What did you do after delivery?

[Overthemoon]

This is my first home birth so I'm sort of unsure what to expect after delivery.
Can you share what you did after delivery? Did you feel good enough to get up and shower? Did you stay in bed? Did you find much discomfort after or were you fine to say sit with the family and watch TV after?
I'm sort of trying to envision how it's going to go after I have the baby, but I'm drawing a blank and would just love to know what you all did.
Thanks!

[mommyndoula]

Sat in the birth tub for about 45 minutes. snuggles with my baby, ate nachos and drank orange juice! Eventually moved to my bed to continue nursing and fell asleep. I woke up about 4 hours later, took a real shower. Nothing really exciting, just relaxing with family. I delivered at 11:15, so it was naturally my bed time anyway.

[XanaduMama]

After being cleaned up and stitched etc, I walked upstairs on my own, ran myself a bath and soaked. Then my mom made us all breakfast, and baby and I took a nap while dh and ds ran an errand. We pretty much all hung out on the couch the rest of that day, cuddling with dd and watching March Madness on tv! Best day ever. :

[dogmom327]

Got out of the pool, moved to my bed and cuddled with baby, spent 2 hours being stitched up (not a normal length of time...don't worry!), went out to the living room to eat a little food and do the baby exam.

[FiveLittleMonkeys]

Stayed in bed while the midwife did the newborn exam right next to me, took a shower and got dressed. I ended up on the couch for most of the day so our older kids could see and snuggle the baby. That afternoon, I felt so good we took a little walk around our cul-de-sac to show off our newest addition!

It was awesome to be able to shower in my own bathroom and do things in my own time.

[Sijae]

With the first I was so shell-shocked and bruised that I couldn't do much. He was born at midnight so I did try to sleep. I had a bath at the midwives suggestion shortly after birth and eventually we just got back into bed. The first few weeks were a nightmare.

With the second I felt like I didn't even have a baby. I felt great! I stayed up for a while just spending time with him and eventually we went back to bed. I had some pretty bad after-pains the next morning but overall was ready to go right after birth.

With my last I had some issues getting the placenta out and bled significantly. I spent the first few days resting and getting my energy back. Otherwise I felt totally fine.

I think it's expected to stay in bed or sitting and holding the babe for at least a few hours to bond and get breastfeeding started well. I think even if you feel good you should take it easy and just relax and let people take care of you if you can.

Laura

[Peony]

Last birth I stayed in the tub for the first nursing session then I got out and baby and I took a quick bath together. Got dressed, ate pizza that DH had ordered, and just enjoyed the new baby the rest of the day. I felt great, I walked around the house when I wanted to, I definitely wasn't stuck on the couch or in the bed. DD2 was born at 11am so we just hung out as a family the rest of the day, I just remember it being a nice, peaceful day.

[greeneyedmama]

I had really short, easy births(but quite painful and the shortness made it intense!) so it might be different than those who labored for hours and wanted a nap(dd1 2 1/4 hrs, dd2 1 1/4 hrs.) But with both of my LOs I felt SO high and happy afterwards that after I nursed/tried to nurse(dd1 didn't latch for almost a day ) I told DP to not let anyone do anything to them and jumped in the shower. And I stayed high on the adrenaline and didn't/couldn't sleep for a day and a half!

[alegna]

Took an herbal bath with baby. Got cleaned up and dressed. Dressed and diapered baby. ATE. Slept.

Both my labors were long and I missed at least 1 full night of sleep with each... so I was TIRED.

-Angela

[claddaghmom]

Originally Posted by Overthemoon

This is my first home birth so I'm sort of unsure what to expect after delivery.
Can you share what you did after delivery? Did you feel good enough to get up and shower? Did you stay in bed? Did you find much discomfort after or were you fine to say sit with the family and watch TV after?
I'm sort of trying to envision how it's going to go after I have the baby, but I'm drawing a blank and would just love to know what you all did.
Thanks!

Right after she was born, I held her in a squatting position. Latched her on. At some point, I couldn't hold her any longer and had DH take her. I physically couldn't hold her and move to a more comfortable position.

I birthed the placenta on a birthing stool to support my weight.

After that, I laid down on a futon matress and pillow. I side nursed her and cuddled her for more than an hour while everyone was emptying the pool and cleaning up.

Then I was inspected b/c I had torn and it was determined that it was a big enough tear to go to the hospital. So I got dressed and DH dressed the baby and we left. That was about 2.5 hours after birth by then I believe.

I felt as if I was on cloud nine emotionally...but physically I was completely drained. I couldn't walk to the car; they had to carry me.

