The Journey of Parenthood…

Postpartum Class

For once we showed up a couple minutes early for one of these classes…walked in the room at 6:25 to see the sign saying the class didn’t start until 7! I thought it was total placenta brain again but I checked my hospital class schedule and it said the class was from 6:30 until 8:30! SO annoying…so we chilled at the hospital (have I mentioned before that I cannot STAND hospitals?) for 30 min for no reason!

It kind of set me up to not enjoy the class very much. She did a powerpoint for 30 minutes then showed a 30 minute video and that was it. Not a TON of info was discussed but here are some things I learned (if you’re reading this and delivering at SGMC this should be enough info to cover the whole class, I’d skip this one!):

  • I’ll have afterbirth pains (oh the wonderful things people fail to mention before you get pregnant haha) for 3-4 days after giving birth and mine will hurt worse due to breastfeeding.
  • The hardcore period I’ll experience is technically called Lochia (gross word for a grosser thing) and it can take place for the whole six week postpardum time! It’s so funny because you think “I’m pregnant! Score! No period for 9 months!” But it’s just saving that junk up to give you the worst period of your life after!
  • To help with the lochia I need to use the bathroom every 3-4 hours, walk around a lot as soon as I can after giving birth, and monitor it (should saturate more than one pad, those HUGE pads, in an HOUR).
  • The baby + placenta + amniotic fluid weighs about 12 pounds (did I mention yesterday that they predicted Clover will weight between 7 1/2 and 8 1/2 pounds?). Then without even trying I will lose around 20 pounds. So basically anything I gain over 32 pounds will be up to me to lose!
  • Won’t have a true period for 7-9 weeks BUT can STILL get pregnant (we don’t want to be another Courtney!!!)
  • If I have to have an episiotomy (where they cut you down there) then they will give me this numbing spray (dermoplast) which I can spray before I go to the bathroom to minimize burning

  • 80% of women experience the “baby blues” (I thought of you Rachael!) which is just extreme emotions and lots of crying.
  • One out of every 10 women have postpardum depression (one of the symptoms is not caring about appearance, I told Zach if I don’t care how I look to people then I’m FOR SURE postpartumly depressed!)
  • For both my sake and Clover’s visitors should be limited for a few weeks after going home.
  • It’s important for Zach and I to be a team, to not criticize each other’s parenting, and to use “I feel” statements to communicate to each other
  • We need to keep a list of things that need to be done so when people volunteer to help us we have stuff they can do that we don’t mind someone else doing (grocery shopping!)
  • If we can TRY to get a minimum of 5 hours of sleep a night we’ll be a lot happier parents! They suggested I pump and we switch of nights of who takes care of Clover.
  • We should record our outgoing message with important updates about our little family so when people call, and we don’t answer, they at least know what’s going on.
  • They suggested lots of family walks together to get us out of the house, promote the bonding of our family, and help with some exercise!
  • They also mentioned that it’s important for me to find a playgroup or another mom to switch of childcare with so Clover can experience other babies, I can have a support person who understands, and I can get a break to have ME time!

We’re heading home early from Gatlinburg on Monday to go to our last class! I feel like a pro already 🙂

Emily Parker
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1 Comment

  1. Anonymous
    January 16, 2009 / 3:55 pm

    I had only about 5 afterbirth pains, and it was a while after I had her, like a few weeks! It was 5 seconds of “owww…?? what was that??” TOTALLY manageable!! hahaahhhh the lochia….. I had it for pretty much the whole time… and guess what… no tampons. grrrrrrrrr. Get used to those granny panties girl!I didn’t get any kind of spray they gave me a squirt bottle!! hahaha…my stiches didn’t hurt though…Call me about the baby blues… they were hard core for 2 weeks.Talk with Zach about visitors. Greg and I both were not concerned about germs. Obviously, if someone was sick, they weren’t going to hold her but we took her out and about with us everywhere immediately. She was fine! It was nice to hang out with our friends, it made us feel “normal” and adjust well. We never really had people “help us” with housework, I felt weird about other people cleaning my house! 🙂 I had someone just watch her and I cleaned up!Greg pretty much took night duty for the first 2 weeks. Seriously… I was so exhausted from giving birth. I was sleeping ALL day and ALL night. Have fun in Gatlinburg!Rachael

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