Just Smile and Blog: weight

Friday, August 17, 2012

Postpartum 2 Weeks

DON'T READ THIS IF YOU STRUGGLE WITH YOUR WEIGHT.

I feel like I read a lot of blogs about women who have trouble losing the baby weight postpartum, and like all women I was worried I would too. Since giving birth I've found the complete opposite to be true and would have appreciated hearing more from women who were in a similar situation postpartum while I was pregnant.

So I'm gonna go ahead and represent the other side. The side that loses the baby weight.

Weight is not something I struggle with, so please don't read it if you do struggle and you think hearing about postpartum easy weight loss will make you feel bad.

At one week I:

...had breastfeeding down pat and actually really enjoy it. It took a stressful few days where I thought I was just going to always have sore boobs and that if I wanted to breastfeed that was what I had to live with, but once baby learns how to latch properly and the milk came in breastfeeding hasn't been an issue...and my boobs don't hurt anymore. Having the kid on your boob every 2-3 hours? Different story!

...was down to only 8 lbs. more than I weighed pre-pregnancy. I know guys, I KNOW. I agree it's completely ridiculous. But don't hate...I told you I've never struggled with my weight and I was only up 23 lbs. when my pregnancy came to a very abrupt end. Most people lose about 25 lbs. with the birth itself and I was only down about 10 lbs. when I got home from the hospital. My midwife is already on my case about eating enough as I shouldn't be down to pre-pregnancy weight until 3 months postpartum. I'm trying to eat MORE than I think I should...but really I just want to keep eating like I always eat. I am not overly hungry and when you have a baby attached to your boob every 2 hours it's hard to get around to eating in your short windows of free time.

...was pretty much healed from the birth. The lady bits took very little time to heal because of the lack of trauma (this was the point of the natural birth after all!), in fact on Day 3 the lady bits were pretty much back to normal, though a bit swollen and uncomfortable if I sat for long periods of time. Bleeding was down to a very light period. My biggest beef physically was that my back sometimes hurt if I was in bed too long and I think it's because of that DAMN EPIDURAL that I never wanted in the first place. I say this because the pain is much higher (read right where the epidural was) than a normal "I've been in bed too long" backache of the lower back.

...had massive hemorrhoids...oh yes, the birth made them HUGE! Though my intestines did not spill out of my body as I pushed like I feared.

...was absolutely astounded that the body is able to heal so quickly from such an ordeal. I was expecting to feel AWFUL after giving birth. But truth be told the hips and the lower back were only a bit sore on Day 1 and 2 but I honestly think it was from where I had midwives pushing on me to try to ease my back labor. You would think pushing a human out of your vagina would really take it's toll on your body and you'd feel like crap...but the body is obviously designed to do this AND take care of the baby it produced. My greatest complaint immediately upon arriving home was the fact that if felt like my guts were gonna fall out. Your belly muscles DO NOT WORK at all and you feel like your insides could just fall out at any moment if you didn't hold them in with your hand. WEIRD feeling.

At two weeks I:

...am still really enjoying breastfeeding, but Baby Jett seems to have an issue with projectile spit up. I asked the pediatrician about it and she says it's totally normal, I have a quick letdown and am apparently drowning my baby when he first latches on so he gulps like a madman to try to get all the milk which causes some projectile spit up if we move him too quickly after a feed. My body and his body are still figuring each other out and over the next few weeks my letdown SHOULD decrease a bit as it figures out that he doesn't NEED that much right when baby latches on. But projectile spit up notwithstanding breastfeeding is still going well and baby is up to 6 lbs. 11 oz. STILL TINY and only in the 15th percentile but gaining weight just fine and is up from being in the 5th percentile!

...weigh about 128 lbs., which is up about 6 lbs. pre-pregnancy. I also fit into all of my regular clothes again. Everyone told me my hips would forever be wider after giving birth but that doesn't appear to be true as all my pants fit again...this is why I'm writing this guys, because of everything everyone told me...I believed everyone and I'm finding it weird that none of it appears to be true in my case. The truth of the matter is that all women are different and sometimes...you quickly go back to your original size I GUESS.

...am healed from the birth except for those two labial stitches that I can actually feel now. Believe me, after the birth you DO NOT touch the area and I honestly had no idea what bi-lateral labial stitches really were or where they really were...so I finally did some exploring and found them. They must be about ready to dissolve any day now, but I can still feel them. I also still have hemorrhoids, but they are shrinking SIGNIFICANTLY each and every day and I feel they too will soon be gone. My crotch finally doesn't hurt AT ALL anymore and bleeding is down to a bare bare minimum. Almost not even pantyliner worthy...but if I don't wear a pantyliner I'll ruin underwear. My back feels better too, that epidural pain wore off after about a week to a week and a half and I don't have any back pain anymore.

I find that the only part of me that really feels different than it did pre-pregnancy is my tummy. The muscles are starting to come back together and work again, but not really well yet.