After Sabine was born the first 24 hours was like honeymoon period. (and i swear i will post her birth story soon). then the next day nancy came back and put me to work.
she said people never tell you about all this stuff in the post partum, about how hard it is, and she also said she thinks the post partum is worse than the birth. or at least harder than the birth. i'm eleven days out now and am feeling much better but still feel a tiny bit sore.
so some of the instructions for the post partum that i got included: mini-crunches to put my abs back together, back presses to put my ligaments on my back back together, kegels every time i use the bathroom, a mayan massage technique for 'lifting the uterus' inside so it doesn't 'fall out' when i'm old. watch for too much bleeding, avoid the stairs as much as possible, i got two herbal baths after the initial one directly after the birth, soak in epsom salts, fluids fluids fluids and pee pee pee, no going for walks around the block for 3 weeks, around the neighborhood for 4, no jogging for 6, after 3 weeks of my crunches and back things i can start adding some yoga that i know is good for the post partum but no inversions nothing that gets air in there. and mainly take it easy lots of protein and fiber.
nancy was talking about how the uterus shrinks back to smaller size and is a pelvic floor organ again by 10 days post partum but as it's shrinking down it is heavy on all the bruised tissue down there. uh yes. i feel that. and so walking around just irritates things even more. she keeps encouraging me to take it as easy as possible because i've done so well with the healing so far that we want to keep it that way.
so i have taken it as easy as i can. i miss doing yoga, but i knew i'd have this break. i'm doing little stretches here and there and mainly am trying to keep my shoulders down instead of hunching over sabine while she eats or has her diaper changed. and i'm trying to put my posture back together after my increased low back curve of pregnancy. 'stand tall mama' is my mantra right now. i also miss walking tyco with max. less for the exercise, more for the bonding time we have together. and being inside has made me miss the transition to fall weather. when i go back out it will be cold. oh well.
what i'm wondering from all you mamas out there is... what kind of post partum instructions did you get for your own body? did the hospital help you think about putting your abs and back back together at all? did they encourage rest for up to 10 days and more? (i know it's not possible with more than one kid but is it encouraged?) did they tell you anything of use for YOU not just breastfeeding (or not) and baby care? i'm curious is this just a nancy or midwife thing or do hospitals help too?
1 comment:
Man, I'm trying to remember. I have very few hospital memories from what they told me. I know that my midwife gave me a few different handouts with post-partum "exercises" I could do starting day one. I put that in quotes because they were things that didn't seem like exercises, mostly stretching or minor movements. I had an episiotomy to recover from as well, so I had that lovely issue, which added weeks onto everything you're not supposed to do. I think I started back up with a lot of things around 4-6 weeks and just was mindful of how I felt down THERE. ;) You don't realize how much recovery you'll need! I remember hobbling around the hospital like an old lady and it was so hard at night to get Sawyer up and down to nurse getting in and out of bed. Oh man. Hang in there!
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