Physical recovery from the birth

One thing that I was extremely surprised at was how long it took for me to physically feel better after the birth. Granted, I did have a level 2 episiotomy (tearing), but I had expectations (very unrealistic) of feeling mostly like my old self after about a week or so. This did NOT happen. I didn't really feel better until about the 5 1/2 week mark. I think the hemmorhoids played a big role in this long recovery process. It took until the 5 1/2 week mark until I didn't fear going to the bathroom.

The first 2 weeks were definitely the hardest physically. I had been expecting quite a bit more help after coming home from the hospital than what I got. Tyree was supposed to be off from work to help out, and his mom was supposed to be doing the house-work and such for me. In reality, they had Tyree working from home Sunday night (I got home from the hospital Friday). Granted, he was working from home, and had did get me food periodically. But, there were over 6 hour stretches where he would just be in the study working or surfing the net or whatever. Also, for the first week, his mom was over a couple of times, but it seemed like each time she came, she had time demands for Tyree (helping her sort out medical paperwork, having him show her family pictures of relatives on Facebook online, etc). I never knew when she was coming or what she was intending to do when she was around. Dishes were piled up to the point of not having any or certain types to use - things like that. And, then after the first week, she had a workplace injury. A forklift knocked her down. She didn't report it as an incident that day, but the next day, she was hurting. So, Tyree had to take her to fill out the paperwork and then to the doctor's office - an almost all-day affair. And, then she was on disability for a week.

Once the injury occurred, though, I realized for a fact that I was not going to get the level of help that I expected. (Tyree said some of the problem was because I didn't tell her what I wanted done as help. So ironically, the night before the injury I had decided to remedy that problem by creating a list of things I wanted done. But, then that happened, so the list idea got scrapped. And, so I knew that I just had to figure out a manageable way to get the household chores done myself.)

It was definitely a difficult first month (and beyond) physically. If I had it to do all over again, I would have gotten Tyree to clarify for me what help I would be receiving and when. Communication was definitely an issue, and I probably could have gotten more help that very first week if I had approached things differently. (But, I don't really blame myself fully for that because who has the energy to do all that planning right after giving birth? I guess I should have made Tyree take more responsibility for that (although it would have been nice if he had been pro-active about it - but he's not a mind-reader).)

It's 2 months out since the birth, and I still feel a little sore down there sometimes when I sit down to use the bathroom. It's not bad, just a little sore there in front. I still sort of have the hemmorhoids. They don't hurt, but there are still there externally. If they don't go away, I'll have to see some kind of doctor to have a procedure to get them removed. Fun, fun. At least I don't have to sit on the donut pillow anymore.