I was wondering if you could tell me your experiences of recovering from birth with a toddler?
I'm expecting my 2nd baby in the July when my DD will be 2yo old (2years 8 months to be exact). DD is a pretty easy toddler (as far as they go) but I'm just very worried about looking after her while recovering from the birth. 1st time around I had an emergency c-section because she was breech and I found the recovery very difficult. I'm a very active person and when I was told to get up and walk around, that's exactly what I did...far far too much. I think I looked at it as an injury rather than recovering from major surgery. I think I did too much and ended up having to rely on other people for longer. I also lived in a 1st floor flat and couldn't carry the pram downstairs to go for walks and could only go out with help for the first 3 months. We've since moved to a house and I'm worried that if I were to have another c-section that it will be agony walking up the stairs to go to the toilet, about not being able to lift my toddler or bend to help her use the potty or her not being able to sit on my knee for a cuddle. I've no idea what a vaginally birth is like or what the recovery is like but I think I would like to try for it this time round. Can you tell me your experiences warts and all? Both what recovering from a vaginally delivery is like and what it's like looking after a toddler post c-section.
My DH is very supportive and will help as much as he is physically able to. My parents also helped A LOT first time round when DH had to go back to work. I absolutely adore them all and am so thankful for their help but last time it made getting into a routine with DD very difficult and I found the lack or independence really hard so would really like to establish the new normal (whatever that may be) sooner rather than later...