Tag Archives: Having a C Section

The 3 Hardest Parts of a C Section

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Having a C Section is scary. There is no sugar coating that part at all. As someone who had an all natural birth for my 1st child (You can read all about that here) and a surprise C Section for my 2nd (You can also read that story here too!) I would have to say there is nothing that could prepare me for how hard a C Section is. There is so much that they don’t talk about for varies reasons. To say I was unprepared for a c section is an understatement. Sure, I knew it could be possible due to the fact that obviously I knew it could be an outcome of getting pregnant. I never thought it would happen to me though, especially since I had a natural birth for my 1st. I thought hey, if I had a natural birth with my 1st the following ones must follow the same suit right? I was so wrong. Here are the 3 things that I found the hardest with having a C Section.

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Mental health is something that obviously can vary drastically from person to person. Before having a C Section I would like to think that I had pretty good mental health. I could handle most situations and what not. Having a C Section for sure impacted my mental health for various reasons. One being that I am unable to do anything. Since you are unable to lift for the first 6 weeks or so, anything heavier than your baby, it really impacted my mental health especially hen it came to not being able to pick up my first son. I am so used to grabbing him up and having hugs and kisses and tickling him on the couch that not being able to do that was really hard for me. Another thing that was hard for me was not doing any house work. No laundry, no dishes because standing for that long was really hard for me, I couldnt even bend over and put my left over food in the compost bin under our kitchen sink. The mental aspect of having to know you are unable to do simple every day tasks is incredible hard to come to terms with especially in my case where I was able to have a fully natural birth before hand and was able to do things pretty normal compared to this.

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The physical recovery I do not think is talked about far enough. The pain you are in for the first about a week and a half was horrible. After having the surgery you are made to get up within 6 hours to walk around. You are encouraged to move around and walk around frequantly. It is really a catch 22 because you are encouraged to move around a lot to help with healing however you also are told to watch you dont push yourself too far because you will really be feeling it. Not to mention in the hospital I was pretty lucky with nurses really taking the time to make sure that I had gotten pain meds at the right times so I was pretty pain free. At home I know I slipped a bit and let to much time pass between doses and I know I was feeling the difference for sure. It was incredibly hard to adjust to getting up in the middle of the night because you really cannot move super fast. I found after the intial days of being home it was hard towards the end of the day. I found I had a lot of energy to start the day and little to no pain. However afternoon I would start to feel a bit sore, and by early evening to over night even just laying on the couch for an hour felt like a bolder was over top of me when I tried to get up.

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Asking for help was extremely hard for me. Though I do like having help with certain aspects of my life I really struggled with this. Something as simple as picking up a bag of garbage to change the bag or laundry basket was hard. My first shower back home I also had to ask my partner to help me because bending and twisting in the shower was challenging. He was a huge help to making sure i had everything cleaned and felt fresh. Even getting bottles in the middle of the night because getting up so fast to make sure that my little guy was not super fussy was challenging. Asking for help is hard when you are so used to doing things on your own. Something as simple as turning in the car while waiting on an appointment to look back or pass something to your first son is hard. Getting in and our of a vehicle was hard. I really cannot say what wasn’t hard in the first week anyways. But again, No one really talks about how challenging it is to physically move around after having a C Section. You rarely hear about the aftermath and how you really need to plan things out. I was so thankful to be able to have my spouse home during the holidays and able to have the time off to really help with the first little while.

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I know I have said this time and time again, I have no idea how a single mother can physically do this on her own especially if she has had other children before that she needs to take care of also. This was something that I had no idea the scope of how hard it will be until it actually happened. I am thankful that myself and my partner are planning on having 1 more child so that if it did come to another C Section (Which OBVIOUSLY we hope it does not) that I will at least know what to expect for it all. Even talking to people who have had a C Section before really does not prepare you for actually having one. I am glad as I write this I am nearly finished the 6 weeks after (Though obviously this will be schedule long after I have healed!) but I would not wish this on anyone. It is so very hard to remember that this is considered a major surgery.

What No One Talks About Having A C Section

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If you are a parent or even if you are not one, I am sure you are aware that as most things in life happen, things can go very different than one may think. When I gave birth to my 1st son it happened so quickly that it was hard to even process how quickly it indeed went. You can read the full details of that in this blog post here. Then when it came time to give birth to my second son, something I thought would be so similar but it wasn’t. I ended up having a C Section. I had never dreamed about having one of those in my entire pregnancy. The thought may have crossed my mind but it never went to what if’s. Just it COULD happen like anything. You can read the full details here about that birth story too. Needless to say I knew so very little about having a C Section that these are the top 5 things that I found out as they happened.

