10 Things You Didn’t Know About Postpartum

When I was pregnant, I did ALL the research on giving birth and how to best prepare for the postpartum recovery. I bought all of the products that I read great reviews on, and had little baskets put together in the bathrooms. I had comfy clothes to wear and lots of water and snacks prepared as well. After giving birth, I noticed that I really wasn’t quite as prepared as I thought I was. I was ready for the excessive bleeding and soreness, but nothing else. One thing I learned very quickly, was that the postpartum phase includes a lot of other things besides just the recovery from giving birth. I was both physically and mentally unprepared for these things that happened to me. Read on so that you can prepare better than I did!

Before I get into the things that I didn’t know, check out my post 8 Things to Put in Your Postpartum Kit. I put this basket together before I gave birth and I am SO glad that I did! I used everything in that basket and set it right in front of the toilet for easy access. I’m grateful that I had all of this prepared prior to giving birth, because I needed all of it. I wouldn’t have had the energy to gather all of that stuff right after giving birth. I will definitely be doing the same thing for the next baby I have!

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1. Your Breasts Leak Milk and Grow a LOT

Whether you want to breastfeed your baby or not, your breasts will start making milk because, well, hormones. I thought I was totally prepared for breastfeeding, but I definitely didn’t think about how my breasts would actually change. First off, you leak everywhere. When my baby was only a couple of days old, I was breastfeeding him and when I finished, I noticed that the other side of my shirt was completely soaked. I was confused and thought that my son had spit up or something and I hadn’t noticed it, only to realize that I had leaked milk out of my opposite breast I was feeding him on. It took me a while to get used to that, so I went through a lotttt of laundry the first few days. If you don’t want to make a mess, then I suggest wearing breast pads and keeping the opposite side covered well! If you don’t want to waste your milk, the HAAKA is an amazing purchase! It’s very affordable and suctions onto your opposite breast to collect milk that leaks out.

I was also unprepared for the excessive amount that my breasts grew. I didn’t appreciate it at all. I had a wedding to go to when I was 5 weeks postpartum and I was planning on wearing a dress that I had worn pre-pregnancy. I fit the rest of my body fine, but was SO TIGHT around my breasts, and I was so mad about it. I soon found that a lot of my pre-pregnancy clothes didn’t fit me anymore- not because I gained weight, but because I was making milk. As long as you plan on breastfeeding, plan to buy/wear clothes that are at least a size larger than you would normally go for because those milk machines probably won’t fit in most of your old cute dresses and tops!

2. Your Poor Hair…

During pregnancy, your hair is glorious because you don’t loose hardly any of it! It grows fast and is absolutely amazing. About 2-4 months postpartum, that pregnancy hormone that made your hair so perfect, starts to fade and your hair really suffers. You will loose all of the hair that you didn’t during pregnancy, plus the normal amount you would loose normally. You guys. My shower walls were covered with hair when I was 3 months postpartum. My showers were an extra 10-15 minutes because I would spend so much time removing hairs that were tangled in between my fingers. I would even run my fingers through my hair in the middle of the day and clumps of hair would come out. It was awful!

Some women also experience a lot of breakage in regards to their hair. Thankfully I didn’t (so far…), but it sure doesn’t sound fun! Right at your hair line, above your forehead, you might start noticing tiny short hairs that stick straight up. You can thank that lovely disappearing pregnancy hormone for that. Your hairs will break and just fall out like crazy!

One thing about my hair that TOTALLY surprised me was a change in texture. Around 4 months postpartum, I noticed that one section of my hair was obnoxiously greasy. The first time it happened, I figured that I just didn’t rinse good enough, so I washed my hair again that night. The spot was still greasy! I was so confused! I scrubbed it extra hard in the shower again, and after my hair dried, it was STILL GREASY! I was seriously so annoyed and confused. After dealing with this extremely greasy spot for about 2 weeks and doing a lot of research and asking around, I finally came to find that it was a postpartum thing. I am 5 months postpartum now, and that greasy spot is still there! It is common for your hair to do a lot of wacky things after you give birth, so prepare yourself for unnaturally greasy hair, or unnaturally dry hair. Prepare yourself for lost hair and short hairs! Anything can happen!

3. Mothers Thumb, or De Quervains

Nobody ever talks about this, so I had no idea what this was when I started experiencing it. Mothers thumb, or De Quervain’s tenosynovitis, is basically a sore thumb. It happens from the constant thumb extension that you use when you pick up your baby under the armpits. This doesn’t necessarily happen to everyone, but it did happen to me and although it wasn’t the worst pain, it was definitely hard to work around when trying to take care of a baby. If you’ve read my post about online classes to take when you’re pregnant, you know that I highly recommend the Belle Method. If you follow her on Instagram, she has perfect instructions for little things like this. If you are struggling with mothers thumb, HERE is a video that she created on how to stretch those muscles and relieve some of that pain!

4. Diastasis Recti

This isn’t anything painful that you experience, in fact, you don’t really notice it, but it’s important to be aware of it. Diastasis Recti is when the abdominal muscles separate. This is something that happens naturally during pregnancy to allow more room for your baby and for your belly to grow. It isn’t painful, but if you want to test for it and repair it, I 100% recommend following the Belle Method on Instagram because she has classes and tips for Diastasis Recti (DR)! I didn’t know about DR until after I had already given birth, but I wish I would’ve known sooner that I did, so that I could’ve started working to heal it a little sooner.

