What’s Old Is New Again- November 15, 2013
It’s only been three years. I tried to jog my memory and remember all of the nitty gritty I had forgotten about postpartum life and having a newborn. Our son arrived a week and two days ago and there are some notable similarities and differences from Baby #1 to Baby #2.
Ouch!– I had to describe to my first-time pregnant friend what it was like physically after giving birth. I was honest. “It’s like a crime scene down there.” I felt bad. I thought she was going to cry. Well, she should know. I wish I had.
Once again, I am wrecked yo. But, it healed up up quick last time. I was good as new. I fully expect the same this time. Fortunately, I was aware that it would take 10 minutes to go to the bathroom every time these first couple of weeks, so I was ready. Allow for bathroom time, new mothers! You’re welcome.
I’ve been thankful for Dermaplast and perineal ice packs. Greyson even made a run to the specialty pharmacy to get more of the cold pads for me. I figured out why they only give you so many at the hospital. They are $4.00 a piece! The thing is, I would have paid more. You ladies understand.
I remember some after pains or cramping when nursing after Baby #1 was born. Oh my God! This time?! Insane! It felt like contractions again. Seriously. It died down after a couple of days, but good Lord! That’s when the nurse and my mom informed me, “Oh yeah, it’s much worse with subsequent babies.” Good to know. Take note, second-timers.
The Hospital and Recorded Feedings– With Baby #1, Greyson and I hung on to the doctors and nurses’ every words. We dutifully filled out their feeding chart with time and duration of each nursing session. We kept track of each bit of meconium and consulted the lactation consultant a ridiculous four times. We both loved our nurses and thanked them a hundred times. We looked at each other and thought, “Oh my God! They’re letting us leave here with an infant. What the hell are they thinking?”
This time we didn’t write down jack. I humored one nurse, by making up some numbers. I could just tell her feeding times. I refused to write them down and continue this ritual for two weeks! With Baby #1 for two weeks I went insane recording every feeding and poop in a cute little notebook. I set the timer on the old iPhone 3GS and recorded each one. Really?! No. Not this time. Granted, I enjoyed the little notes I wrote at the end of each day about my newborn daughter’s early days, but I think it made me go a little crazy to keep those types of records. I think some Type A, detail oriented mothers would love that, but it caused me too much anxiety. Sorry. Let’s just feed the kid and move on with life. So far so good with Baby #2. I’m just feeding him while checking Twitter on my iPhone 5 this time.
We were generally annoyed and really ready to get out of the hospital, frankly. I think every baby in the county decided to be born the same day as our son. The staff seemed busy and frazzled. Paying a higher copay than last time didn’t help our moods. We were just generally irritated by the end of our hospital stay. We enjoyed all our sweet visitors, but it was time to go!
Snip- We didn’t know if this baby was a boy or a girl, so when we saw his kibbles and bits, we had to make a decision. A circumcision decision. I wanted to make sure I understood the pros and cons of circumcision and types of circumcisions. There are different kinds. Who knew? We didn’t. Baby #1 was a girl. How would we know?
I did some research on my phone and had extensive Twitter DM conversations with some of my boy mom blogger friends. I won’t tell you what we decided because that would be discussing my son’s genitals on the Internet. Poor kid. It’s bad enough his shameless mother discusses hers.
Milk and Weight Gain– The dairy is open for business, ya’ll! This kid came out an eater. In the delivery room he was rooting around and ready to go. The milk came in faster this time. Thank God. Colostrum wasn’t cutting it. This baby wanted milk. He was born 8 lbs. 2 oz. and left the hospital 7 lbs. 13 oz. He stayed 7 lbs. 13 oz. at his two day appointment.
I am not making this up. In five days the child was up to 8 lbs. 10 oz.! The doctor had to look at the chart twice. She thought it was a typo. I’m proud of my boobs. Not gonna lie.
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Congrats on #2 – and there was a huge difference for me between #1 and #2. My daughter wouldn’t breastfeed – just flat out refused so I really felt like a dairy pumping all the time. My son was a champ at breastfeeding – too good really that he killed me so I went back to pumping more to allow healing. My second one, my son was 9 lbs 4 oz – I won’t even tell you how that went as I’m sure you can imagine. All I have to say is the ice pads are “priceless”. Everything with the 2nd will be different – I didn’t panic over things falling on the floor. If it was a paci – 5 second rule and moved on. Everything was washed in the dishwasher – no sanitizing anything and his personality is so much more laid back because I was laid back. But let me warn you – little boys are so different so just be ready and prepared – I’m tired of seeing my son streaking through the house naked and he’s 5 and telling him we don’t do “that” in front of people he needs to do “that” in private.
Ha! Thanks! Good to know. Not too many differences now in personalities because I mean, babies are babies, but I’m interested to see what happens.
I really wish I could have read this before I had Jesse! OMG those cramp/contractions lasted a week and I about died! Thanks for sharing your over sharing! As another mother I like hearing others experiences!
I was so ready to get out of the hospital with both of my kids. I have no idea how nurses and doctors think you’re getting quality rest with them barging in every 3-4 and harping about nursing times and durations.
Sounds like things are settling in well for your family of four.
All the time! Really?! Like you need my temperature at 3:30am? Seriously.
I feel so privileged to know your circumcision decision. Personally, I didn’t use the Dermaplast/ice packs after I got out of the hospital. I always just take the narcotics, refill the narcotics and take more narcotics. I’ve probably got a flag on my file because I called for a Lortab refill for each one of my kids. I make it a personal goal not to feel anything until two weeks postpartum. If you have a third baby, you’ll be disheartened to know that the bad after-pains get progressively worse even after the second baby. With my #3, one hit so hard, I asked a nurse if I could have another epidural. I can’t imagine what they’d feel like if I had a 4th. Insane. Finally, I understand the boob pride. My boobs have nursed all my babies into infantile obesity, and I consider it a badge of honor. Here’s to boob-fed baby fatasses. I’m glad things are going so well for you.
They kept offering me the narcotics, but Lortab makes me feel awful, so I stick with the prescription Motrin. Did they give you the second epidural?