Dear Kim, you did it! You survived 6 weeks postpartum :)
This is a letter written by my 6-week postpartum self to my 1-week postpartum self - enjoy! :)
Kim at 1 week postpartum (1 day after birth to be exact!), holding baby Kendrick in her arms in the hospital bed
Kim at 6 weeks postpartum, happily holding baby Kendrick in a newborn carrier
Dear first week postpartum Kim…
It’s your future self - 6 week postpartum Kimbo!
Firstly… CON-FREAKING-GRATS on birthing out a BABY!!! You are a wonder woman and are so strong for doing that.
I know it was a weird experience but let’s celebrate that it is finally over!
Actually… the birth and labour experience will be on our minds a lot throughout the next few weeks but the story keeps changing for some reason lol
You’ll keep learning more details about your experience and then notice on your discharge papers that your labour was a total of 1 hr 16 minutes…
Like what?! I mean it was 23 hours to us (since the start of contractions at home) but the hospital counts the time spent in the hospital and we were QUICK in there!
Anyway… you’re probably feeling like a zombie right now, eh?
When Slam talks to you, you space out in the hospital bed and aren’t fully focused on the outside world because you are in pain and in shock of what just happened to you.
I feel ya. It’s okay… and yes, it does get better.
You probably cried a few tears too… you’ll do that again in a few days when you discover your baby’s weight has been dropping more and their levels of jaundice has increased.
I know right? Babies are wild, things can change soooo quickly! But it’s okay… baby will live in special care nursery for a day and you both will be discharged after the baby has gained some weight back.
Don’t worry, it seems like baby Kendrick is weak and vulnerable but he’ll be living his best life, being all toasty in the incubator.
The first week was pretty brutal - let’s admit that.
You feel like your vag was blasted by a bomb and you can no longer walk properly.
It’s a chore to walk from the hospital bed to the toilet and it’s scary to pee or poo. When you pee, you’re afraid of the urine stream accidentally passing the first degree tear.
Remember to put warm water in that peri bottle and squeeze it while you pee! It does help… a biiit.
And when you poo, I know you’re having flashbacks of your vag ripping open so you just mentally cannot poo.
I have no idea what’s happening down there but just poo when you feel like it.
It might take some time but drink some coffee so you can go easier.
Don’t force yourself.
You’ll also see huge blood clots appearing in your pads. You end up taking photos of them so you can show the midwives later but they all reassure you those are just a part of the birthing process and seeing those clots are normal. Dammmn!
Oof, and when you breastfeed a bit more… you’ll feel your uterus contracting and pushing more of those blood clots down.
It’s gonna hurt a bit but it’s all part of the process.
I know, right? We thought contractions would be gone after giving birth but nope! They’re here for another couple of weeks.
Don’t worry… you won’t feel them after week 4 or so. And you definitely won’t have those huge blood clots anymore. That only happened a few times.
But damn, it seemed like you were bleeding forever.
Just to let you know, yes… you are still wearing pads until week 6 but that’s only because you don’t want to accidentally stain your underwear.
You BARELY are bleeding anymore. It’s like the final day of your period with the tiniest amount of blood coming out.
In fact, you could have just used panty liners for all of last week and it would have been fine.
You’re just lazy and continue using the maternity pads, lol
Ohhhh… and I think it was week 3 were you discovered adult diapers. Those were a game changer!
Rather than an uncomfortable pad… you just wore adult diapers for a bit but then your blood stopped getting too intense so now you just have a new bag of adult diapers.
Maybe just buy two bags max… you don’t need that many.
Oh, and take your painkillers! Panadol and ibuprofen every 4-6 hrs. You’re not a superhero for enduring the pain! I know you’re lazy and exhausted but future you will thank you!
Hmmm what else!?
So your abs feel a bit weak but you don’t realise that til maybe week 4… that’s when you cough and sneeze and have a bit of pain in your abs area. Well not pain but soreness.
You have to hold onto your abs when you cough just to prevent anything from feeling out of place.
And how about Kendrick and Slam and dealing with your grandparents?
Kendrick is so smol and cute - he’s such a helpless gremlin that’s going through so many new experiences. And you’re there to help him!
