how long?

[upnorthmama]

How long before you started returning to normal activity? How long before you took your LO out of the house.

I am feeling really good 1 week pp. I want to go for a walk and begin normal activity again. My 5 day home visit was yesterday and my midwife told me I should be taking it easy (whatever that means) for another two weeks. She said that I shouldn't be going up and down my stairs for at least another week and laying down most of the day at this point.

What was your experience like?

[onlyAngil]

Originally Posted by upnorthmama

How long before you started returning to normal activity? How long before you took your LO out of the house.

I am feeling really good 1 week pp. I want to go for a walk and begin normal activity again. My 5 day home visit was yesterday and my midwife told me I should be taking it easy (whatever that means) for another two weeks. She said that I shouldn't be going up and down my stairs for at least another week and laying down most of the day at this point.

What was your experience like?

My farther died 3 days after my OL was born, so that is how long I had.

[tinyshoes]

It's crazy....you have a good birth, you feel great--and then you're supposed to DO NOTHING for weeks!!!!

In many cultures, a new mama "does the month" or babymoons for 40 days. We need to DO LESS!!! and relax.

No matter how 'good' a mama feels, the uterus is still involuting (returning to nonpregnant size) and the placental site is still healing itself (that's why we bleed lochia--it is the interior of the uterus completley regenerating itself, because the inside of the uterus does not want there to be scar tissue from the placental site--this is why uterine surgery/cesareans can cause probs w/ future fertility/pregnancies, because they cause an unnatural scar inside the uterus.)

The ligaments that supported the uterus will shrink down to non-pregnant size in by 2 months post-partum.

The pelvis (and all joints) are still affected by the hormone relaxin, which means things are wonkier than usual.

The abdominal muscles are trying to figure out how to work again, putting the spine and back muscles at risk for strain during these early weeks.

So if a mama does a bunch of stuff during this precious healing time, she is setting herself up for a longer recovory overall, longer length of post-partum bleeding, and risking damage to the ligaments that support the uterus and pelvic floor (and no amount of kegels can strengthen a damaged ligament.)

I was just researching all these reasons for myself today, because I feel GREAT and I want to run around and do stuff and go to Target like a crazy woman. I just birthed a giant baby, at home--that's AMAZING, and now I'm supposed to sit around and do nothing? it's HARD to do.

But you have ONLY one post-partum period, and resting for as many days as possible will do nothing but GOOD and WONDERS for your body.

HERE'S a shorter version of a good post-partum prescription for American women:
5 days in bed
5 days on the bed
5 days near the bed

HTH

[oyinmama]

hey, that 5,5,5 plan sounds great! and so easy to remember.

i did 4 days in bed (didn't leave the top floor of my house once i returned home from hospital) then 3 or 4 days when i would pick a floor for the day and stay there. then like 5 days of diminished activity, which meant, i did one outing daily, like to get a doughnut with DH, or run a small errand, and then laid down on the couch or in bed the rest of the time, or would move from couch to chair, etc.

my mom was in town so she & DH together made sure i didn't do anything. altogether it was probably 12 days before i left the house with LO, and even then it was diminished activity, lots of laying down in between doing little things, etc.

right now i feel great! and have been since abt 3.5 weeks PP.i'm back to work and my work is pretty active, but i'm still not carrying heavy things. i work with my DH and LO and we have a nursery here, so i lay down to feed him and stuff, just on general principle. even though i feel wonderful, i want to take that time to just get off my feet, just because i can.

[pixiepunk]

it's so hard when you have other children to care for and not a lot of support. i felt incredibly lucky that i felt great and was able to do things pretty soon after birth, because i don't know what would've happened if i couldn't have.

but having said that, i'm trying really hard to listen to what my body is telling me. i know i shouldn't be running around yet even though i feel great, and whenever i've had a day where i did too much my body really let me know it so i tried to follow those with a couple of days of lesser activity and who cares if there's dishes piled in the sink and laundry to do, darn it, i'm going to rest. and i'm always glad when i do that, i always feel better for it.

ITA with tinyshoes, our bodies are really doing a lot of recovering behind the scenes. i particular am careful about not over-stressing my joints because as she mentioned, if you overstretch a ligament all the exercise in the world isn't going to fix it. that's why i was cautioning against running in the first couple of month post partum in the exercise thread.

[treehuggermama]

With my 2 vag deliveries I listened to my body and watched my lochia to determine how much I should be doing. This time around with the c/s I couldn't lift for 5 weeks and had live in family help during that time so although I have 2 other children it allowed me to take it easy. Now I feel almost completely recovered at 8 wks pp.

I say listen to your body

[Ironica]

Ha. Yeah, taking it easy seems like a good idea... but didn't happen. :-/

Last time, I was in the hospital for over 72 hours after the birth. This time, we were discharged just a hair over 24 hours later (I *needed* to get home, where there was food I could eat!). I felt surprisingly good while at the hospital, but when I got home (into my familiar environment) I realized how much slooooower I was moving. I had to make a conscious effort to keep moving that slow, though.

First time out of the house? Three days PP. Dropped DS1 off at school; took the baby too, because he wanted to show off his new baby brother. Then we went to the market, and that afternoon I had to go to the doctor to get my staples out.

I keep feeling like it's taking me sooooo long to heal, but then I think about at what point I did this or that last time, and I realize I'm running 1-2 weeks ahead... moreso in some cases. With DS1, the first time I carried him any distance was 3 weeks PP. With DS2, DH is dealing with DS1, so by default I have to carry him much of the time.

Our first real outing with DS1 (aside from walks around the block) was at 8 days PP, by comparison.

[chely7425]

I had a c-section and felt good enough to do stuff at about 3.5 weeks PP, but that only lasted until I actually started doing stuff and then I felt like crap!! I am still taking it easy at 4.5 weeks PP but am slowly easing back into doing stuff because I feel like a useless lump. I agree with everyone else, listen to your body and don't worry about taking it easy when you need to!!

[BensMom]

I felt great right after the birth. But since last time was a c/s with a hard recovery, I think in comparison I felt so much better than last time (I could walk, bend, sit, etc). I stayed upstairs in my bed til day 5 when we went to the ped. I spent a couple days half upstairs, half downstairs, so I only did the stairs once. I definitely did a lot more kidcare/housecare while downstairs (just getting up and down, getting drinks, picking up clutter). On day 8 we went back to the ped and we met DS at his park day field trip. It pretty much wore me out for the rest of that day and the next.

Now at 3.5w I feel up to one big adventure per day - store, park, playdate. I still get tired afterwards and my pelvic organs feel very heavy/low. I wish I could be like one of thsoe mamas who bounce right back, but I am not. I am READY to get back to exercising, thats for sure.

[~NewMa~]

I stayed in the bed for 3 days... not including the second night when I went downstairs to get something to eat. I was STARVING and my hubby had just fallen asleep. I felt bad waking him.
On the 4th day we had our first ped appointment so that was our first day out.
After that I still refused to go out anywhere until about the 3rd week.
Since then we've been having very busy weekends (visiting family and such) and try to keep it calm and to a minimum during the week.
I actually kinda wish I had spent more time in bed that first week.
Now I find myself heading up to bed at about 8pm and this is about 6 weeks later!
Take it easy and enjoy it!!!