrhoids and if they would get much worse since I had them during pregnancy. But, they didn't. The worst for me was the recovery from tearing and being stitched up...but the ice packs, spray and witch hazel pads really helped for that first week. By 2 weeks I felt much better.

One thing I wasn't prepared for was DS going to the NICU and how that affected our initial bonding. I cried A LOT in the first few days since the girl in my room had her baby with her 24/7 and that was tough for me. It was a positive though, in that he was getting the best care as he got better (he had a collapsed lung at birth) and I also got help from and access to the lactation consultants 24/7.

Good luck!!