Things they don't tell you!

I just thought i would share a few things about after birth and babies that i didn't know happened until they happened!

#1. After pains or contractions - I had no idea that after you have the baby you still get contractions or after pains. These pains are your uterus contracting to its pre pregnancy size and position. They usually only last a couple of days, i think mine lasted for about 2 days. They can be most uncomfortable while your breastfeeding. When i was breastfeeding during those couple of days i was getting the contractions i wore 2 pads on top of each other. This is because when your sitting down to breastfeed you're getting these contractions which shrinks the uterus which in tern pushes out more blood (which is the uterus lining), so to feel secure thats why i doubled up.

#2 Night sweats - This is the one i wish someone had told me about. About a week after having River, i woke up in the middle of the night absolutely drenched in sweat. I had no idea what the hell was going on. I wiped myself down and figured it was a one off. Not the case, this probably carried on for about a week and a half. A few days in i had a chat with my trusty mate google and he explained it was my body getting rid of all the excess fluid i accumulated over my pregnancy. It was such a pain in the butt i had to change the sheets almost every day and i slept with a towel over my pillow. But in the end at least i shed a couple of kilo's.

#3 Umbilical cord - Now you might think i'm a bit dumb on this one, but i just didn't realise that the umbilical cord smelt. Probably the second day River was home we started to smell something and couldn't figure out what it was, his nappy was clean and the garbage was out, what could it be? On the third day i was changing his nappy and i lent down to kiss his tummy and oh my god, that was the smell. It was disgusting! I think about a week later it fell off, thank god, it couldn't have been quick enough, the thing was gross.

#4 Breast feeding can be hard - Breast feeding is a learned skill, this could not be a truer statement. I assumed breastfeeding would be easy, you pop the baby on your boob and away you go. Not so. You have to make sure your holding the baby correctly and that they are latched on all while trying to relax so your colostrum or milk can flow through. The first few days i found a bit difficult, little man just wouldn't stay latched on and would only feed for about 5 mins at a time. It was at times frustrating, but persistence is the key and with the help of the midwives we got it in the end and we are both now pretty amazing at breastfeeding. Also they say breast-feeding shouldn't be painful and if it is then you're doing it wrong. Thats not true, for me the first week or so my nipples were sore and i got a blister, the baby was latching on just fine, but your nipples aren't used to having something suck on them almost all day so of course its going to hurt for a few days, but for me it cleared up and now doesn't hurt at all.

#5 Fore milk and hind milk - Now i've done a blog on this so i'll just tell the basics. River was getting green poo's, was extremely gassy and wasn't sleeping longer then 2 hrs. I googled green poo's and what i found matched what was happening with River to a T. I figured that if River was feeding and getting his tummy full that was all that mattered and it didn't matter what boob he was getting it from or how long he was on each boob, but thats not the case. Babies need to drain one boob at a time so they are getting the calorie rich hind milk which is at the end of a feed. If the baby only gets the fore milk which is at the beginning of a feed it can cause green poo's, gas and they won't be full which means they will wake more frequently. Hence the importance of feeding on 1 boob completely at a time. I wish i had known that early on.

#6 Keeping a baby awake longer won't make them sleep better at night - When we first got River home we thought that if we kept him up in the afternoon he would sleep better at night. Sooooo not the case. It only made him over tired, extremely fussy and hard to feed. But i didn't know that, so there were quite a few tears in the first weeks from me and River because i couldn't get him to sleep. Babies need sleep its as simple as that.

What are some tips that you wish you had known?


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