October 2009 - Posts

• Top 10 Post-Partum Care Tips

  10) Sometimes, cereal is a meal. 9) The answer is always, "Yes, I need help." The car is out of gas, we have no milk, can you pick up Child #1 from school, and sure he would love to stay for lunch. You would do these things for your friends, so when they offer, say yes. 8) The answer is always , "No, I can't help you with that right now, but I would love to in a month or two or five." You do not need to bake cookies for the PTA, watch the neighbor's kids, or pet sit for your cousin. 7) Bleeding is a great indicator of how you are doing. Light bleeding=just right. Soaking through pads= you are doing too much. 6) You are not losing the weight right now. Get it out of your head. You are HEALING. You just made a person for nine months. If you are hungry, go ahead and have a scoop of ice cream or a piece of pizza. 5) Water is your friend. Drink it until you want to drown. It will help with nursing, any urinary tract action, swelling, skin, and overall well being. 4) If you HAVE to cook (and that would be because you are not following rule #9 or #1), make 3 times what you normally would, and then you have to cook 3 times less. You will eat lasagna for a lot of days, but it will be OK. 3) Don't clean. Really. Let it go. It will be OK. Buy some clorox wipes or whatever, and rum them over the counter when the spaghetti sauce won't come off and when there are blobs of toothpaste on the counter, and then let the rest go. 2) Sleep. I know. When? Try. Don't watch Jon & Kate, or talk to that person on the phone, or get sucked into shopping for more onesies on Mini-Boden, or uploading pictures. The birth announcements can wait another week, you can keep your stuff on the DVR for a months, but 4 AM happens every day for a LONG time. 1) Shower every day. At least once. You can put your PJ's back on, but get in under the hot water and steam, and shower. Put the crying baby in the crib for 5 minutes and regroup. She will be fine for 5 minutes, and she will not be scarred for life, and you will feel better. MUCH MUCH better. Posted Oct 20 2009, 08:49 PM by jmdinap with 3 comment(s) Filed under: postpartum, help, shower, care, cooking, cleaning

• Post-Partum Care - When You Get Past 'Don't Touch Me'

  A jump ahead in post partum care, but in my opinion, this has been the most difficult. Post-partum contraception. We were lucky enough to get pregnant easily, so I was not taking any chances once I got the 'clear' from my OB. Let me back up-- I got the clear from my doctor at 6 weeks. It took a LONG LONG LONG time after that before I could think about anything else going on in the womanly regions. So don't rush it. But there will come a time when you are back in the swing of things and you need contraception. I have tried many, many things. The issue is, while nursing, you are very limited to basically, condoms, IUD, rings of some kind, or POP (the mini-pill, progesterone only). It is my understanding that the only hormone you can have while nursing is progesterone. It is also my un-medical opinion, that progesterone is the CRAZY hormone. I mean it is the one that gives you acne, makes your unwanted hair grow like crazy, oh, and turns you into a raving lunatic. If you are not nursing, there are more options, but these were what was offered to me: Condoms- let's just skip this, we've all been there. Rings (nuvaring for example) - I am unable to do it. I am not capable of knowing in advance when I need to deal with this. Mini-Pill- This is EXTREMELY sensitive time wise. You need to take it at precisely the exact time each day, or its effectiveness decreases dramatically. Also, it did not work, gave me acne, and I had horribly irregular periods. IUD- My only experience is with the Mirena. I heard wonders about it, and my doc raved about it, but as soon as my husband makes permanent plumbing changes I will be removing it. It makes me insane. It is like PMS on crack. It is almost as if it is an out-of-body experience. I can see myself acting like a mad-woman, I can't stop it. I like to call it Mirena-Rage. Plus, the acne is as bad as a 12 year old's. AND, I get a period every month, but it is light. Just spotting for about 5 days. Which is annoying. Too much for no protection, not enough for tampons. I know there are other types on IUD's but this one was the most effective. Supposedly after a year (which will be soon enough) the side effects decrease. The verdict is still out on that. My advice, and experience would be to research THOROUGHLY, and do not make any quick decisions about what you are going to use. The choices are limited, and I have yet to find a real winner. Posted Oct 13 2009, 02:47 PM by jmdinap with 1 comment(s) Filed under: postpartum, contraception, intimacy