My Recovery

While pregnant, there were plenty of preparations made for the baby and the actual labor and delivery experience. Which is all very good and necessary. However, there's not a lot of talk about the RECOVERY aspect of this traumatic number done on the mother's body. Perhaps there's good reasoning in keeping this hush-hush (so as to not scare people out of it all), but I think it's worth discussing.

Although I had that life-saving epidural, I had NOT anticipated the pain my body would feel AFTER the anesthetic wore off! Apparently, my body still experienced the whole thing as if there were no drugs involved. Go figure...

So every little bone and muscle down there (and there's a lot of them) has been stretched several times beyond normal size and contorted to make room for a HUMAN BEING to pass through. I know that the female body is totally meant for this experience, but it's still rather....uncomfortable. And it lasts awhile. Although I'm only in the second week of recovery, I am GLADLY looking forward to that magical 6 week mark :)

HOSPITAL RECOVERY: The few days spent in the hospital immediately after were much needed, but I totally didn't get any sleep. The nurses were great and didn't bother me too much in the middle of the night (which I'm very grateful for), but I think I got about 4 hours of collective sleep over the 72 hours I was there. I know, it's just the beginning of parenthood, but I could NOT fall asleep for the life of me! I just gave birth to this wonderful little baby and I was on such an adrenaline rush that I couldn't calm myself down long enough to relax and fall asleep. I have a hard enough time falling asleep as it is, but this was the worst. My body was THE most exhausted it has EVER been, and I couldn't sleep.

Finally, on the LAST day of our hospital stay, just as we were packing up getting all ready head to home, my body crashes and decides NOW is the time to sleep. So we postpone departure so that I could get an extra hour and a half in. It was heaven.

Then there's THE FIRST NIGHT HOME experience. Nothing can really prepare you for that. Having a wonderful husband who is willing to stay up with the wide-eyed baby is about the best advice I can offer. I think Kirk and Nolan watched about three Pixar movies downstairs that first night, while I gratefully slept upstairs. But being woken every two hours to FEED the thing (I mean, precious little baby) doesn't allow for a full REM cycle of sleep. So even though I may have slept for 6 hours collectively, 2+2+2 does NOT equal 6!

The first couple days I really enjoyed breastfeeding and felt like it was such a neat bonding experience, but after a few days of doing it every other hour, it's like, "AGAIN?? I JUST FED YOU!"

Thankfully, after two weeks I'm more used to it and viewing it as a positive experience again :)

Then there's the MEGA INCREASE IN APPETITE! I felt hungry all the time when I was pregnant, but that was only because I couldn't eat very much at one time. But almost immediately after giving birth, I was STARVING, ordered a whole bunch of food, and was SURPRISED that I actually ate ALL of it! I think my food intake has quadrupled. This is a good thing. Especially with the Relief Society and family bringing all kinds of food. Let's just say that produce bought from Costco doesn't have time to go bad anymore. Yay for breastfeeding.

HORMONES: What happened to those?!? Talk about a let down. Well, there is a lot of talk about Postpartum Depression, but I think the Baby Blues is nearly inescapable. I consider myself a pretty chipper person, which is why I was slightly shocked when I randomly burst into tears several times that first week (okay, and a few times since then). All LOGIC in my head said that I had no reason to be crying. I knew that everything was okay. But out came the tears. It was much easier once I just embraced it and gladly blamed it on hormones.

The worst hormonal break down happened the second night in the hospital. I got frustrated with the new breastfeeding experience (it's a lot to learn all at once) so I called the nurse in. And I just started to cry HARD. Then, with impeccable timing - THE FIRE ALARM GOES OFF! That just adds to the stress of it all and I cry harder. All this of course wakes up Kirk who'd been soundly sleeping next to me, and (in his groggy state), was so confused about what the heck is going on!!!

He thought that I had caused the Fire Alarm. Apparently it was just a 2 AM routine drill.

Well, I'm sure that I could rant on forever about this, but this has already turned into a much longer post than expected.

Overall: IT'S WORTH IT! Although recovery is hard, I love my baby and would totally do it all over again! Plus, I think it's much better than those last weeks of pregnancy. It only gets better from here!