Postpartum Problems: What They Don't Tell You

Just now, I had a pain so bad it felt like a mild contraction. I went to do my usual twitter ranting, but thought instead I'd share my postpartum issues on here.. as 140 characters just isn't enough!

I was totally not equipped for the fortnight of sheer agony following delivery. As Archer had to have a forceps, I was really bruised and swollen inside and had a pretty big episiotomy to help the big guy out. As a result of this I could barely sit down for about 2 weeks, I definitely couldn't walk far and breastfeeding was really difficult. I had a stitch or two removed from my scar which helped a little but the pain was really unbearable. They prescribed me standard strength ibuprofen and paracetemol which I found pretty laughable, so I decided to visit my GP. She said there was no infection BUT prescribed me antibiotics anyway alongside Co-codamol and things cleared up really quickly after this. 

The second most agonising thing was breastfeeding. The first day or two wasn't so bad, but the pain was so intense I would wince every time he latched on and dread having to feed him. Using lanolin made little difference and I started to express a lot of my milk to give to him because it was less painful that way. My mum had assured me after a few weeks they will adjust and it won't hurt at all but during the time it felt like it would never get better. What makes the whole thing worse is that all medical advice is that 'if it hurts, you're doing it wrong' which I wasn't. I really didn't want to switch to formula, but I can definitely see why so many mothers would! As usual, my mum was right and about 3-4 weeks after having him the pain diminished hugely and I'm SO glad I carried on. 

Next up to cause me issues is my knees. Obviously, I was pretty keen to get rid of the baby weight I had gained and wanted to get exercising ASAP. My knees were having none of it, obviously all that extra weight I'd been carrying around had got a bit much for them and they were acting up whenever I tried to get moving about. They still aren't too happy when I do cardio, but I do think they are slowly getting better (or maybe that's just an excuse not to exercise, eh?)

Archer turned 4 months old this week, and in celebration my body decided to give me the worst PMS type pains ever. I've had this on and off for a month or so to no avail whilst my body tries to get back into routine but this week has been exceptionally horrible! I hope this explains the slightly less regular posting but I've had quite a few dates with my hot water bottle this week.

xxx