A few Postpartum Musings

Okay so I know I haven't blogged in over a year. Apparently it takes a new baby to make me blog again but I hope to be better about it this time around!

So in all my sitting around I had a few random postpartum thoughts I wanted to articulate somewhere. So bear with me here...

After Katie was born everyone told me not to "overdo it". And I did... Daily.  Because I didn't know what was too much until it was done and I realized "that hurt... Probably shouldn't have done that".  We also had a tornado two weeks after she was born and there's no way I couldn't over do it with all that going on.    

I thought long and hard about this over my pregnancy because I did NOT want to make the same mistake again. 

Both Manly and I come from large families and we have seen first hand how hard it is on the mother and her body and health to birth children and it is very very important to us that we maintain my health and offer adequate recovery time between children so that I can be healthy for them.    

To me this includes postpartum recovery time. But here I am 8days PP and I feel 65%... Tops. 

I'm a doer.  I get things done. I work, hard. I feed people and take care of people and grew up thinking that if your feet didn't ache at the end of the day, you didn't do enough. 

  Yet over a week later, here I am sitting in the chair and needing someone else to take care of my little girl because I'm not allowed to pick her up for another week and it is SO hard to not feel like I'm causing more work or mooching off people for no good reason just Because my darn body is taking its sweet time!  

So I find myself needing to be constantly reminded that this is WORTH it! Because this is bigger than me...it's not only my health I am worried about.   It's the example I am setting for my little girl and the expectation I want my fellow young mothers to have for them selves.     I want my friends to NOT feel the pressure to "bounce back" within a week and to push themselves too far too soon because it looked like I did and we all know how badly mommies compare themselves.  

 But I didn't... It may have looked like I bounced right back with Katie but reality had me in pain for months and months after she was  born.  She was nearly a year old before I feel like I was fully recovered physically.  

I want my daughter to grow up knowing that it's not only okay to take care of your health and body but that it's important. More important than being the hardest worker or the fastest back on my feet.

I think for me it's honestly a pride thing.  I want to be as "good" as the other moms and I want to look like I'm as strong as them but my body needs more time than I wish it did and I can't change that.  

And I have to realize that that's not only okay... It's the way I was fearfully and wonderfully made.    So fellow mommies, if you are one who recovers really fast,  that's great!  But if you have a slow and steady kind of body with a fast and competitive personality, may I encourage you to slow down and think of this as your vacation time.  Smell that little baby head, take that nap and sit in that chair and take your time and heal. It's going to be worth it! Right? ;-)