5. First Period and You’re Extra Fertile!

Everyone says that you don’t get your period when you’re breastfeeding. Lies. Some people don’t, but some people do. I got my first period 4 week after I gave birth, whereas some people don’t get their periods back for 8-10 months after they’ve given birth. So be prepared for the best or worst situation in that category!

Regardless of whether you have your period or not, you will be extra fertile. Even if you aren’t having a period, you could still be ovulating- that’s just easier to track if you did start your period sooner. Many people will say that breastfeeding can act as a form of birth control (because it keeps you from getting your period back- according to everyone), but you better believe that breastfeeding is definitely not a form of birth control! There are some hormones left in your body after pregnancy that make you super fertile for the first few months postpartum. I knew this, but I just feel the need to make sure that every new mom knows this, because I sure didn’t want to get pregnant right after giving birth! If you aren’t planning on getting pregnant again with a 3 month old, you better make sure you get on some kind of birth control or take whatever precautions you need to!

6. You Experience More Contractions After Giving Birth

When you are in labor, your uterus is contracting, right? Well after you give birth, your uterus has to shrink, or contract, back to it’s normal size. It makes sense when you read it, but you don’t expect it to happen the way that is does. For about the first week postpartum, any time you nurse, it signals your body to contract. It was painful enough for me that I would plug in THIS HEATING PAD and push it against my belly before I started breastfeeding. I would occasionally experience these contractions at other times of the day/night, but it was most often when I was nursing. I am SO glad that I packed a heating pad to take with me to the hospital because I used it a lot during the first 24 hours postpartum!

7. You’re an Emotional Disaster

I felt so extremely teary over everything after my son was born. I cried a lot at the hospital (happy tears!). I cried when I put my son in his first outfit. I cried when the hospital sent us home with free diapers. I cried the whole car ride home. I cried when I looked through the pictures that were only 2 days old. I cried when I saw the nursery. I cried when I looked at my baby. I cried when somebody brought us dinner. I cried when I got to take a shower. I cried when my husband did the dishes for me. I cried at nothing. Get the point? You’re obnoxiously emotional with all of those postpartum hormones and it’s OKAY! I didn’t want my husband to see me cry at first because I was usually crying at the most ridiculous things and it made me embarrassed! Right before the hospital discharged me, a nurse came in and told me to just let it all out! She told me to cry! She said don’t hold it in! Those postpartum hormones want you to cry, so cry! Can you guess what I did when she was telling me to just cry? I cried. There isn’t much that you can do about those emotional hormones, so just embrace them and be prepared for the never-ending waterfalls!

8. It Takes a Long Time for Your Belly to Go Back To Normal

In all reality, your belly won’t completely go back to normal on its own, but it’ll get pretty close! I was shocked at how much smaller my belly became immediately after giving birth. As I pushed for the last time and the doctor pulled my baby out, I literally watched my belly turn jello-y. After being so tight and stretched for so many months, it was such a strange feeling to have my belly become so limp, so fast. When I left the hospital, I still very much looked like I was pregnant, but each and every day my belly got smaller. When I was around 4-5 weeks postpartum, I thought that I was back to normal. Recently I was looking at pictures from that time though, and I was definitely still recovering in the tummy area. When that baby comes out, don’t think that your tummy will go back to normal any time soon. It takes a long time before you don’t look pregnant anymore!

9. You Start to Love High-Waisted Everything

If you didn’t already love high-waisted clothing, you will after giving birth! When tight things sit on your hips, it digs into your belly and hurts when you are sitting down. I wore my maternity clothes for a while after giving birth and when those finally got too baggy on me, I bought lots of high-waisted leggings, jeans, and underwear. I tried on a normal pair of pants when I was about 2 months postpartum and I didn’t last in them for more than an hour! I am 5 months postpartum and I still don’t wear anything that isn’t high-waisted! I really like THESE leggings because they are a reasonable price, they have pockets (which is so helpful when your hands are full with a baby!), and they aren’t see-through!

10. You Will Be Tender for a While

After giving birth, you will feel totally exhausted. Your body just went through SO MUCH. I was prepared to feel tender and sore down south, but I didn’t think that it would last so long. I was head over heals for my little baby, so I didn’t really focus on the pain much at all, but looking back, it lasted a long time! Sitting was uncomfortable. Standing was uncomfortable. Using the bathroom was uncomfortable. Driving was even uncomfortable. After I thought that I was mostly healed and stopped using everything from my postpartum kit, I started living my life normally again. In general, I was able to do everything like I used to, but there were some things that I should’ve waited to try again. I tried some light working out when I was about 6 weeks postpartum and although I probably could’ve endured and been okay, I definitely felt tender down south afterwards and even during. The slightest aches and pains will last a lot longer than you think after you give birth, so prepare for that! Be sure to ease back into your routines and be careful! Remember you just gave birth to a tiny, adorable human!

Overall, postpartum causes a LOT of wacky changes to your body. Most of these things can be super annoying and might even make you feel depressed, so be sure to get help if you are really feeling down about all of the changes that your body goes through. Postpartum can be a rough time, but it is SO worth it! I seriously look back on the early postpartum phases and I don’t even remember a ton about it because I was just so in love with my little baby! I was obsessing more with my baby than my body that was doing all kinds of crazy things. Did you have any other weird postpartum experiences that you didn’t expect to happen? Tell me in the comments!