How did you feel post-birth?

[LikeAnAdventCandleButNotQuite]

During the last few weeks of pregnancy, I was soooo looking forward to being able to reach my feet, get up easily out of bed and walk faster than 1 mile an hour.

But, I didnt realise quite how knackered I'd feel after giving birth. Im not expecting to be able to do cartwheels, or run marathons, but, I just feel like i've been put through a mangle!

How did you all feel in the first week after giving birth?

I had a PPH after DS1 and obviously felt absolutly terrible as a result. After DS2 I felt much better despite the hit by a bus, feeling gross with stitchs etc kinda feelings, subsequently I thn over did everything and ended up feeling terrible a week or so down the line. Didn't help that 14 months later I'm still recovering from the leg injury I got a few weeks before the birth. However before I had DS2 I cut my foot on glass and had been whiny about it all day. After I gave birth, my Mum asked how my foot was, and I asked why she was asking!

Brilliant. Sorry !
I had a really easy, quick labour; no great problems with BFing and DD slept well.

Neither of mine were great births, so for first few weeks everything was just about coping!
Ds1 born prem first few weeks in neonatal.
Ds2 emcs ending up in anaphylactic reaction to antibiotics used during the cs. First 36 hours in intensive care, without baby.

Maybe I'll stop at two, birth just isn't something I'm good at!

Completely shellshocked after DS1. I simply couldn't believe that I'd had a baby! I was only 19 at the time (and in retrospect had quite a quick and straightforward birth - but it didn't feel like that at the time!). I left home when he was 10 days old to move in with his father, who was at Uni 50 miles away - so lots of life changes at once. For weeks I found myself reliving the entire birth story again and again - not because it was horrific, but because it all seemed so unreal. I felt really appalling too - the worst I'd ever felt. Everyone told me that it was just tiredness, but when DS was 3 weeks old I collapsed in the local shop, got taken to hospital, and was diagnosed with glandular fever. It took about 6 mths to feel 'right' after this.

I should add btw that DD1's birth 4 yrs later was brilliant - quick and easy water birth. I was elated. Had a shower and left hospital a few hours later. BF very easy. Was road testing the new pram to shops by the end of the afternoon (no stitches).

OhDearNigel, LUCKY! I had short labour but still felt crap =[ next time I want the euphoria hormones please!

mangly analagy so apt.second time round i was bit tired but euphoric.3 and 4 were c sects and then i really thought id bin run over.anyone who things being to posh to push is the easy option is having a laugh in la la land!!!!!

Unbelieveably traumatised, violated, and in an awful of lot of pain following a long a complex birth, dramatic EMCS and lots of problems with my wound. I wanted DD adopted or to turn back time. sadly that feeling didn't go away for about 12 months.

However, I have a gorgeous funny 4.5 yr old daughter who I adore with all my heart and I recovered physically and mentally and i'm about to go through all again in less than 3 weeks. I am going for attempted vbac even which I never ever thought i'd be able to face. DS is due on 11th Jan and I have ELCS booked on 18th if he's not here by then.

Well I'm 8 days PP after an easy birth with no tears but urrrgggghhh everything hurts my head is a foggy mess. I'm obsessed with my bowels have been out this afternoon and it's shattered me. In love with my dd though and newborn snuggles and snuggles with my other 2 make it all worth while.

euphoric
full of beans (even though had lost 2L of blood)
amazingly awake
that lasted about 5 hours or so - then when the crash came, it was spectacular...and I think I am still a bit tired, 4 years later

DS: I literally felt like I'd been hit by a truck after my lovely floaty zen waterbirth turned into a deep transverse arrest, emcs, major PPH, high dependency stay clusterfuck - i felt like death, and I looked like it too in DS's first pics. DH thought I was a goner too and carried a haunted look for weeks.
With DD totally different - still screwed up but totally different. She arrived at 27 weeks, after a labour so painless no one realised I was in prem labour until I was 5 cms and my waters were bulging and sadly it was too late to stop it. She arrived four or so hours later, with no contraction that hurt enough to need any drugs, but after another emcs at the pushing stage after she went breech and her HR fell to 40bpm. Totally silent birth, Apgar of 1, as I was warned I never even saw her, just saw a medic run out of the room with her in their cupped hands - she was too small to even see - then DH burst into tears on my shoulder. I had another PPH, but much less, but felt utterly supported and cared for after her birth. By the morning I was beginning a 9 week vigil by her incubator... and didn't so much as feel like I'd had an ingrown toenail removed, never mind major abdominal surgery, didn't need any pain meds, and the mws commented I didn't even have the cs shuffle. I'm guessing that's the difference between a very fast and daylong labour, a registrar doing your surgery and the hospital paging their lead obstetrician and a 9lb and a 2lb baby.
I'd second another poster and say I'm stopping at two as I'm evidently rubbish at giving birth.

1st birth - felt a bit crap. Was breastfeeding, had to stay in hospital for 6 days [normal practice then] and had stitches that got infected.
2 nd and 3rd birth - no stay in hospital, no stitches and FF. Felt great and full of energy both times. Just as well really, as I had to do everything myself and get on with things.

Well - I got pregnant quite unexpectedly and we'd had to move around a fair bit for Dp's work. But I was really supported and encouraged by my midwife who was an absolute angel. Unfortuantely we were evicted near to my due date and I ended up giving birth in temporary accomodation. Not the best of starts,I'll admit. I felt elated at first and then kind of down but I think that's normal.

