Post Partum Recovery-6 months
Disclosure: some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.
At the time I’m sitting down to write this may baby is 7 months old toady! The fact that I’m writing this post a month late should give you some insight into how busy I’ve been LOL
Physical
Back in June I decided I was ready to start getting back into a routine of increasing my movement. Working from home drastically decreased the amount of steps I was getting each day (like less than 2,000 consistently) and I could majorly feel the effects from that! Weight loss had stopped, my joints felt stiff, I was restless at night and not sleeping well, & just felt kind of fatigued all the time.
I LOVE to take walks, it’s one of my favorite forms of exercise/movement so I decided to start there. Ever since then, I’ve been getting up and doing a 20-25min walk outside everyday (mon-fri). I’ve lost almost 3 pounds since starting, my clothes fit better, I look less puffy, I don’t feel joint stiffness anymore, & I’m resting better at night. Yay for all those things!
Otherwise I feel pretty good physically. I’ve set a goal for myself to do short strength training exercises or yoga before bed each night, but I’m struggling to make this a habit. I just literally forget to do it. It’s a work in progress.
I would like to take a moment for us to all laugh at the fact that we’re “cleared” for basically any & all activities after 6 weeks. I was listening to a podcast this morning and they were pointing out all the things that need to heal after delivery: your placenta leaves essentially a hole that has to heal, if you had a c-section you’re healing from a major surgery, if you delivered vaginally you might have tore, regardless of delivery type, there’s healing that has to take place for your cervix & uterus, your breast tissue is changing, you might’ve had hemorrhoids, etc. etc. etc. HOW is 6 weeks still the standard? It blows my mind. Within the last month sex finally doesn’t hurt anymore, which tells me it took quite a bit longer than six weeks for things to heal. Why don’t we talk about that more? Why aren’t our doctors talking to us about it? Why is pelvic floor therapy not the standard of care after pregnancy?
Emotional
It seems that overall my emotions have leveled out, but I do catch myself being more tearful over something random that I normally wouldn’t be. I haven’t started my period back yet, but I’m wondering if I am ovulating and my more tearful times occur with ovulation….that’s the theory I’m sticking with for now. (next month I plan to test with ovulation strips to see if I’m ovulating or not)
My anxiety however, has really ramped up the past month. I’m not sure what the trigger was, but I’ve had racing thoughts about a lot of subjects lately. Rabbit holes I normally wouldn’t visit. Is this anxiety? Is it normal worry? Is it related to being postpartum or coincidence? I’m really not sure.
It seems any random thing can send me down a spiral of what ifs and questions. Yesterday in Kentucky we had areas of significant flooding. I was scrolling facebook this morning and saw a photo of a (probably) teenage girl, sitting on a roof top with her dog in a tote. I went on to read that the post was made by her parent sharing how thankful they were that their child was alive. She had placed her dog into this tote (so it would float) and swam them to a nearby roof top where they could wait to be rescued.
Where I live, we don’t really get a lot of flooding, but I guess it could happen anywhere, right? What if that happened here. In my home. I have three babies, none of which can swim. Two of which would have NO concept of what was happening. They all 3 sleep in their own rooms. If this flooding occurred over night, would we know what was happening in time to get them out? Would the waters just rush in before we even knew what was happening? Could I get to them from my room in enough time? Should I start leaving their life jackets in their rooms when there’s any chances of heavy rain/flooding? Would I be better off with the life jackets beside my bed? How could I swim holding all 3 of them if their life jackets had floated away or couldn’t be found?
I could probably keep going, but you get it. I’ve been doing this frequently & honestly, I’m ready for it to stop.
Sleep
Hollis is currently doing a mix of sleeping in his own room and sleeping in our room in his bassinet, or if I’m being perfectly honest, some nights the swing which we’ve moved to our room (not recommended by whoever makes those types of recommendations). Just this week he started pulling up (OMG, what?!) and can no longer be trusted safely in his bassinet. SO that’s gonna have to be put away and I’ll either move the pack n play into our room, or this will be the push I need to keep him in his room all night long. We’ll see.
A lot of nights he’s only waking up 1 time. But a handful of nights he’s still waking up multiple times and this momma is tired! 7 months without a FULL night of uninterrupted sleep really adds up.
Supplements
First, just as a reminder, this is not me recommending you to take this supplement regimen…it’s simply what I’ve chosen to do and I recommend talking with your provider before you implement any new supplements/vitamins especially if you’re breastfeeding.
Major changes here since my last PP blog post. If you follow me on IG you already know that I did a HTMA (hair tissue mineral analysis) on myself & as a result discontinued a lot of my supplements. Here’s what I still am taking:
Perfect Supplements Desiccated Liver. I did 1 month of 4 capsules a day, then switched to only 2 in the mornings.
Just Thrive Probiotic (Code: THEAUBREYFAM)
Electrolyte Supreme (fruit punch flavor) I drink this most mornings! but I will occasionally switch it up & use LMNT (orange is my favorite flavor, its very similar to orange gatorade), or Re-Lyte (lemon-lime and strawberry lemonade flavors are my favorite, I definitely recommend trying the variety pack first) instead.
The LMNT brand has the most salt taste to it, FYI. I mix with 25oz of water to help the taste most of the time
MagSoothe I SHOULD be drinking this every night before bed, because I truly notice a difference in my sleep quality when I don’t drink it, but I’ve been forgetting it a lot lately.
Code: AUBREYFAM
I don’t do both of these every single day, but still pretty frequently:
Perfect Supplements Unflavored Collagen I use 1-2 scoops of this in smoothies, tea, or decaf coffee. Its truly unflavored and dissolves SO well in hot or cold beverages!
Code: AUBREYFAM
Chocolate Collagen from Further Food—you can mix 1 scoop with 8oz of hot water & it’s just like hot chocolate! I’ve also used it in my mug cakes & to make a chocolate covered strawberry smoothie, so tasty!
Code: AUBREYFAM
Working from Home
I promised to report back on how working from how was going, & I will, but I want to make a separate post about it.
Bottom line: it’s going great & it’s one of the best decisions we could have ever made for our family!