Though I knew this before it happened. During a C Section you are more than likely awake during the whole thing. Mine was not an emergency which was good however it did happen pretty fast. From the time I made a decision to have one to the time that I had it done was all in the span of maybe 45 minutes. I was thankful for this because I didn’t have to sit and dwell on it all day. However being awake I can honestly say I did not feel anything. You do kind of feel the sensations of tugging and pulling but there was no pain so to speak. I also had a bout of nausea which sucked as I dry heaved a bit and was fine after I was given an anti nausea medication. Then I was shivering uncontrollably. This was also an after effect. And the harder you try to stop shivering the worse it got. It did not matter if I was given heated blankets or not I was just shivering. All while awake. Another crazy fact about having a C Section is that you ultimately see your baby within 10 minutes. The other 30-45 minutes is than spent sewing up all the layers of your body again. I always thought it was a while til you see your baby but it really is not. That is one of the first things that you see which does make things a lot easier when you see that little bundle and ignore the fact you just had a major surgery!

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This next one may be crazy to hear. You are required to pee. During surgery you are fitted with a catheter for obvious reasons since you are unable to feel your lower body which I assume includes having any feeling or lack there of to prevent peeing. After having a C Section you have the catheter removed after 6 or so hours and you are required to pee. Something along the lines of given 4 hours to pee. Which I did not. Then after you get rechecked to make sure your bladder is in fact empty or not holding urine. Which mine was empty. Then you are given another 4 to 6 hours to see if you pee again. And so on and so forth. This could be due to me not drinking or eating much since the Sunday night before. I drank so much water and was not peeing that I genuinely thought what if they out the stuff back inside me wrong. Which obviously was not rational but still. I drank cup after cup after cup of ice water to try to pee. This is something that is typically normal. I also had my IV taken out which apparently was left in a lot longer to help with things. I just was so dehydrated that I had to keep drinking and drinking and drinking til I was able to actually pee on my own!

*** If you would like to support this blog financially you are more than welcome to do so by clicking this link here to bring you to my Ko-Fi website. Supporting the blog via tips is NEVER pressured however if you feel so inclined to help out in another way this is a perfect way to do so! You can see some behind the scenes items as well as insider info on the store updates and uncensored blogs also coming soon!



One thing you have to do is walk after 6 hours. By this time you can fully feel your body again and more than likely are on pain medications and no matter how slow moving you are, you are still required to walk. Even a step or two. Just standing. You are expected this. One of the hardest this to remember is that by moving around or walking a few paces you are helping your body heal faster than just sitting down the entire time. You need to be careful. Full steps and really take your time because you are for sure not balanced. I went so slow to the bathroom the 1st time I got up. I went but it was slow. The sensation on my belly and my legs actually working again was very strange. It is also okay to have a nurse or your spouse or someone to help you with this too. I never really felt pain so to speak just some discomfort. The nurses that I had were great with making sure I was getting the proper pain medications on the correct intervals so that I was not going too long without them for pain to set in.

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No one also talks about the many restrictions that you have. I was specifically told that I was not allowed to lift anything heavier than my newborn. Which in hindsight is basically nothing. If you have other children especially a toddler like I do, that is extremely challenging. The fact that you can’t even really bend over to pick up a piece of paper off of the floor is incredibly hard to wrap your head around. Now at the time I am writing this 2 weeks after the birth I feel like I COULD lift my 1st son or heavy items I know that is not a great idea as I still will not be fully healed for a while. You also are not allowed to drive. While one nurse said it depends on how you feel. And another said it is pretty standard to be 6 weeks. I think it really is how you heal. The reasoning is more or less how you turn while driving. Or reactions and how you may have to stop rapidly. Not that I really drove around all that much before because I do love being at my own house but now that I technically cant drove I want to go more! I also find myself having to be reminded that I am unable to lift things because as time does progress and I heal a bit better I feel like I am capable of more. While that may be true I also don’t want to push myself to hurt myself again and have a set back in the healing process.

And lastly. A C Section is a major surgery. That is something that I still find so hard to believe was that it is not something to take lightly. I think the fact you are home in 2 nights and are expected to walk or get out of bed simply 6 hours after is mind blowing. I found myself constantly reminding myself that this is not something to be taken lightly and I really need to be careful as to not hurt myself by trying to do too much. If I were to try to push myself and hurt myself or my incision that could have really made recovery so much longer. It already feels like a lifetime. Thankfully I have a partner that so happened to take off vacation and have days off due to the holidays so I am able to have some help in getting things done around here because it would be near impossible if I was home doing this alone.

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These are the things that I found particularly challenging when dealing with my C Section. You could say I was very naive when it came to this type of birth method because I guess I never thought I would be needing it. I was wrong.

Is there anything you found out after having a C Section that you had no idea about?

Let me know in the comments below! Maybe there is something you did not know before you or a loved one had a C Section.

I gave birth to another baby!!

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For anyone who has been following the blog for any amount of time you will know that I have one son already. I wrote about his birth story here. And if you have been following it in the last 9 months you will know that I am pregnant with a second son! Well, I was!

