Recovering from pregnancy and delivery

I wanted to share my first week out (that is so hard to believe that its been a whole week and that this time last week my body was preparing for labor!)

I have just finished my first week postpartum. The first thing I noticed was that I hurt in the tailbone and back bottom region. During my brief labor in the hospital on January 16, 2008 at 2:45 am, my midwives said the doctor did some maneuver on my bottom during the crowning period that caused her head to turn. She was born looking at my left thigh. This combined with pushing in the worst position possible—on my back—has left my bottom feeling out of sorts.

I was sore feeling in the rest of the perineum from the stretching of birth, but the small tear up toward my urethra didn’t bother me at all and I only had stinging during urination for about the first 24 hours after birth. I was in the hospital for 36 hours after birth, during which time I was in bed most of the time in a semi-reclining posture. During that time, I felt pressure in the rectum area. I felt I had to go to the bathroom, but I wasn’t going to try unless I felt my body could do it without much straining. I was given a stool softener Wednesday January 16, 2008 around 8:00 or 9:00 am. Shortly after this when I tried to move out of bed, my hip was hurting badly. I probably should have gone to the chiropractor late in my pregnancy because I was having a lot of hip pain and suspect something might have been out of place, which could have contributed to her poor position that stressed her out causing the decelerations in her heart rate.

On Thursday January 17, 2008, when I got home from the hospital, I attempted to have a bowel movement. I held a cloth on the rest of my perineum to offer it support and pressure to the rectal area from inside the vagina to help manually move it out. That worked, but it was not a complete relief. I repeated this again on Friday. Both times it still felt like something was sticking out of my bottom. I am assuming that I am feeling hemorrhoids though I am having no itching or burning since I am putting lansinoh (lanolin) on my bottom. Friday was also the day I had an incident (that happened with both of my other two vaginal births) where I lost control of my bladder when preparing to urinate. I began some abdominal exercises of breathing in through my nose and blowing out through pursed lips while pulling in my abs while lying on my back, side, and then front. My rectiditasis (spelling) is only two or less fingers. I spent about 20 minutes lying on my front with a pillow under my hips and kegaling. I have continued these exercises through today and I feel my body reconnecting.

On Saturday January 19, 2008, I had a bowel movement without much issue. It was 72 hours since taking the softener, so I am assuming that is why it came so easily. I am now wishing I had taken one everyday for a few days to get things moving so I was not manually moving it out on muscles fatigued from labor. By Saturday, I was having very lochia blood flow and am still only spotting a pad.

As of Tuesday, January 22, 2008, I still am unable to stop my urine once I sit down and release the flow. I got some stool softener today to make things easier on myself. I looked in the mirror for the first time today and I can see the cystocele. The cervix still seems up fairly high, but the rectocele is definitely aggravated. I went out for the first time today to Wal-Mart and was there about an hour walking and shopping. I concentrated as much as possible to stand in the posture. Making sure my shoulders were down and back broad was a little difficult because I was a pushing a cart. My ligaments that run from the abs to the legs and high in my inner thighs felt fatigued and sore when I got home. When I got home, I did my exercises (mentioned above) and enjoyed lying on my front with the hips on a pillow. This really relaxed my lower back and I could feel that wonderful, gentle curve it should have when in the posture. It was very comfortable. I am trying to sit on the floor with legs crossed as much as possible and it feels good too.