The Recovery

First...God, he's beautiful. I know you all would love to just eat him up, but too bad, he's all mine!



If there is one thing I've learned about childbirth, it's to expect the unexpected.

For my first delivery, I thought I had it pretty easy...right up until the epidural wore off. And then I was a little like "What the hell!?!" I had tearing, cutting, and a cracked tailbone. My God I would cry--literally--if I had to toot! The nurses were giving me pain meds-um the really good stuff that makes your ears ring a little-every three hours. Then there was the breastfeeding pain. And of all three Little d was the best-from-the-beginning-nurser I've had. But still, even with her perfect latch, I had two weeks of knee-shaking pain during nursing.

But I regrouped, learned some things, and prepared for the second delivery.

After Little m, I took my sitz baths regularly, and due to not near as much damage, I recovered very well. In fact the only post delivery pain reliever I had was one Motrin--and that was mostly for back pain that kept me awake. Stupid hospital beds. I also started using Lansinoh cream immediately with nursing...not waiting until soreness set in. So breastfeeding was much less painful as well.

So here I went into this delivery thinking...should be at least as easy as Little m's birth, right?

Wrong.

Even thought Little md is almost 2 pounds heavier than Little m was and even though I pushed four times as long, most of that recovery is pretty easy. Thanks be to God! But my muscles were exhausted. I couldn't understand why until D explained 'well it's like you did situps for an hour...' Well duh. That does make sense. I mean it didn't feel like situps since I had the epidural, but essentially that's what it was. So even though I was looking forward to not hobbling around like a weirdo...that's just what I did for another few days.

But here's where things got truly weird and unexpected. On Monday before Little md was born, I started itching...on the belly. And throughout the week it progressed until my stomach was bright red. Like a really bad sunburn. I thought it was just a normal itchy preggo belly--I've had that before with the girls, but usually not that bad.

And then Friday after delivery and Saturday I noticed it started to spread...to my legs and backside. Hmmm. I thought the rash on my legs was from heat. Everything I was sleeping on in the hospital was plastic. I asked Dr. S about my stomach before leaving the hospital and he said I could use hydrocortisone cream and take Zyrtec. But by Monday, the scratching was driving me to insanity...and this ridiculous rash was everywhere! Legs and arms! Everywhere! I could not stop scratching. It was worse than the head to toe poison ivy I had as a youngster.

I consulted Dr. Google and discovered the answer. PUPPP. Pruritic Urticarial Papules and Plaques of Pregnancy. Makes great dinner table conversation. Google it yourself and get a load of the pictures. Umm-mmm good. If you're not brave enough to google it here's the rundown:

• usually starts in third trimester of first pregnancy and then doesn't occur again in following pregnancies.
• usually occurs in pregnancies with boys.
• starts in stretch mark area and spreads.
• usually resolves itself within a week of delivery.
• can be treated with oral steroids in severe cases.
• is "annoying" but doesn't cause any harm to mom or baby.

"Annoying". Are you kidding me? They could use this crap in the place of waterboarding for terrorists.! Seriously. I'll talk--I did it--I stole the Linburg baby--I was the second shooter on the grassy knoll! Just make it stop itching!!!

I finished my course of steroids yesterday. And I am. still. itching. In the worse case scenarios I've seen online, it can last for months postpartum. And I even saw one lady say that hers flares up every time she has her period. Okay. Will not focus on that possibility!

Here's some more tips I've learned. Heat makes it ten times worse. Not being able to hug my family really sucks. Really really bad.

Well that's the rundown of the recovery so far. Hopefully week two will look better. On a positive note:

Day eight...infatuation still going strong...