4th trimester
My post-partum journey was much different this go around. Some of those were good differences and some of them not so much. Keep in mind everyone will have a different healing journey after delivery, and people will experience many different emotions port-partum.
The first night home was rough, but I think that’s to be expected. Not only do you have newborn babies that need to be fed every 2 hours but for a new mom there’s a lot going on with your body still. My mom offered to stay the night for our first night home just to be an extra set of hands in case we needed help – bless her.
One thing that I remember vividly during that first night home was the fact that I peed my pants on the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I woke up knowing I had to use the restroom so I got out of bed and started walking across the house to the bathroom, got across the kitchen and as I started walking through the hallway to the bathroom, I just could not hold my bladder in. I just started peeing uncontrollably. I had a post-partum basket stocked with all the things sitting on the back of my toilet but one thing I forgot to put in there were the underwear packets that the hospital gave me. And all the other ones were still in my hospital bag.
So, after I cleaned myself up and cleaned the bathroom up, I got one of those extremely large pads, opened it up, and put it between my legs and walked across the house to the living room where my mom was sleeping and where my hospital bag was. If you have had a baby, then you know I was not about to walk across the house without that pad. For those of you who have not had a baby – you bleed A LOT for some time after delivering a child.
Well, my intention was to be as quiet as possible so I wouldn’t wake up my mom but of course she woke up. She asked if I was okay to which I responded, yes, I just peed myself and needed to get my underwear out of my bag. I told her that I could not stop peeing and that I had no control over it, and she said that it was normal and to be expected for the first couple days. I wasn’t embarrassed over the situation but more worried about the fact that maybe something happened to my pelvic floor. Like maybe I will always pee my pants and have uncontrollable bladder accidents all the time!
As much as I had hoped that would have been the only time that happened, it was not. The uncontrollable bladder lasted for probably a week after being home. I just started setting an alarm for every hour to use the restroom even if I didn’t feel like I needed to in hopes that if I did have an accident again, it wouldn’t be a large accident. That seemed to help and in an odd way I think it helped “train” my bladder to start getting back to a normal habit – that sounds so odd, but I really do think that it helped. I want to point out that I no longer have this issue and I can laugh, jump on the trampoline, and do many more activities without feeling like I am going to pee my pants! This might be a funny thing to point out but many women who give birth to babies, and especially those who deliver multiples, have pelvic floor and bladder issues so I am very thankful that I do not have this.
Another thing that I experienced post-partum was a sore torso. You might recall from reading my last post that they tried to turn the second twin. Well in doing that, they really bruised up my torso area. For a couple weeks after giving birth to the twins my son and I had matching bruises. My torso bruises were from them pushing and trying to get him to turn and his bruises were from him getting stuck and the doctors trying to get him to breath/cry.
This meant that I was sore just bending over, using the restroom, carrying my toddler was hard because if his leg were to hit my stomach it would just feel like being punched in the gut. It was a short-lived pain – as I just had to heal from it for a couple weeks, but man was I sore.
A positive thing that I experienced during post-partum this go around was my breastfeeding journey. Again, if you read my previous posts then you know I pumped rather than doing “baby to boob”. I struggled producing milk with my first child but after talking to the lactation consultant and learning more about my body, I was able to confidently pump and produce enough for both babies for quit some time before we had to supplement with formula.
Before my milk came in, we did supplement with formula – i.e. when we were in the hospital and the first couple days at home. However, once I built up a supply, I was exclusively pumping for TWINS! All mommas who have breastfed/pumped will tell you it’s the most exhausting but rewarding thing a mom can do.
With twins, it is recommended that you pump double as much as you would do for a single baby. This meant I was pumping every hour and a half – two hours. This is to make sure your body learns to keep up with production. I was NOT an overproducer at all, but I was not underproducing either. I was producing just enough to have three feedings worth of milk saved in the fridge.
This was hard work and takes a toll on you. If anyone told you that breastfeeding/pumping was easy they would be lying to you. There are statistics that say, “The metabolic energy needed to breastfeed a baby each day is the amount you’d use to walk seven miles!” - according to the Western Missouri Medical Center. That’s for ONE baby, I was pumping for TWO!
I continued breastfeeding when I went back to work at the 12-week post-partum mark and that was another level of stress/work. I started back to work having two 30-minute pump sessions during the day. I would also pump before work, once I got home from work and before I went to bed. However, this was still less than what I had been pumping.
The stress of leaving babies, work, and life in general on top of the pumping less throughout the day did drastically affect my milk supplies. I was only producing enough milk to provide us with nighttime feeds.
My pumping journey was so much better this go around and I was/am so proud of myself for not only feeding one baby but two babies.
If you want me to talk more on a certain item or ask me how I delt with post-partum tasks that I did not mention, contact me and I will be happy to blog about it! There are so many things that happen during the fourth trimester that I just cannot fit into one blog post.
