How many postpartum pads do I need?

[RosesToys]

I'm 40 weeks pregnant, as of Thanksgiving Day. I switched to cloth pads several years ago due to bad skin irritation/rash from the nasty plastic/disposable pads. I didn't use cloth pads dd was born. I can't recall (dd is 5 now) how long my lochia lasted or how long it was heavy or .... ?

So what was your lochia like? How many pp pads do I need? How long do I need to use the XL pads versus regular length mega pads? I've only got 10 of the XL pp pads and I'm afraid that may not be enough. I do NOT want to wash my pads every day. I would prefer to wash them every 3rd day if possible.

[gen_here]

I've been washing mine about every 2-3 days. I have some from last pregnancy (that I wore daily since for light incontinence - so they aren't the most absorbant right now - except the ultra ones since they weren't worn but for lochia and one AF), and I reordered more this time. So my "stash" this time is basically 4 ultras and 8 maxis.

I used the huge hospital pads while I was in the hospital and the first night I was home (I was there for about 12 hours post birth). The next day I switched to the cloth pads, using the ultras overnight and the maxis during the day. I have noticed that my flow is a lot lighter when I use them as compared to the paper pads (which I used one other night because I was washing/drying the cloth), so I don't go through them as fast as I would the paper ones.

The only other "trick" - so to speak - that I've done with them is wear them backwards. Mine look like a 2 dimensional spaghetti squash - not totally oval, but with one wider end that is meant to go toward the back. But since I'm more of a stomach sleeper, and since I seem to flow toward the front (sorry TMI), I put the one wide side toward the front and it seems to work really well for me.

[Mrs_Hos]

I was pleasantly surprised this time...
Bled for only 2 days, and lochia is still here (day 5 pp) but scant...
I was in depends with two 'comfrey treated' frozen pads for day 1, depends with 1 comfrey treated frozen pad for day 2, then just reg pads for day 3,4,5... probably went threw 5-6 'changes' on days 1-2, and maybe 3-4 changes on days 3,4,5

I had a homebirth, and my placenta took its time to come out--3hrs ...m/ws didn't tug at all though (I'm happy to say)...probably would've come out sooner (it detached earlier) but I was too tired to push etc...
Bottom line, no 'extra' bleeding due to a pulled out placenta...and comfery pads mayhave helped too!!

[midwestmeg]

I like keeping a dozen 'covers' and then sometimes I use an insert, sometimes not. But a dozen + inserts keeps me going for a few days, longer now that my flow has backed off.

I LOVE cloth pads- soooo much better than that plastic!

[aniT]

I have actually been using the 7th generation pads for the first week or so. Now I am only using the disposable at night and cloth during the day. At three weeks though the bleeding is VERY light. Some days there is none and others there is some.. Shrug.

As far as how often to wash your pads, if you are using cloth diapers it shouldn't be a problem. I just toss mine in the diaper pail and they get washed every other day with babies diapers. Newborns use a lot of diapers. I just went through three in 5 minutes.

Oh, and I had two of the ice pack pad things. I didn't use the right away, I was going to save them for when I "really" needed them. Ummm by day two I didn't really need them and by day three I KNEW I wasn't going to need them. So now I have two ice pack pads that were never used. DH says to hold on to them, because they ARE ice packs after all.