One Month Postpartum...

Morning friends! When I'm writing this, I'm officially 6 weeks post delivery, so I thought I'd share a bit about how my first month postpartum went.

Right after Tallia was born, I was super sore. Like oh my heck guys! I couldn't believe it. I remember walking to the bathroom after she was born and just feeling like I was aware of all my muscles. There were some muscles I didn't even know I had. This lasted for a few days, but then my body started to heal and I started to bounce back. By the end of the first week home, my hips were finally back to normal. It felt good to get up out of bed and not cringe from the hip pain. I had some serious hip pain at the end of my pregnancy. 

I gave myself a lot of time for resting. I took it super slow and just loved on my baby. Keagan and Libby were a huge help afterwards. They brought me water and snacks when I nursed. They also helped around the house. I'm so very thankful for them. Our ward also brought dinner and family brought us lunch the first week we were home. We were so spoiled.

After the delivery I had a lot of fluid built up. I was put on blood pressure medication and given milk thistle from my midwife to help get rid of all the fluid I had retained during the end of my pregnancy and during the delivery. I was told to take the milk thistle over the next 6 weeks and to continue taking the blood pressure medication and slowly reduce the dosage till the medication was gone. I ended up taking it for three weeks. I'm now off the medicine and my blood pressure is back in a normal range. It took about four weeks for me to loose all the fluid. I tried to drink as much as I could, along with taking the milk thistle. That first week home I had some serious sweats and chills.

The day after we came home from the hospital, we had to go to Walmart to fill my blood pressure prescription. It was not what I wanted to do just two days post delivery, but I needed the medication. While we waited for it to be filled I had a huge sweating episode. I was drenched... embarrassingly so. Keagan asked "Mom did Tallia spit up all over you? Your shirt is wet." I simply replied "No son I'm just dealing with hormonal post pregnancy sweats". I looked a hot mess that day friends.  Over the course of that week I lost about 25 lbs. I couldn't believe how much fluid I was getting rid of. It sure felt good to finally see my ankles again.

  Taken August 8, 2016

After the delivery, I got hemorrhoids. These were  not fun. I'd never had them before. My midwife gave me Varicalm. I also used witch hazel pads. Both were a huge help.

By week four I had lost all my pregnancy weight plus some. I've never lost weight, after having a baby, this quickly. I think my healthy eating and activity level throughout my pregnancy really helped the pounds melt off.

I've continued making good food choices, as much as I can. I eat when I'm hungry and try to get lots of protein in. Protein is great for nursing and helps fill you up. I also can't eat sugary sweets. They hurt little Miss's tummy. I'm sure that helps with the weight loss as well.

I've started back to working out. I tried working out at four weeks postpartum, but I started spotting, so I knew it was too soon. I ended up giving myself more time to heal. It was hard to sit back, when physically I felt great, but I knew giving my body that time would be better in the long run. Today I did a turbo jam workout for the first time, since having Tallia and it felt great. I didn't realize how much I missed working out till I got back to it. It felt amazing to sweat and jump.

Honestly I feel very blessed to bounce back the way I do. I'm feeling like my old self.

Miss Tallia is now 1 1/2 months. She nurses all the time (it's her favorite thing) and is such a good sleeper at night. I'm thankful for this season and for the ability to bounce back quickly. I know that's not the case for everyone. I think you just need to be kind with yourself and treasure the moments with your new little one. They grow way too fast.

XO Danielle