C-Section recovery I knew was going to be difficult but as always we were met with the unexpected.
Coming home from the hospital wasn’t the fairy-tale I had created in my head. We didn’t get the dad carrying the baby in the car seat photo or a video out the hospital doors.
We stayed 5 days in the hospital, after struggling to breastfeed and my milk coming in late my sons weight was dropping. On the fourth day they found out he was tongue tied and the next day he had surgery.
In the hospital I kept up on my pain meds and within hours of the surgery I was trying at the pace of snail to walk around the hospital ward. I had read the sooner you can start walking the quicker you could recover so I set myself targets and waddled very slowly to them holding onto anything I could.
Showering was something I had greatly underestimated the difficulty of.
I couldn’t really bend still so I had to have help from my partner to shower whilst recovering the first few times. The first shower after giving birth is euphoric I’m sure it’s the same no matter how you give birth.
That little face looking at me with nothing but love is a feeling you cannot describe. Holding your little one for the first time feels like magic, but make sure you lift nothing heavier than your baby!
The day after we came home we manged to walk about 500 yard to the local café, I’d really recommend getting out the house even into the garden for at least 10 mins a day.
What I would recommend for recovery:
-Try take it easy as much as you can because you will feel if you’ve overdone it.
-Use warm and soapy water on your scar
-Pre cook meals in advance and freeze them.
-Use sanitary towels against the scar to keep it as dry as possible.
-Wear loose clothing as your uterus is still shrinking down and you’ll feel cramps especially when breastfeeding
-Wear maternity pads and big surgery knickers as you’ll likely still be bleeding
-After showering make sure you dry you scar properly
If you are wondering how you’ll know you’ve overdone it the symptoms to look for are you’ll be exhausted, if you stopped bleeding suddenly you’ll be back to bleeding again, you’ll feel tugging in your scar area and you may even have an infection. If your scar becomes red and inflamed please seek medical attention as soon as possible.
Wishing you a speedy recovery! Checkout my hospital bag for a c-section.