He’s going to have a bunch of weirdo newborn rashes… he’s going to breathe funny when he sleeps. He’s going to learn how to cry for a cuddle. He’s going to smile around week 5 - well a little smile but it’s adorable.
How do you handle postpartum? Hmm… you cry a bit sometimes.
Sometimes the stress increases between you and Slam but you deal with it.
Just follow your mother instincts when making decisions.
I know you might not feel equipped to make these parental decisions but you gotta accept the fact you are indeed a parent now and be a bit more responsible.
You can’t rely on Slam to do everything!
Slam does do basically everything by the way minus breastfeeding haha
I know you’re tired and exhausted sometimes but make sure to always check up on him and see if he needs help with anything.
You end up changing most of the diapers too! Oh and Kendrick is gonna pee a ton while you change the diapers so make sure you learn a few tips on how to handle that before he fully surprises you lol
You can put a cold wet wipe on his stomach or blow a little breeze on his ding-a-ling to get him to pee first and then wipe him and change him QUICKLY!
He might even poo a bit mid-change, be prepared!!
And how are you with your parents being here?
Of course you act like a hot headed teenager to your parents sometimes but remember, they don’t get a lot of precious time with you or with their new grandchild so be patient and learn to love spending time with them and embrace the moments you get with them.
You notice how patient Slam is so learn from him!!
The parents end up taking a 4-day trip to Adelaide so you’ll get a bit of time spent with just you, Kendrick and Slam.
Yes, they drive all the way to Adelaide! Haha
Ohhh let’s talk about breastfeeding a bit.
Remember how it was so freaking hard in the beginning?? How all of the midwives in the hospital were helping us squeeze colostrum?
Yahhhh, your milk production is pretty low (mainly due to the loss of blood during birth!) but we made it work somehow!
We end up visiting the lactation consultant a couple of times after we get discharged and they were pretty helpful. We even cancelled our last appointment with them because we were so tired one afternoon (lol). It wasn’t necessary anyway because we end up finding our rhythm in breastfeeding.
In week 6, we can use a portable machine pump and express like 70ml - 90ml from your right boob and 20ml from your left boob.
We try to balance out the amounts but one boob seems to always produce more milk than the other.
It’s mainly because Kendrick feeds way better on the right boob than the left.
A few weeks ago we expressed like 50ml between both boobs and we were STOKED with that!
Sooo yes! It gets better.
Oh and you get off the nipple shield around week 5 - about a month after Kendrick was born.
You were determined to stop using that so you did! It was a bit awkward at first trying to get him to latch on but you find your rhythm and learn how Kendrick feeds.
He needs to be comfortable and you can just offer the nipple and he’ll latch on himself. You might need to give him support by squeezing your nipple in a “hamburger” shape as the midwives called it.
Omg and because you hyped yourself up for your 6 week postnatal check up too much… you end up missing it accidentally because you got the times wrong.
You rock up to the office at 1pm so confidently but the appointment time was actually at 11am!!!!
Ugh!!! Both you and Slam have a crappy day because of that but you just move on and book an appointment the following day with a different doctor.
You get invited to a hens that week so now you’re storing and freezing your breastmilk for the very first time.
Honestly it’s super easy to do it! You could have expressed and stored breastmilk earlier but you didn’t have the need to and were too lazy to learn.
Okay now it’s 5:39am October 2 and you’re lying in bed typing all of this out.
The white noise machine is playing a lullaby. The lights are turned off but there’s a nice blue light that comes off of the machine.
Slam is sleeping beside you.
The Dyson heater is keeping the room a comfortable 20 degrees.
Kendrick is sleeping in the bassinet next to you… and making weird grunty baby noises.
But he stops. And will probably start again later.
Your doctor appointment will be taking place in a few hours and you’re freaking excited!!!!
You mainly want exercise clearance so you can join for burlesque on Friday at your friend’s hens hahahha
Okay another thing… you think way too much about wanting to go back to work early and posting reels on social media but meh.
Just focus on living in the moment and spending time with baby.
You can post things and write things when you feel like it.
Do what makes sense for you!
Okay I’m tired now so I’ll rest a bit before the docs appointment but best of luck with everything!!!!
The newborn phase was surprisingly not too bad… cherish every moment!!!
Night night!
xoxo, knd.