4 Weeks Postpartum Update

Everybody says it flies, but I seriously can't believe it's been 4 weeks already. I'd planned to write four separate postpartum posts for each week by now but life with a newborn really is all consuming so monthly updates from here on out it is! As this is the first and as there have been so many things to report though, I'll update you on Harry's development for weeks one through four and give a general update on my postpartum recovery at the end of the post. 

Week 1

Harry's first day of life is spent in the hospital where he was born. I spend the whole of the night staring at him in his hospital tank checking that he's still breathing. He is. 

Day two we bring Harry home. I'm exhausted but Harry settles in his Moses basket and only wakes twice in the night to feed. I feel better. 

Week one breastfeeding is no fun. After two days of the little fella trying to force colostrum out of my virgin nipples they feel like I've dragged them over astro-turf for an easy twenty miles. Lansinoh cream helps a little. I tell myself it'll be worth it. 

Harry is weighed at our first midwife appointment this week. He only loses a tiny bit of his birth weight (which was 7lb 8oz)- as much as a wet nappy I'm told. This news pleases me and I relax with the hourly 'when will my milk come in?' Google searches. Milk comes in day four and instantly breastfeeding becomes easier for both of us. For a bit. Then wind happens. The next few nights are a bitch as Harry's body learns how to digest actual liquid. It's exhausting. I go to my mums for some help.

Week 2

This we take Harry to get registered and I attempt breast feeding whilst out and about. It's all a bit fumbly, but I get there in the end. Ed's graduation is at the end of the week and I decide to try expressing so I don't have to worry about breastfeeding during the ceremony! I use the Phillips Avent Manual Breast Pump. I try Harry on a bottle in advance and he seems happy to switch between bottle and breast. I'll do a separate post on my experience expressing and breast feeding, so more on that another time. 

Graduation and our first proper 'day out' goes pretty smoothly.

Week 3

Sleep. Hell. Week three. Hell. Harry will only fall asleep if he's latched on to me. I can only put him in his Moses basket if he's totally out of it and even then it's high risk. He wakes every hour and a half to two hours and feeds for at least an hour each time. I'm getting 4 hours broken sleep and starting to lose my mind. 

Wind get's worse, he sounds like he's straining all the time and I get worried that the kid's going to explode. At the end of the week we try Infacol and it works instantly. It doesn't completely alleviate his pains, but it gets the wind out much quicker than Ed or I can.

Life gets real bad and we try co-sleeping. I never thought we would even try this but it was that or literally stay awake all night long. Breast feeding lying down is convenient but messy and I can;t stop worrying about smothering the wee man. We co-sleep the next night and I wake up to Harry totally under our duvet. It must have only been over him for a few seconds, but I vow never to sleep with him in bed with us again. 

Week 4

Sleep remains pretty hellish this week. Harry hates his Moses Basket but I persevere and try to make him sleep in it. I go to mums for two nights and we try him in a travel cot. He hates that too and I end up co-sleeping with him on my own. I manage to get some rest, but I worry about SIDS and really don't feel comfortable with him in the bed with me despite sleeping only in a dressing gown with no covers. 

I come home and Ed and I decide to try Harry in his proper cot. We also crack out a dummy because it's desperate times. He likes the dummy. He goes to sleep with it and not on my boob and I'm not gonna lie it feels pretty liberating. 

We put him to bed in a gro bag with his dummy at 11. He sleeps till half two, feeds for half an hour, goes back to bed till 6 then sleeps again 7 till 9. For us, this is amazing. 

My Recovery

My post-partum recovery has been relatively smooth. The first week was the worst as I had stitches which notoriously make going for a piss and sitting down a bit touch and go. In terms of weight I seem to lose almost all of my extra kilos during the first seven days, and by the end of week 4 I'm back to my pre pregnancy weight. 

My body looks a little different though. 

The skin on my stomach is still a bit loose and my linea nigra remains pretty visible. By some miracle though my melasma or mask of pregnancy I talked about throughout my pregnancy has started to fade really well and is basically invisible with the help of a bit of make up. 

I've not started any exercise as yet as I want to wait till after my 6 week GP appointment, just 10 sets of 10 pelvic floor exercises as recommended by my midwife. These women know the score. I do what they tell me. 

That's it for this update, let me know in the comments if you've had similar experiences/what your first four weeks have been like!

Kathy

xx