Jenny Ford, founder of Monkey-Toes.com - Post-partum Week 1

Post-partum Week 1

After the labor and delivery experience I was wheeled over to the postpartum area of the hospital.  Whole new experience over there.  A nice room was picked for us along with amazing nurses which were hand selected by Marcia – so kind.  The care was amazing.  And honestly, I didn’t require much attention since I felt amazing after the birth.  I actually shocked myself.  But I believe that the pretty room and the comfy bed is all a façade for the lack of comfort they put you through during your stay at Chez “Wake-you-or-your-baby-up-every-15-minutes-with-some-sort-of-question-poke-prod-“massage”-request-or-test”.  There is no rest to be had.  We even had a maintenance guy demand that he get in the room to check an electrical outlet.. SERIOUSLY?  Like it cannot wait?  I believe I had about 20 minutes of sleep that day, after enduring a night of labor and delivery.  Then when I did try to go to sleep that night I kept waking myself up either by snoring or by that jerking thing you do when you’re dreaming that you’re falling – is there a term for that other than irritating?  I had finally had enough and thankfully Tim mentioned to the nurse during one of my prodding sessions that I wasn’t getting any sleep.  (Which let me add all of this has nothing to do with the care that I received at the hospital – everyone we encountered was wonderful, I would totally recommend that hospital to anyone as a place to have a baby.  But I also realize that hospital policies are that they keep constant check on you and your baby, which is just not conducive to a lot of rest).  She offered to take Oscar to the nursery and give me an Ambien – AHHHHHH.  I am not normally a sleeping pill kinda girl, but I became one pretty quickly when I was so overly tired that I couldn’t function.  They still brought Oscar to me every three hours, but at least the time between feedings was spent sleeping and not waking myself up because I was creating a puddle of drool on my cozy plastic covered pillow.

Oscar took right to nursing which was wonderful.  Milk came in on schedule after about 2 days – with a vengeance after 3 days, remember the whole milk and cookies post?  Ya, I was mooing and passing out Thin Mints at this point.

I cannot even begin to describe or prepare for the feeling of pure fatigue.  And it’s really hard to get yourself caught up from it.  When leaving the hospital after an extra night of torture at Chez “Wake-you-or-your-baby-up-every-15-minutes-with-some-sort-of-question-poke-prod-“massage”-request-or-test” but the second night adding – “Next-door-to-a-newborn-that-screams-all-night-long-through-paper-thin-walls” as I loaded up Oscar in his car seat and gathered my things it was all I could do to hold back tears.  Then loading into the wheel chair to be wheeled out I was holding back more tears – I kept thinking, keep it together Jenny, there’s no reason to cry.  Then I got loaded in the car, Tim gets in, we start to drive off and good old water works explodes.  It was one of those crazy “girl” moments where I had no idea why I was crying, couldn’t explain it, but I just needed to cry.  So Tim starts in with his jokes and turns me into laughing. This whole charade continued several times over the next few days, sporadically.  And mainly when Tim and I were talking about something random – he would look at me and say “you look like you’re going to cry”  well, thanks, now I am crying.  It is sheer exhaustion.  Thankfully Niagara Falls has subsided and we are back to being slightly normal again.  When I say slightly normal I mean good until about 5 pm and then grumpy Jenny comes out.  I’ve made several apologies for my behavior.  And I learned to sleep in or take a nap when I have the opportunity.  I think that phase is over too…..hoping it’s over.

Having the kiddos meet for the first time was adorable.  Because of the H1N1 scare the hospital wasn’t letting anyone in under the age of 18 so while I was in the hospital all we could do was text pictures and talk on the phone.  When the girls were on the phone they’d ask how Oscar was, then they’d comment on the pictures that I had sent them by saying in super girly, high-pitched voices, “He’s just sooooo cute, I wanna squeeze him”.  They were so excited to meet him.  When they arrived home they just stared at him in awe.  They still cannot get enough of holding him – sometimes I have to say no just so I can get some snuggle time with him.  It is really precious.  One day I needed a shower and Ella was holding Oscar on my bed.  I heard Ella in the next room talking to Oscar non-stop, literally, she did not stop talking to him from the moment I got in the shower until the moment I was dressed, makeup’d, and ready to go.  They also read books to him constantly.  He is getting so much attention, no wonder he is so quiet all the time, he wouldn’t be able to get a squeak in otherwise.

I had a sad, sad, sad day this week.  I went on a rampage and threw out all the sweets that were dropped off at our house over the holidays.  I’m not talking about 1 little tray of cookies, people.  I’m talking about 2 whole pies, 3 plates of cookies, fudge, chocolate covered confections, candied nuts, pumpkin bread, brownies, chocolate frosted brownies and Carmelita bars from Whole Foods (never knew about these, now I do and am mad at the person who brought them over for the introduction).  Phew – seriously, it was a lot of sweets.  I couldn’t stand having these in my house.  Every time I walked past the plates they called to me to have just one bite.  At that rate (I would make special trips to walk by them and hear them call my name again and again), I would not ever say goodbye to my beloved (not) maternity pants.  I WANT to say goodbye to them so badly.  So, I want to be “publicly accountable” for the loss of the baby weight.  This is one of the main issues I think most women deal with after having a baby and it is VERY real for me too.  I measured my waist before delivering Oscar, it measured at a nice round 44” (unfortunately I did not measure myself when I was newly pregnant, but I usually wear a size 28 jeans – or size 6, if that helps to gauge). I gained a total of 40ish pounds (I stopped keeping track/caring at the end there, but will find out the total count at my post-partum appt).  My waist measured 37” at one week exactly.  I made the decision to work with the extra 500 calories that my body is burning during breastfeeding, instead of just consuming an extra 500 calories in junk.  Why did I not do that before with my two other girls?  It took the “divorce diet” to get that weight off.  DUH.