I’ve been giving this post a lot of thought over the last few weeks and while some parts might be a bit TMI I wanted to share my experiences in the weeks following William’s birth as some things came as a bit of a surprise to me.

I was very lucky (I appreciate this even more now) that after Florence was born I bounced back pretty much immediately. I was up and out by day three, I stopped bleeding after a week and aside from the addition of a tiny human everything went back to normal very quickly. This time however, has been completely different and it’s come as a bit of a shock – especially after such a straight forward and ‘picturesque’ birth. I’ve been getting so frustrated that I can’t just go out and about and get stuff done the way I expected to and at times that’s left me feeling really rubbish and downhearted. I put an attempt in at a trip into town with the children the other day and it turned out to be a complete disaster.

Heavy bleeding

I lost a lot of blood in the days following William’s birth – way more than I did with Florence – and I was getting through maternity pads every two hours. I think the loss of blood contributed to me feeling quite weak in the days after birth and I was constantly pale. It was quite alarming if I’m honest and I bought it up with the midwives and health visitors both at the maternity unit and during my home visits with the midwife and the health visitor, but thankfully, by day 10 it started to slow down and now at 5 weeks post partum, it has stopped completely.

Sore bits!

My labour & birth was so quick that my body, let alone vagina, didn’t really get much chance to prepare itself for what was actually happening. By some miracle, I didn’t need any stitches and only suffered a first degree tear but the healing time was an awful lot longer than anyone had prepared me for. I could barely sit down for a week, maybe longer, without being in a lot of pain. In fact, after William was delivered and I was moved to the couch, I couldn’t physically sit because I felt like I was still at that stage where he was coming out. Thank goodness for paracetamol,  ibuprofen & Spritz for bits is all I can say! 

After Pains

Oh my, the after pains! Typically you don’t get them after your first baby, and while everyone says about them with second babies I really underestimated how much they would hurt. They were like contractions but without the incentive of a baby at the end and lasted a couple of days. They were so incredibly intense to begin with and started pretty much immediately after birth.

No bladder control

I’ve never had a particularly strong bladder, but since having William, my bladder control is shot! To start with, I had no control at all which led to a few rather embarrassing accidents in the first weeks after he was born and it’s only just started to improve now. I’ve been sent a pelvic floor aid which I am going to be testing out and reporting back on the results here on the blog in a couple of weeks so I am hoping to have all good things to say.

Physical Exhaustion

You expect to be nackered when you have a newborn, after all there’s not very much sleep up for grabs in the early days, but I’ve never experienced this type of physical exhaustion until William was born. It was constant for the first couple of weeks, I struggled simply walking around the house and if I even so much as lifted Florence it would leave me practically useless for the rest of the day. Still now, I feel like I’ve been beaten black and blue from the inside if I over do it (sometimes that’s just taking a walk down the road) and everything feels heavy and achey, especially down there.

Despite all the difficulties, becoming a Mother of two has been as wonderful as I hoped it would be. I just wanted to share the realities of how the post natal period can be, as truthfully, this time around it completely knocked me for six.

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I thought this month, the one where our little family grew from three to four, would be a good time to start joining in with Me & Mine Project. I’ve always loved the idea of this little monthly family photo project, but never got around to actually getting a photograph and writing it up! Now though, I’m determined to make sure we get a family photograph every month and what better way to start than with our first ever photo as a family of four.

The photo above really does make me laugh. I’d imagined a perfectly smiley and poised photo for our first little family portrait but it would seem the littles had other ideas! William looks like a drunk old man who has passed out on his way home and Florence… well, what can I say? She’s just wonderfully, Florence. It’s safe to say our little family selfie shoot didn’t exactly go as I’d pictured but the images make me smile anyway. 

This was our first official trip out, just us. Sean had taken the day off work to take us to William’s hospital appointment and we decided to head to one of our favourite local spots, Leybourne Lakes, to have a wander around & feed the ducks afterwards. I was finally feeling well enough to be up and about properly so it was great to be out of the house and not worrying about how I’d feel later that evening.

The weather was warm enough for none of us to need a coat, the sun was shining and it definitely felt like spring was in the air. So strange as Looking back through my Instagram it turns out that on the same day last year we were at the same Lakes wrapped up in wooly hats and big coats a day before the ‘Beast from the East’ arrived.

We didn’t take the pram so Florence was able to run about to her hearts content, stopping to wave at the dogs who walked passed and say ‘Hiya’ to everyone she saw. As they stopped to chat to her, they’d notice I was carrying a soundly sleeping William in the sling and coo over him and all of his hair. Florence (and Sean and I) loved showing off her new baby brother.

We eventually found the perfect spot to feed the ducks and while when we arrived the waters were a bit scarce, we were soon inundated with a gaggle of geese, two huge swans & a whole flock of birds and ducks. It was wonderful to watch Florence’s little fill with delight as she threw the bird seeds into the lake for them. We ended up staying until the entire bag was empty and the sun began to go down.

It was the perfect afternoon spent with my little family. I’m feeling very lucky and incredibly proud to have these three to call my people. Here’s to making (and capturing) more wonderful family memories in March.

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