God, having a baby just FUCKS your body up!

[OhCrapingHell]

I'm so fed up with the toll that having had two children has taken on me. Aside from the lack of sleep, and ensuing bad skin/bags under eyes/general look of death warmed up, I have throbbing nipples which will forever be misshappen. Stretch marks to rival the tube map, I'm fat due to eating so much sto stave of nausea while pregnant and now to sate the ravenous hunger that comes with bfing. I've had my fanjo sewn up twice, and it is now bucket like. My rings don't fit on my fingers, I have to cross my legs if I sneeze and need a wee. I had all kinds of aches and pains while pg, plus insomnia. My hair is falling out all over the place, I have hypothyroidism that came on after having DD1, and to top it all off I have a problem with my backside which means I have ranging uncontrollable wind and yesterday I literally crapped myself :(

My husband is very grateful for the children I have born him but I don't think he will ever understand the irreversible effects having babies has had on my body, not to mention my mental health.

Oh, this post has made me laugh so much!!!

Thank you all!
I now know i'm not alone....

dd2 is 9 days old and my pelvic floor is wrecked. in 9 days I have wet myself three times, midwife told me she will refer me to a physio if things haven't improved by day 10 (tomorrow) so looks like more indignity and interference in my nether regions.

Quite annoyed with myself actually as I was persuaded a VBAC would be a better option and the consultant convinced me by saying how I wouldn't cope as well with C-Section recovery this time around with a toddler, but I had to have forceps then an epi, deal with stitches and now incontinence, I should have stuck to my guns and had another c-section.

ladies,this is normal at such an early stage. However things improve slowly. I am an obstetrician/gynaecologist and had no conception of just how much your body changes until we had our 2 dc's...

After dd (induced labour, epidural, episiotomy, ventouse delivery) my pelvic floor was a bit rubbish but recovered ok, few stretch marks, but weight dropped off breastfeeding. Mental health another matter as pretty bad PND, but improved slowly.

With ds, pregnancy much more difficult - more sickness, much more tired (partly due to looking after a toddler - 17m age gap only!, easy quick delivery but 3rd degree tear, huge boy - 10lb 6oz! Good repair of tear in theatre but pelvic floor felt as if non-functional for up to a month. Incontinent of urine frequently, also of flatus and occasionally of small amount of faeces. Tummy huge, pendulous and looked like I had had a C-section. Despit bf twice as much, lost almost no weight. Stretch marks aplenty...

Ds is now 14m old and things are better. Very slowly losing the weight, tons of moisturiser improving look of still wobbly tum, pelvic floor better but could do with some more work. I am intending to see the local pelvic floor physio and suggest you do to. Ideally, you should have follow-up after a third degree tear but if this is not routine in your area then you should ask your GP for referral. I am ok now unless I have a bad cold such as at present and bladder still leaks with sneezing and coughing. Physio works wonders.

Hope you feel better soon, it is early days yet x