Normal pattern of post partum bleeding

[Quagmire]

What sort of bleeding should I be seeing if I'm healing well after a birth?

For the first couple of days I had bright red bleeding accompanied by some clots. Then it died down to a mucousy light brown around day 4. Saw almost nothing on day 6. Then we went for a walk yesterday and I had some dark red very stringy bleeding. Today I am seeing bright red and small pieces of tissue. I'm 8 days PP.

Does this mean I'm exerting myself too much? Or is this normal? With my first birth I bled for 12 weeks, and I'm not anxious to repeat the experience...

Any help is much appreciated!

[BelgianSheepDog]

As far as I know, if it goes away and then comes back, that's a good sign you need to take it easy for a while. How's your uterus? Is it nice and firm and down where it's supposed to be?

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by BelgianSheepDog

As far as I know, if it goes away and then comes back, that's a good sign you need to take it easy for a while. How's your uterus? Is it nice and firm and down where it's supposed to be?

Yes, totally shrunken back afaik, and no more afterpains.

So how long exactly do I have to be resting? I really was off my feet for 3 days...

[BelgianSheepDog]

Well I'm not an expert and my own pp experience is way different from yours (I bled a lot at the birth and was totally wiped out for the first three weeks) so you got me, I have no idea. I guess just see if it seems to be related to your physical activity levels at all.

[SoCaliMommy]

With my daughter i bled for6wks pp and i remember bleeding more when i was up and moving around alot in the early days.

With my son my med free birth i only bled for 2wks then spotted off and on til 6wks pp.

[Treehuggin'Mama]

This sounds like my bleeding pattern too. I notice that it gets heavier right after nursing. Was wondering too what's "normal".

[Megs_BK]

Seems like there's no real cookie cutter "normal" for this -- that's pretty much what my MW told me. There are a few other threads on this board that gave me a lot of comfort -- I just passed the 4 week pp point and pretty much bled up until yesterday. It went away if, and only if, I could lay down almost all day. That's not much of an option in the real world! I still had some spotting even after my MW confirmed that I was healing well and my cervix was back to normal. So... after my own freak-out sessions about the bleeding, I'd say worry more about heaviness (more than 1 pad/hour) than the color. Different strokes for different folks.