Having a baby is hard work. 9 plus months of discomfort, nausea, exhaustion, and everything else that comes with pregnancy. Then a draining and often painful labour and delivery.
Your body has gone through the ringer and you feel it. Places that have never been sore before hurt with the slightest movement, sleep is a foreign concept, and someone needs you for their very survival. Altogether it is draining and you feel like things will never be normal again. The good news is you will bounce back and you can speed it along a bit.
Load up on healthy snacks. Hunger is very common postpartum. The last few months you haven’t really had much room for food and all the sudden you do. You may feel like a bottomless pit. Use that hunger to your advantage by loading up on healthy foods packed with vitamins, minerals, protein, and healthy fats to help your body heal from the birth. This is not the time to reduce calorie intake as eating will boost milk supply and give your body what it needs. This stage will only last a couple weeks. Take your prenatal to keep filling any gaps.
Get some rest and take it easy. While odds are your body will demand it often life requires you to do more than your body is ready for. Keep this in mind and let things go a bit for the first few days. The laundry and dishes will be there when you’re healed so focus on laying around bonding with your baby and resting.
Enjoy a nice warm bath. In a clean tub, baths are perfectly safe and can be really rejuvenating. Postpartum Bath Herbs are great for helping speed up healing. After you have soaked a bit you can even cuddle with your baby in the bath for skin to skin and nursing while you relax.
Tux witch hazel pads are amazing for helping with postpartum pain where you need it most. Other great tools to help are homemade padsicles, and even fresh seaweed to speed up healing of tears. Be sure to take a soft pillow around with you so you have a soft place to sit that won’t hurt tender places.
Limit visitors. Everyone loves babies and a number of people that will want to visit can get out of control. Even if they do not feel sick visitors can bring in all sorts of germs and you won’t know until it is too late. Not only is it bad if your baby gets sick, you being sick will slow your recovery.
Start back to normal life slowly. Don’t rush getting back to the gym, or taking on large physical chores. Overdoing it too fast can send you back to the start or cause other complications. If you start feeling pain, bleeding more than normal, or find yourself struggling then slow down and take a break. You will be back to normal soon enough.