So, I mentioned weeks ago that I was diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy at my two week postpartum appointment. I thought I’d do a quick update on what elset my body has been through in the last seven weeks since the babies were born.
As you can imagine, & see thanks to me keeping up with belly photos, my uterus was very stretched. That means that my postpartum bleeding has lingered too. I kept meaning to purchase pads before the babies arrived. Instead I’ve been buying them at each Target run. {Remember friends to stock up before.}oo. At my six week check though, my MFM said the Ute was back to prepregnancy size. My stitches from my second degree tear have also all healed. I have to say, thank goodness for that spray bottle from the hospital!
My body & belly. Not what it used to be. I gained about 50 pounds in 34 weeks. As of last Monday, I’d lost 35 of those pounds really without trying. I eat every four hours or so {usually right before, during or after pumping}. I’m hoping the remaining pounds are helping me produce the necessary breast milk, so I’m not trying to lose. I would like the sagging belly to get tighter eventually but no rush for now. I’m still a bit in awe that my body made two babies & I’m not going to fight it to go back so soon. I’m also coming to terms with my stretch marks. It took them awhile to show up, but they’ve definitely left their mark- on both hips & my lower belly which I didn’t see until the day before delivery. I haven’t tried any trick to make them less noticeable. Yall have any ones that work?
The last body issue is the craziest. Well maybe tied with bells palsy as craziest. Starting a little bit after the babies got home {& I was done taking the steroids}, I started getting boils on various parts of my body. Painful, infected ones that I didn’t have time, energy or knowledge to handle. So I dealt with them by doing warm compresses & taking ibuprofen. The worst one popped up on my left shoulder/back & got bad enough that it hurt to lift my arm & I was running a mild fever. Yes, I know I should’ve gone to Dr that week, but I waited few days until my 6 week appt to show my Dr. I ended up having ‘surgery’ as he called it to lance open the boil. He prescribed me antibiotics & a antimicrobial body wash to hopefully keep new ones from forming {its been a week & so far so good}. What are the boils from? Nurse said probably staff infection picked up at hospital, Dr said could also be postpartum hormones &/or a reaction to the steroids. Either way, they were painful & not something I wanted to deal with on top of everything else.
The heartburn & swelling that plagued me at the end of the pregnancy are thankfully gone. I’m back to wearing my normal shoes {yay for my summer staple Jacks!}. Although I did have swelling the first week or so in my feet after the babies were born. This feet swelling was almost worse than while I was pregnant & I was kinda shocked by that.
It appears my biggest postpartum body issues are almost over. I’m sure as time goes on & breastfeeding comes to an end, I’ll focus & discuss work out & toning plans too. But hopefully that’s months from now.