If you’re newly pregnant, due to give birth any day (or somewhere in between,) you’re probably curious about what your body might look like after baby makes his/her grand entrance.
Well, I have some visuals for you to ponder. When I gave birth to my third child this past April, I snapped this photo of myself in the hospital.
Pretty glamorous, right?
As apparent by my sunken face and puffy, glassy eyes, I hadn’t slept for more than a couple of 15-minute intervals in over 36 hours. You might also notice it looks as if a baby was somehow forgotten in my womb. Nope. My tummy only looked like I was still six months pregnant. You know, despite the fact a child had clearly exited my body the day before.
Oh, and see that plate of half-eaten food in the background? I managed to consume the first half one-handed while cradling my nursing baby in the other arm. I gave up because I kept dropping food in the bed, all over that chic hospital gown and on the baby’s head.
Although you can’t tell, my breasts are suckled raw in this photo. That’s because the only way my sweet newborn would stay asleep without wailing was if she was on the breast. So the boob it was. With this constant nursing, my uterus kept contracting and spewing out waves of blood and discharge. Good times.
Speaking of blood and discharge, who could miss those stylish mesh undies? As you might have heard through the grapevine, these are a godsend those first few days after delivery. What’s not to love? They’re comfy and breathable, plus they held my supersized mom-diaper pads in place (for the most part) so I wouldn’t be drenched in a river of crimson.
Changing those bad boys was a different story. I mean, just going to the bathroom was an 87-step process that involved peeing 10 gallons at once, spraying my nether regions with a water bottle, delicately patting myself dry, dabbing witch hazel pads on my episiotomy stitches, using numbing spray and switching out a new giant diaper pad in the aforementioned mesh underwear — all while a nurse watched, offered tips and handed me the various items. Don’t even get me started on a bathroom visit going number two.
This is only a glimpse of one woman’s body less than a day after birthing a human. It’s messy. It’s raw. It’s unfamiliar. It’s exhausting.
But it’s so worth it in the end.
What memories stick out to you from those first couple of days postpartum? Were you a fan of mesh undies?
Share your thoughts!