Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Ever After


There were a lot of things I didn’t know about life AFTER delivering a baby. Someone should absolutely mention the shaking. My body shook so hard after Abraham was born that I could barely hold him. Some say it’s the epidural and some say it’s the adrenaline. Either way, I felt like my own personal earthquake.
It would also be nice to get a head’s up on the amount of blood loss you can expect to see. When it was time to change rooms, I sat up and freaked out! I told Doula, “I think I’m hemorrhaging!” The nurse checked and told me I was actually not bleeding badly compared to some. She reminded me I had been carrying 50% more blood for the past several months and my body would need to get rid of it.
How about trying to pee after an epidural? I stood up in my postpartum room, looked at Dave and exclaimed, “Oh! I’m peeing!” After 3 months of feeling like I needed to pee every 5 minutes, I now had absolutely no sensation of needing to pee until it was actually happening. I called my mom and told her to buy some adult diapers before I came home. This was a really good move and saved me many a panicked moment in the days to come. “Eek! I’m peeing! Oh, it’s ok. I’m wearing a diaper.”
Stitches. Ever get stitches? Well, a few days after you get them, they itch. That’s all I’m going to say about that.
Skin, hair, and nails are so crazy beautiful during pregnancy. Then the baby comes out and all the moisture in your body laughs and runs away. My hair, which is always naturally oily, feels like straw. My skin is sooo dry. And because I'm so busy worrying about the other person who now lives in our house, I often forget to moisturize. I'm concerned I may lose my entire epidermis within a few days.
Two weeks later and I’m just now getting to the point where walking isn’t excruciatingly painful without Darvocet and Ibuprofen. And five minutes alone is kind of like a Hawaiian vacation. :)
Feel free to comment and share any postpartum symptoms you were surprised by...I could use the head's up!

5 comments:

  1. I was shocked that I so closely resembled someone with a meth addiction. Especially when my hair started falling out in clumps. I really wasn't prepared to feel like a chemo patient every time I showered.

    My favorite: not realizing that the dissolvable stitches are a natural color and they break into small, wriggly pieces. Knowing that could have saved me from blacking out when I wiped and thought there were maggots in my vagina.

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  2. Oh, and if you think you've ripped a stitch out from scratching, no matter what you do, NEVER EVER EVER look down there until you've completely healed. O....M....G....!!!!!! It looked like I had been hit in the crotch with a cannon ball!!! Nobody warned me that the hole didn't magically close back up after giving birth. Eeeeeeek!!!!!

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  3. I'm so glad I'm learning all of this BEFORE having a baby. Erin, you've taught me so much and I feel like I'm ready... when the time comes, of course :) Thank you for sharing your blog, I'm enjoying it very much. Sending you and David my best!

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  4. I had night sweats for weeks afterwards. The husband would walk in with infant for the shift change and I'd startle awake, drenched in sweat and mumbling something incoherent. I thought I had lost my mind. Scared the living daylights out of him.

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  5. YES! Night sweats! I had to wear deodorant 24-7! No one mentioned that postpartum symptom to me. I also had some pretty bad mood swings from hormone shifts :(

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