Postpartum Life | 5 Things I know Now
[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here is no doubt that alot changes once you have a baby. Whether you birth that baby yourself or otherwise, life gets a whole lot different when you don’t just have yourself to be responsible for. There are some interesting things that happen when you’ve been pregnant though. Some I expected, some I was surprised by and none of them were anything I could have prepared for!
5 Things That Can Happen Postpartum
Turns out there are all sorts of things that happen after you have a baby (surprise, right? Yes the sarcasm is heavy here…). I wrote this post, and then this follow up post on things I know now regarding pregnancy, so I figured it was time to address postpartum life!
1. Stretch Marks Happen Postpartum
Yep, I honestly never even guessed that I could get stretch marks after the fact. I mean, the stretching is all done, right? Wrong, apparently. I was graced with one single stretch mark, which came post pregnancy ( in that first 2 weeks when I couldn’t put anything on my belly thanks to my c section incision…). Of course this stretch mark runs right next to my belly button. While I doubt I’ll be in a bikini soon ever, it still bothers me. Enter in the Clarins Stretch Mark Minimizer*, which I’m slathering on every night!
2. Night Sweats are The Worst
If you thought you were hot while pregnant (and that’s temperature hot…) just wait until the postpartum night sweats! At almost 5 months out, I am still experiencing them. My poor husband has been sleeping with the window cracked for months, because it is ALWAYS SO DAMN HOT.
3. Commence Unsolicited Advice, Part Two!
I mentioned several times during my pregnancy, that people frequently joined the ‘Foot-in-Mouth’ club. Whether it was unsolicited advice, or straight up super personal questions that were none of their business, it got real old, real quick. Of course, now that I have a tiny human, that has only gotten worse! Things like, “You just need to let her cry it out” (this was given to me when Everly was only 3 weeks old!) and, “Babies shouldn’t need pacifiers if you’ve fed/changed/burped them.” (Right well, you calm her down 439345783 times a day then…).
4. That Whole, “Always starving, yet never have time to eat, yet keep gaining weight’ Thing
I won’t lie, this has been one of the hardest things for me. Postpartum, I have been starving – constantly. I swear I eat my meals at rapid speed (for fear of not knowing when I will get time to eat again…), and most meals are one-handed because I am on my own with a very spirited baby for 11 hours a day. I actually lost all my baby weight 10 days in, and then have gained back 12lbs just ‘surviving’ as I like to refer to it as. I am sure hormones play a huge part, as well as not getting the time to prep healthier meals, but hey, there are only so many hours in the day.
5. Hair, Hair, Everywhere There’s Hair
Friends, postpartum hair loss is a VERY REAL THING. I find my hair everywhere. No seriously, it brushes out in handfuls. Traumatic? You bet. Normal? Apparently so (sigh). Mr. GirlLovesGloss didn’t believe me until I showed him my Wet Brush after washing my hair and he was mutually horrified.
What things did you learn postpartum that you didn’t expect when you had your baby?
I’d love to know what surprised you the most postpartum in the comments below!
