2 Week Postpartum Update

For those who don’t follow me on instagram or Facebook, I gave birth to my son on March 22nd. I am so in love with him and so in love with the bond him and my husband have. I couldn’t be more thankful.

For more pictures of the little guy and delivery day head to my Labor and Delivery Story post.

Pain, Pain Management and Bleeding:
As far as my recovery, I can say that at this moment, 2 weeks and 1 day postpartum, I have little to no pain. Woo! That could be because I have taken it easy today. Only light house keeping and tending to the dogs and baby of course. I also have a high tolerance for pain.

I was sent home on Friday morning, March 25th, two days after delivery. They sent me with a prescription for percocet for pain management and I took my last dose 2 days ago. Since then I have been feeling great! I even walked around the mall yesterday with little to no discomfort afterwards.

I did have a second degree tear during delivery which has healed up nicely. I want to say it took around 10 days to heal.

The bleeding has been less on some days and heavy on other days over the past two weeks. The past 2 days have been pretty light. I started out using Always 8 Hour Protection Maxi pads for the first week after delivery and am now using Always 8 Hour Protection Ultra Thin pads which work well even over night (for anyone wondering which ones work and are comfortable).

For the first 10-12 days after delivery I could not be on my feet for long at all without feeling an insane amount of pressure down there as well as aches and pains just about everywhere from the belly down. That’s usually when I’d take pain medication and plop myself on the couch for the rest of the day. Thankfully my husband had the first week off from work and was home at a decent time after work the following week, so he helped me with everything that involved me getting up.

Breast feeding:
I am breastfeeding Ryder and thankfully he latched right on 20 minutes after birth. I was a little nervous about that. It didn’t hurt at all because he has such a great latch and if he ever tries to switch up the way eats or sucks I take him right off my boob and then re-latch him the right way to avoid any bad habits or any pain on my end.
The second night in the hospital he did the dreaded cluster feeding which means he fed for an hour and a half to two hours at a time leaving only a half hour to an hour in between feedings! This left my nipples sore and cracked. If I could give any new breastfeeding mom any advice it’s to use that nipple cream after your very first feeding and every feeding after that until the soreness passes. Nobody told me to do this and it may seem like you won’t need it at first, but it will help to avoid the cracked or blistered nipples you hear about. The soreness from the cluster feeding took about 3 or so days to fade away for me and since then it hasn’t been uncomfortable unless he has a night where he decides I’m his pacifier. 🙂 And then…apply nipple cream.

My milk came in about 3 days after delivery. Being engorged is quite uncomfortable! I decided to pump that day, for the first time, to relieve some of the pressure and pain. I pump about once every other day to stock up for when we start to bottle and breast feed him in a couple of weeks.

Other Postpartum Symptoms:
–Night sweats. It’s gross, guys. I wake up drenched.
-I started out with a small appetite, just picking at small meals and then it switched dramatically to needing large meals to keep me full. It’s the breast feeding. That’s what I tell my husband every time he looks at my large, empty plate with big eyes.
-Cravings include: Crisp salads, eggo waffles, strawberry shortcake, basil pesto, turkey sandwiches, coffee, cranberry juice and seltzer and pb&j sandwiches.

Weight Gain and Loss:
So during my pregnancy I gained a total of 30lbs. I have lost a total of 11lbs since giving birth (6lbs of that being baby boy). Although, my boobs have gained quite a few since Ryder was born, so I lost more than the scale tells me. 🙂 I have quite a few to pounds go, but I am absolutely amazed at how my belly shrunk back so quickly and my legs have also shrunk. Fluid retention that I didn’t even really notice until it was gone I guess.

Belly before and after shots:

The skin and abs are still working their way back into place, but again, a women’s body is simply amazing with all that it can go through and how it can bounce back so quickly whether it be from pain or weight loss. I have some work to do as far as getting back into the shape I was in before pregnancy, but that won’t start until after 8 weeks or so.
Breast feeding is definitely working its magic when it comes to helping me burn those calories. I’ve read breastfeeding burns 300-500 calories a day. Burning calories while I have quality time with my baby boy? I’ll take it.

I didn’t get any stretch marks during my pregnancy or after he was born like some warned me about. It could be hereditary, it could also be that I didn’t gain too much excess weight and that I lotioned up after every shower with Vaseline’s Cocoa Butter Lotion.

I can’t think of anything else to share at the moment but if you have any questions feel free to leave them in the comment section below.