Postpartum

Hey Joy, your postpartum experience will really depend on your environment. If you have family around, helping for all and anything, if you have good amount of rest, if you are bonding with your baby. You will have a good experience of postpartum as much as having fast recovery. Also having nutritious food will definitely help on that!

Postpartum wasn’t the worst. My daughter was born at 36 weeks. She was sable but as soon as we were ready to go home her oxygen started dropping. It got to the point they transferred her to the Nicu. My husband was very supportive during the time but didn’t quite understand what was going on with me mentally. I blamed myself so bad to the point I’d just be sobbing. I’d constantly be checking my daughter’s online chart to see any changes while we were home. I also went to the hospital every 2 hours to try and breast feed her. I have a large bust and it was hard for my daughter to latch on. It got to the point that I wasn’t producing enough milk while pumping to feed my daughter. The hospital offered donor milk which we used. When my daughter was getting ready to discharge one of the doctors said “how are you going to feed her without the donor milk”. I immediately went into overdrive and got to the point I was pumping constantly to just make enough for my daughter. It broke my heart

Because I feel like with the Nicu stay I wasn’t able to learn to breast feed her and that’s what I really wanted. About a month later my MIL says “you’re not going to be one of those weird moms that breast feeds their kid until they’re 1 right”. Yes that was my full intent. (She formula fed all her kids) I feel like her words got into my head too much to the point my supply dropped so much we had to rely on formula. Another thing I blamed myself for. 2 weeks postpartum I started getting extreme pains in my back. I was near passing out and was constantly throwing up. Having a new born I didn’t want to leave her and go back to the hospital. I waited about 3 months until 1 day I picked up a shift at the hospital and had one of these attacks. Ended up getting wheeled down to the er and admitted. Turns out after pregnancy it’s very common for women to get gallstones due to the change of hormones. A year later I got emergent surgery.

Moral of my little autobiography…. Don’t be too hard on yourself when things don’t go as planned. You will be an amazing mother! The wave of emotions is unavoidable but as long as you keep your head in the mind set of “tomorrow is a new day” you’ll make it through. People will judge you and try and tell you how to parent. Just ignore them and you do what you feel is best for your family🤍

Every postpartum experience is different, but consistently there were some similar experiences. The first year will be the most difficult thing your relationship has ever been through. No matter how solid you are, between hormones, not sleeping, learning how to be parents, new responsibilities. There’s going to be days that you hate and resent each other and that’s completely normal. Commit to the first year now and find ways to reconnect through the trenches. It takes 18 months for your organs to move back into the right spaces, and either 2 years after birth or 6 months after stopping breastfeeding (whichever comes last) for your hormones to level back out and go back to “normal”. Give yourself a lot of grace through it. Sometimes it feels like you’ll never be normal again, but you will. Let go of the idea of “bouncing back”. There is no going back to who you were before you were a mother. Mourn her, love her, and appreciate her for getting you this far, but she can’t do this part

It’s going to be hard, but it’s the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. And at the end of the day, we’re all just winging it and doing our best. You’ve got this 🩷 congratulations and good luck!

Postpartum is hard and different for everyone and after every pregnancy. I will say I wish someone would have told me to be kind to myself. As in eat nutritious food after birth if you can start making meals you can freeze and ur partner or yourself can easily warm up going through that phase will be important for the both of you we didn’t really have a village through those first 3 months and it was hard. Give up the idea of bouncing back think of it as a reinvention of who that girl used to be you have now accomplished an amazing thing you will never be the same once you hold that baby against your chest & that is ok this new version is going to be full of love. Allow your partner to help you it’s the hardest thing for first time mothers bc we get so protective but it can truly hinder your relationship if you don’t allow him to father. Also idk if most birthing hospitals have this option but a postpartum therapists who calls and chats with you once a week really helped me get rid of

My postpartum anxiety. Remember a feed baby is best. I fixated on breastfeeding so much those first 3 months I’m happy for the benefits my daughter has gained from it but I was hard on myself it’s ok to combo feed bc your tired or formula if you are not producing enough.