Adjusting to a Post-Natal Body...and a Post-Natal Life (Week 3)

My beautiful, healthy son was born March 5, 2011. Okay, so he looked a bit like a monkey for a little while after he was born. Many people say he looks like his father, and Daddy wasn't too pleased with the monkey resemblance. The baby has since progressed to having more human features.

My Body Right Now
It has been nearly two and a half weeks since I've given birth, and I'm feeling more and more normal every day. At this point I have about 13 lbs of excess weight. Compared to my pre-pregnancy body, I feel flabby and weak, although if I compare how I feel to being pregnant, I'd say I feel like a champ. All that exercise I did before and during my pregnancy is paying off now.

I was lucky to have had a vaginal birth, which has made my recovery much easier. I was at the mall pushing my son in his stroller on my 3rd day post-partum. The only complicating factor was that I had an epesiotomy, which made it difficult to spend more than 45 minutes on my feet. It has since now healed to the point where I'm no longer in pain, and I don't even think about it any more. It should be fully healed in another 2 to 4 weeks.

Breastfeeding
My son took to breastfeeding immediately, which not only felt like my first achievement as a mom, but also helped to shrink my uterus quickly and helped me shed a lot of weight. All the tips I learned at the breastfeeding clinic came in handy, too. I definitely recommend learning how to breastfeed before your baby is born.

Eating and Diet
My appetite is much lower now than when I was pregnant, although I find myself incredibly thirsty. Being thirsty make sense given that I'm producing a lot of fluid for my hungry baby to consume. I'm drinking a lot of water, milk, and watered down juice when I want something with flavour. I'm also craving a lot of juicy fruits (like oranges, grapes, watermelon) which I also relate to breastfeeding.

Getting Enough Sleep
At night my son sleeps for 2.5 to 3 hours at a time, which makes for a lot of broken sleep for me. However, I've gotten accustomed to his schedule and have developed a routine that really helps me feel refreshed in the morning.

My partner, who is a bit of a night owl anyways, stays up with the baby while I hit the hay around 10 or 11PM. Because I'm also pumping breastmilk, my partner can feed the baby once or twice in the evening before they both go to bed. By the time the baby wakes up again, I have gotten between 3 to 6 hours of sleep already. Then, because I pumped enough breast milk to feed the baby throughout the night, I bottle feed him in the middle of the night, which makes for a much faster feeding time than if I were to have breastfed him. It also ensures he fills up his belly so he's not hungry again for at least another 2 hours. So all in all I spend more time sleeping and less time up with him.

I also try to keep the surroundings as dark as possible so the baby doesn't think that the middle of the night is a great time to be up and fully awake. If he doesn't appear sleepy even after he's fed and changed, I have him lay in the bed with us, which often works as a magic bullet to get him to sleep.

Walking as Exercise
Ever since I become pregnant, I've made a point to listen to my body. So after I gave birth, I started walking as soon as I felt like I could. I would never push myself, especially right after labour, but I would make the effort to get on my feet even just to go to the bathroom, take a shower, etc. Soon enough I was doing a bit of mall walking, and I now am at the point that I can do a brisk 20-30 minute walk every day. I'd like to mention that in my first 10 days post-partum, being up and about (e.g. going grocery shopping) would end up fatiguing me to the point where I needed to nap in the afternoon. It has only been in the past few days that walking hasn't exhausted me.

Core Strengthening
Yesterday I did my first post-partum core workout. It lasted all of 15 minutes, and I kept the intensity very light, but I did it nonetheless. So many people take an all-or-nothing approach to exercise: either they kill themselves by training at an extremely high intensity, or they don't exercise at all. I like to take my time and gradually increase intensity depending on how my body feels.

In my next blog I will discuss some good post-partum core strengthening exercises to help lose the dreaded "mommy tummy".