Hanna is pure joy. She is an absolute treasure to our family and we all just can’t get enough of her!
For the first two weeks after we got home from the hospital I was exhausted. I don’t know what changed from having Justin to now having Hanna but I can’t stay up and party with a newborn like I used to be able to. I could do it no problem with the previous 6.. I think once I hit 30 my age really started to show!
I was so tired I would sleep through my alarm to get me up to wake her up to feed (had to do this to make sure her blood sugars stayed up) and that isn’t like me at all.
Now, I am fine and we no longer wake her to feed – she wakes me and she’s on her own little schedule to do that. But the first two weeks I looked awful. I was very pale, looked tired and haggard. I even suffered from multiple migraines and a quick bout of mastitis.
I was surprised. I had never experienced these types of symptoms with my other children, so why was it happening now? My migraines were that painful that I almost got to the point where I couldn’t do anything, it consumed all of my energy. And this wasn’t good, especially as I had a newborn and other children to look after. I soon found that my friend suffered from really bad migraines and had made the decision to visit a place like Green Health Docs in West Virginia, (https://greenhealthdocs.com/west-virginia-medical-marijuana-card/) to enquire about a medical marijuana card. She heard from someone else that this was the best route to go down, especially if you found it hard to go about your daily life because of your symptoms. Don’t get me wrong, I did consider it. But in the end, I took as much pain relief as I could, in the hopes that it would control my symptoms.
It wasn’t ideal but I got through it. Although at the time you would give just about anything for an hour or two of straight sleep, a little relief from an engorged breast or two, be it via cbd edibles canada makes or any other means… The truth is; you enjoy it all. Why? Because it doesn’t last very long and once those early weeks are gone – they’re gone.
Here are some tricks I’ve been able to use for all 7 of my children during the early weeks to get through some of the toughest times:
Sleepless Nights: Push Through. It’s all you can do. Your little one depends on you. Your body will adjust. I was able to get through by setting a timer on my tv. When it was time to nurse I couldn’t avoid the sound and lights of a tv. While an iPhone was quick to bat, or push a cover over to mask the sound you can’t quite do that with a 55 inch television in the middle of your room. You don’t want to have too many sleepless nights in a row, as this could seriously impair your judgement and this isn’t good when you have young children and a new baby to care for.
Engorged Breasts: My milk always came I between day 3-day 4. When it came in, it came in with a vengeance every single time. Nurse! Nurse as much as you can and as frequently as baby wants. Hand express, jump in a nice hot shower and let the water hit them (not too aggressively, I warn you!) and I always found alternating with hot/cold compressed helped relieve a lot of the pain, and minimize kinks.
Mastitis: I’ve experienced this 5x in the first 2 weeks with 3 different babies. It’s not fun, you don’t need to panic and you can get through this. I’ll admit the first time this happened to me I thought I was going to die. I ran to my doctor (I was freshly 18) and got meds right away. The other times I toughed it out. I drank a lot of fluids (water mostly) and got a lot of rest along with doing the things I mentioned above for engorged beasts. Nursing a lot, hand expressing and warm showers got me through. If you experience a fever, or throwing up its best to be checked by a doctor or if you feel like you just can’t get through it give them a call.
Emotions: You will laugh, you will cry, you will rage, you will feel nothing at all. This is all normal. When ever I felt like my mood was not quite right I’d read a book. I’d scribble down a few words for a blog post or I’d have a nice warm bubble bath. Emotions are a tricky thing after bringing a new life into this world (and rightfully so) you just need to figure out how you can manage them and if you can’t or aren’t sure, seeking help is nothing to be ashamed of!
Appetite: Girl! Eat. Eat and eat good! I can’t tell you how many times people have told me their appetites are up and down the first few weeks after birth but I am always starving. Make sure if you are nursing you are getting enough to eat and eat frequently.
Weight Loss/Gain: My advice? Who cares. Enjoy your baby the first few weeks/months then get to all this stuff later. I promise, the bonding time and the enjoying of your baby feels way better than worrying about that tummy! babies don’t stay that little for long!
As I’ve said, babies grow so quickly they don’t stay little for long so enjoy the early weeks. It can be tough, no doubt about that but it’s so rewarding and once you get through the first hump of toughness you will look back and be so proud of what you were able to accomplish. Little to no sleep, weird appetites and crazy mood swings! It’s all so worth it and you’ll want to do it all over again in no time:)