If you took a moment to go back and read the blog about the birth of our first son it was all natural (due to lack of time) and it was super fast. For a first birth and him being 9 days early it was actually incredible (Seriously read all the details here!)

Much like my 1st son this little guy decided to give mom contractions on a Sunday evening also. It started with the little cramping and I had gone to bed. By 2am I was fully awake and I was back in the warm tub hoping that the water would ease my back. Which it did for a period of time. About 3am or so I got my boyfriend up again. I still was having contractions. They were getting closer and closer together. At about 5am I had called my mom to come over since she was switched her shift so she could go watch our little Vincent while we went to the hospital.

Contractions SUCK. I do not remember them being so hurtful and sucky as they were with Vincent as they were that day. They checked how far along I was and I was only 3-4cms. Which SUCKED also. Because it was still early labour I was contracting in a small room until I was at least a solid 4cm if not more. They suggested I walk or bounce on a birthing ball. That did not happen. I legit was done. I couldn’t handle it. Maybe because with Vincent they gave me Morphine for the pain so early that helped also? But it was incredibly painful. We stayed in this room from about 630am/7am to some time after 9am. Then when I was checked at 5cm I was sent to a room.

Felix!

Unlike my 1st. I totally 110% responded to wanting an epidural. We had plenty of time to get one and we went that route. It is nerve wracking going through contractions while they jam a needle into your back but I think I did okay. I was surprised by how little pain you feel. Contractions became nearly non existent. I also was surprised when I was able to move my legs moderately. They felt a bit flimsy but I could still move them. Here is when things started to go wonky.. So they were having trouble finding the heartbeat. I don’t mean for lack of. I mean for where it was located for them to hear it. This is when they brought in an ultrasound and they checked.. He had flipped on us and was suddenly head up. He was breeched. At this point it was pretty devastating.

I had 2 options. I never felt pressure in my decisions for this but it still never made it any easier. My 1st option was to attempt a breech birth vaginally. Now this may seem easy but with him measuring 2.5 weeks ahead based on a 31 week ultrasound we knew he was going to be bigger then my 1st son was. They informed me that yes, it may be possible but there is also the possibility that he may get stuck or that we may end up in a C-Section at the end anyways if he wont come out. Then obviously, the second option was a C-Section. A major freaking surgery that if you were to ask me about it there would be no flipping way that I would have told you that was even a possibility. It was not even on my radar.

We just decided to pick a C Section. I say pick as if some crazy prize but it wasn’t.. It was nerve wracking, scary and I was basically petrified. The reason why we chose this was that it was already near lunch time, my labour contractions were a bit stalled, and the fact we could attempt breech and STILL have to have a C section I think would be far more devastating if I waited all day to have one. Luckily they brought us in nearly right away so we were able to be out of the surgery theater at about 130pm and into recovery. I needed more medications before they actually cut me open as I could still slightly feel some sensations. And then at one point I felt so nauseous that I basically dry heaved at one point due to having nothing in my stomach either. My boyfriend said at one point my heart rate dropped to 70 and he was like WHAT THE FRICK. But other than that it was crazy. It is also insane that they give you the baby within 15 minutes. Then you have to be sewn up for the remainder 30-40 minutes because they legit cut through so many layers of your abdomen. I never did skin to skin because I was shivering due to the medications however he got to so that! That made me really happen because he got to experience things with Felix that I got to first with Vincent!

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After recovery and my legs started working again would I be moved to my own room. This was because I had to be able to scoot my bum from the surgery bed to a regular bed. After I had to see how I could walk at 630pm. Also the next test was trying to pee. This is something that is so mind boggling because you are legit drinking liters and liters of water but because of the amount of medications in you, your body becomes so dehydrated. At some point I even was questioning if things were put back in the way they were since my body was not peeing but I was drinking and drinking so I know there was fluids being put in there!

Finally pee happened and I am basically on the mend except for the mandatory 2 day stay in the hospital. Which is totally okay due to the fact that C Sections are actually considered major surgery which is still mind blowing for me considering you are awake during the entire procedure. And with everything that happens to your body from being essentially having things moved around and having things replaced, your body goes through a lot. Not to mention my littlest son Felix also had a touch of jaundice like his older brother due to myself and my boyfriends blood types and how they match while making children.

As I write this it is the spare moments from the first night home. We still have to take Felix in to see if the jaundice has gone the following day which we hope it has. And on top of that also, having a cesarean section for delivery has been anything but delightful. I feel low key depressed, not baby blues but just sad because of the amount of things that you really and truly cannot do for yourself. Not to mention I needed help to shower and was unable to put my own compost in the compost bin under the sink due to the fact I would have to bend over the way that do. I’m not sure how a single mother would so this without help. Honestly. I have my boyfriend home and able to help and even that I find extremely challenging. I hope these next 4 to 6 weeks really fly by and I am able to get back to being myself again. With full mobility of course also too!