I am feeling better now but I'd advise you limit your guests in the early days and perhaps ask your partner to tactfully advise on what kind of present might be most useful in the cirumstances. My tip - Think Practically!

i felt wonderful, euphoric, up and about easily, went out to dinner on day 3 after first was born. was at a party in first week of second with baby in a wrap.

midwife told me off for bounding down the stairs to meet her.

tiredness fom hourly feeds (first baby was erly and jaundiced) hit me but cosleeping meant its effect were limited and i'm okay on little sleep. i found sleep deprivatiion a year on was harder. plus all the slinging of a heavier child (never owned a pram) was tiring.

after first pregnancy i was still overweight but lost most of it in first month. second pregnancy i lost weight and walked out of hospital in size 8 jeans which helped the euphoria and feeling bendy/tying laces etc

both were planned sections

very good luck.

i should add tt since I threw up each and every day of both pregnancies i was overjoyed not to feel sick after eating. and the effects of preeclampsia with first child vanished, so i was feeling good

Deep shock. DS was 10 weeks early. The birth itself was good, i think , but after 2 years the afterwards still makes me cry. I was not allowed to hold baby, wasn't even sure if he really cried (later doctor confirmed he did) and then he was ran out of the room in doctors arms. I laid there, on the labour bed, for over two hours not being able to move and wondering when i will wake from the nightmare.

All is well now though and i know in the end that is all matters. I am even unofficially ttc!

I felt really bouncy, couldnt wait to get out of hospital. was kept in for four days, When i got home all i got as much sleep as possible, ie while baby was sleeping. I felt on top of the world, and actually the healthiest i have felt in YEARS!! When bump was 10months though i got diagnosed with PND. So not so great then. I think it depends on your labour, mine was slow, and steady. Didnt tear, need to be cut or any interventions. All i needed was air and gas and tbh my tattoo felt more painful. (although i was only18 and it went basically on to bone, on my shoulder cos i was slim at the time). x

DS - Awful. Failed induction culminating 18 hours later in em cs. Felt exhausted, detached, woozy, leaky, and out of it. Couldn't feel my legs for a few hours. Recovered fairly quickly physically (obviously determined to prove to the world what a super hero I was) but had a bit of a mental wobble 5 months later.

DD - Top of the world. Straight forward vbac and even though I was still knackered I still felt so happy I could actually walk unaided and attend to my baby girl myself. Spent the next 2 weeks laying on the sofa bfing and cuddling.

In both cases I was so relieved not to be pg anymore. I'll take sleep deprivation over late pregnancy any day. Am now 14 weeks with DC3.

Like I'd been hit by a train with number 1, euphoric with numbers 2 and 3 and utterly dreadful with number 4, but that was elcs and I had thrombocytopenia (sp?) low platelet thingy.

I felt like "wow, was that it?"

I wasnt sure if i was in labour (my planned home birth) Midwife arrived and i was 7cm... (was hoping to be told 1 or 2cm as i knew something was happening, but it didnt really hurt so assumed early stages) 20 mins later I was a mummy.... my waters went and 3 contractions later she fell out and landed on the sofa.

Id had no pain relief except tens on level 4 and i pressed boost for the birth.

I had expected it to hurt and be awful, but for me it was far from that.

My baby had learnt night from day by 6 days old so other than day 5 when i was so knackered i dont think i have ever experienced that extreme tiredness that people talk about.

am assuming i am very very lucky

DD is now 3 months old and wakes once between 6.30pm / 6.30 am!

I felt awful, I had an epidural and I was made to feel like I had in some way failed by certain 'friends' who had done everything 'naturally'.
I didn't want to hold my baby at first cos I was so tired and shaky after a shocker of a labour. I felt overwhelmingly guilty that I didnt have a bond with him straight off.

Physically I was a wreck, it took me a week to be able to walk to the local shop and back despite having a VB and no stitches. I just felt like I had been hit by a bus.

Then after a horrendous 8 weeks, during which my partner left me and I was getting no sleep at all due to baby being very sick, I found out he was lactose intolerant so had to give up breast feeding as even one ounce of breast milk in soya formula would make him violently ill.

Unsurprisingly I ended up with PND but DS is now 6 and we have a fantastic bond and all is well.
I am now 28 weeks preg with second child, lovely partner and really excited about meeting my baby.

Not having any expectations about this birth. If I need pain relief, so be it. If I can't breast feed I will be a bit dissapointed but it doesn't seem to have done my son any harm and this time I will take any help offered!

I'm about 9 weeks post birth and feeling a bit more normal, but still some r and r to go, I think, before I feel like 'me' again. I had episiotomy, epidural, forceps and 48hr labour. I underestimated how I would feel afterwards - I thought I would be tired but I actually felt like I was recovering from having a serious bout of the flu, and that coupled with the episiotomy shuffle slows you down drastically!

After the birth (drip induction with no epidural, and stitches for second-degree tear), it took me whole minutes to stagger down the corridor to the shower. I looked in the mirror, saw a pallid, wasted, hollow-cheeked, blue-lipped (from the gas and air) figure splattered with blood and realised I could have gone straight onto the set of George Romero's next zombie film with no make-up whatsoever.

I have never in my entire life felt physically worse, and this from someone who used to be a hardcore raver in the 90s...

All 3 times I felt amazing as if nothing had happened really. I have really fast labours (First 2 labours were around 2 hours and the last one was 20 minutes) and because of that have never had time for pain relief. So I think I only feel that way because i'm not tired or suffering the after effects of any drugs.

Despite this I was knackered when the sleep deprivation kicked in a week later