body is heavier, baby is lower. stretching pains have morphed into stinging pains - the lower side of my belly feels like it's sunburnt and it's super sensitive to the touch. i went to the OB yesterday. i have officially broken the 130 pound threshold - i am now 130.8 pounds (but with clothes on!). holy moly. i know i haven't gained much weight but it's still crazy to see numbers on the scale you've never seen before in your life. i have an ultrasound thursday to estimate the weight of the baby (let's keep it low lana!) and from now on, i go to the doctor once a week so she can check on the progress of my dilation.
i have a question for moms - did your own moms (and maybe MILs) impose a lot of restrictions on you when you had the baby? i'm a little tired of hearing all these old wives' tales (mostly from my aunts) about what you can and can't do after having a baby. i'm trying to be open-minded but there's no freakin' way that i am not showering for up to a month afterwards. i've also heard: don't open the fridge, don't drink cold drinks, don't read, don't sit for too long, eat iron-rich foods 3x a day for a month, don't go outside for a month, don't take baby out for several weeks, etc. i'm not saying all of them are crazy, but it's hard to know what is crap and what might have some truth to it. the pediatrician in our childbirth class did say to keep baby away from crowded public places until 6-8 weeks of age, so that i'm ok with. but moms, if you know from personal experience either way, i'd be glad to hear it. and seriously, koreans can't be the only crazy ones when it comes to this stuff right? right? o_O
bump!
i actually followed a semi-rigorous one month after nathan was born, but mostly food wise. didn't drink cold drinks, and tried not to sit too long. the cold drinks was kind of old-wives-tale (bad for your uterus in general). but the sit too long was more about not spreading out my hips and butt more since everything's already kind of relaxed and spreading out anyways T_T; i didn't really open the fridge, but i was also being fed by my parents and jason's parents and everyone else ^_^ my parents cooked a specific diet for postpartum a la chinese customs (lots of... iron-rich kidneys and liver... =P), but it wasn't too bad.
ReplyDeleteyay!!! you look beautiful!! and as far as all the old wives' tales - they keep coming. no matter how old your child is! my advice - do whatever you need to do to stay happy, joyful, sane, and loving for sh. otherwise, fuggedaboutit! do what you know is best - motherly instincts kick right in. you'll see :) can't wait to meet ede's new friend!!!! xoxo
ReplyDeleteI'm not Korean, so I didn't do much of anything that you listed, other than follow the same advice your pediatrician gave you: keep her away from crowds/sick people for the first 2 months. We also had people wash their hands/purell before handling V those first few months. Now we're like "oh, you just handled a leprous armadillo? No problem, hold my baby!" ;)
ReplyDeleteI totally remember the same feeling of "disbelief" before V was born. Becoming a parent is a huge adjustment, and six months on, I still am occassionally surprised that I have a daughter. I'll see her sleeping and think that I can't believe that she's ours - forever! It's an amazIng, transforming experience, and you are going to do great. Any time now!
Koreans are definitely not the only ones who practice a post-partum rest ritual. I know of other Asian countries and South American countries that have their own versions. I think I already told you, but I didn't follow any of the practices after DS1 (hot summer, wearing tank tops, drinking cold drinks, etc.), and then actually developed an allergy to the cold, cold urticaria. Maybe some people have more sensitive bodies and those people are the ones who benefit the most. I tried to follow the samchilil practices after DS2, but I still am very sensitive to the cold. They say your efforts pay off when you are older so hopefully, they will, especially after DS/DD3.
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing, why not do it? It won't hurt and it may help but you might not know it until you are in your sixties and everyone else is complaining about arthritis, pain in their bones and joints, and random illnesses but you are doing great. In the meantime, you score big points with your aunts and mom for listening to their advice. Having had two kids already, my body changed each time, and the spring in my step gets lower each time, especially with all the sleep deprivation. And not all of it is hard to follow. Believe me, having someone help you in the middle of the night because you are not supposed to be carrying the baby around is really great. After the first few days, you will be really thankful that you will be able to fall asleep after nursing, especially if you have a colicky baby at all. And having someone else prepare food for you is great too, although your aunt is already doing that for you. Resting your eyes from books/computers is hard b/c you will really want to, but I think in small doses it might be acceptable to your family.
There is definitely scientific evidence to some of what Koreans do. A university in the U.S., I believe it was a Univ. of Wisconsin, did a study on the effect of feeding seaweed (which is iodine rich) to lactating cows in the summer and there was an increase in milk production of those cows who were fed the seaweed. There are probably more studies done in Korea, but I can't read them. Eating iron-rich foods is following good nutritional practice, and protecting babies from others outside the main household, to whose germs she will already have antibodies through you and your breastmilk, also sounds like a good idea.
The whole shower/bath, dress warmly, avoid the cold practices are the hardest thing for me. But the principle is not to get cold or have a cold wind blow on you and I think that maybe it has to do with the post-partum recovery resetting your personal thermostat, but that's based on my experience. So one way to still follow the practice but get clean is to take a portable heater into the bathroom and have it on so that you limit the cooling effect you get with evaporation. The heater, plus immediately drying off as quickly as possible, and blow-drying your hair right away, may be a combination that is OK with your aunt/mom. I doubt that they will want you to do it every day.My MIL let me do this twice during my recovery. Think of it as camping in the summer--no running water, no A/C, etc.
And BTW, this is going to be my third child, and it still hasn't really hit me that I'm having another baby!