But that was probably due to using every ounce of my being to push for more than 5hrs lol.

The next day I went out and about. We even ate out that week!

ETA: sewing me up only took about an hour. We went home and I had an herbal sitz bath with her. Just soaked for awhile. Then baby, hubby and I passed out in bed haha.

[ferra]

I was ordered to stay in bed for several days because of some pp bleeding and I was so sore I didn't want to get up. I stayed in bed, attempted to nurse, and ate lots of food. It was a beautiful, sunny, fresh spring day :

[tireesix]

Just kinda chilled out.

[eli's mama]

It was the same after both deliveries for me, I stayed in the tub for a while, nursed, eventually got out and showered. Then snuggled with babe on the bed until I fell asleep, woke up to a semi-clean house and DH emptying the tub. I felt great though, it was nice to be home.

[Burnindinner]

Right after, I:
held the baby and looked him over
got annoyed they were so worried about delivering the placenta (ok, it took 1.5 hr, which later i found out was a while)

A little while later:
the midwife stitched 3 tiny tears
i did take a shower that night
my dh and new ds took a nap together, but i was so high i just watched them and caught up with my friends online!
ate in bed

Eventually that night (he was born at noon) I:
did go hang out on the couch with my family

I didn't want to be alone! The tears made sitting up uncomfortable, so I was fine lounging though.

I think next time I would make more of an effort to rest and actually sleep that afternoon, but I don't know. I would also be less concerned with letting people come see the baby. Well, it was mostly just my family, but I think I would be less concerned with *MY* trying to host them, and just let them see the baby which is what they want anyway.

[katmann]

I moved from the tub to the bed, and I was really shaky and weak. My mws doctored me up with some herbal tinctures to get my bp back to normal while dh held our son. then I stayed in bed for about twelve hours, just nursing and cuddling and trying to sleep. It's really hard to sleep! You're just so amazed with the baby and figuring out what to do. I was really sore and "shell-shocked" as a PP said.

[blissful_maia]

Had a shower, ate a hearty breakfast, got dressed and got baby dressed, snuggled in bed, spent time with visiting family, got pampered.

[Boizalynne]

Pretty much did the same thing with all of my homebirths... got out of the water and nursed the baby, got her (I have 4 girls) all cleaned up and dressed, let daddy have some snuggle time while I took a shower, ate something (#1 was grapes, #2 was banana and brownie, #3 was eggs, #4 a bagel sandwich) then went to bed with my brand new baby. Always seemed to take around 2 hours after the birth to finally get to bed.

[yeahwhat]

Dd was born at 9:30pm, so we cuddled and oohed and aahed for a while. She nursed for a long time. Eventually the baby exam was done and I got up to pee and clean myself up a bit so my midwife could go home. By then it was after 11pm and my older kids were still awake. The 3 year old layed down beside the baby and I and fell asleep while dh and his mother were tucking the other two into bed, then dh moved her to her own bed and fell asleep himself.

The baby finally decided she was done nursing, but needed a new diaper. Then she was wide awake after midnight and so was I. So we came out to the living room and cuddled/nursed/stared at each other/watched tv/played on the computer until about 6 in the morning when she finally decided to sleep soundly. I also got myself advil and a hot water bottle for the afterpains.

Had she been born earlier in the day, I'd have been fine to sit around the house with the rest of the family within a couple of hours (once the worst of the bleeding started to slow down to manageable levels).

[Full Heart]

Typically I lay in bed to deliver the placenta, get checked for tears, nurse the baby, monitor the bleeding, eat, pee, assess the baby, dress the baby, take a quick pic to email family, call ils, introduce the other kids to the baby, and then try to rest. I don't shower usually.

[donutmolly]

After all the birth stuff was done, I climbed into bed with my DD, ate something, and went to bed.

I totally felt well enough to get up, shower, go to the bathroom, actually had a ton of energy (but knew I needed to rest), but it was the middle of the night so I wanted to get a semblance of sleep.

My MW suggests 1 day in the bed, 1 day near the bed, then around the house for a week. This is her recommendation, not because of women being incapable of doing lots of stuff, rather to enforce resting so that healing takes place faster and better.

I personally wanted company! Just to sit and be present, or available. So I didn't feel alone. DH was ok, but he's a go-getter and was so hyped up that he needed to "do" stuff all the time. It was great for DD2's birth, he took care of DD1, made sure she got lots of attention. But this time I'm gonna slate my mom friends and church ladies to come and just sit with me for awhile.