Periods after birth and a TMI question

[Confessor]

I had a cs nearly five months ago and I think my period has returned. I went to the loo earlier and noticed some brown discharge in my underwear, only a little bit but quite thick and creamy in consistency (sorry!) and some on the paper when I wiped. This is disgusting but it looked the exact colour of poop so I worried maybe I'd pooped myself and not noticed even though, to the best of my knowledge, I've never soiled myself since I was baby. So I sniffed the paper and it's definitely not poop. I promise I am not the poo troll and I generally do not sniff used toilet paper!

Is it normal for a post birth period to start off like this? I have no idea what to expect after a cs as people have told me the first period after a cs is worse than the first period after a vb because of the scarring? I was lucky that I recovered from the cs really well with no major pain and no infections or anything, it hasn't so much as twinged for weeks and weeks and at check-ups the doctor has always commented on how well it's healed. The discharge didn't smell like there was anything infected. Brown blood is old blood though isn't it?

My first post pregnancy period was disgusting. I really wasn't prepared for it to be that yucky. Almost worse than post birth lochia. I had an EMCS & my first period was at five months. Clotty, stringy, brown & red; very painful and it lasted for days & days needing heavy weight pads (normally 2 days for me for a standard period using light flow pads) i even had to go to bed because of it!!! All normal, I gather. Pah.

I have never heard anything like 'first period worse after a CS' - my mw and consultant both siad my periods would be lighter for a while after my CS. Not sure why. This was very much the case though. My periods took nearly a year to return (due to BF-ing) and were very light when they did come back. And I was v relieved having had very painful and heavy periods all my life so far.

I think brownish bleeding to start with is ok. I had it - I think when you get a very light bleed, it can hang around your cervix/vagina for a little while before exiting, IYSWIM! As always, if you are worried, see GP etc but it just sounds like a very light first period to me. FWIW, a year and a half after ELCS, my periods are lighter and MUCH less painful than before.