Today I wanted to share some updates about life with a newborn, the birth process and general thoughts. I promise that this won’t turn into a mommy blog by the way – there are so many superior ones out there with great material! So please indulge me as I promise it won’t be very often….here are some of my thoughts and discoveries, good and bad, that I can share after the arrival of baby.
Three weeks old
I wasn’t prepared for the physical recovery after childbirth. When I was pregnant, especially in the third trimester, I really looked forward to the day that baby popped out. I thought that I would feel so much better at that point, more free and light. I didn’t really think about how I might feel during or after labor…except that I thought I “might” try to go without an epidural (spoiler: I went through 9 hours of painful labor before yelling for the drugs. It was like hell and heaven.).
What I didn’t realize was that I would feel pretty bad after giving birth too…like really bad, especially for the first week or two. I popped out a seven pound, nine ounce boy…yet when I left the hospital, I had only lost four pounds? WHAT? The first time I looked in a mirror I couldn’t really recognize myself…my face was swollen, and one of my eyes had a bunch of burst blood vessels because I had pushed so hard. I felt like I had been beat up. That, combined with the craziness of a new baby, really threw me for a while. I wish I had known more about what to expect after childbirth, so I would have been more mentally prepared. It wouldn’t have seemed so scary or been such a shock. Continue Reading
