Normal to feel like you’re dying after birth?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s pinging mastitis for me as well.

Also exhaustion. Can anyone help you take care of baby so you can sleep? Hormones are horrific the first few weeks. I had a baby that didn’t sleep well and lived without sleep for way too long.

It does get better, but please have someone help and check on you. Please keep eating nutrient dense fat foods and drink more water than you think you should. Keep taking your prenatals.

I hit submit too soon. I had dual incontinence and tearing also and it was really rough emotionally. Sometimes I would end up going right as the baby latched, I used a towel under me jic. Please be sure to use a warm peri bottle to keep your sutures clean and get them checked if things ramp up.

It does get easier in time. Which may not help right now, but it will. Pelvic floor therapy and chiro helped me. Also acupuncture and a very light anxiety medication.

Most importantly though is rest. If you are partnered they need to pitch in. This is how you heal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing about breast feeding (that I learned the hard way) is that the first time you get that long stretch of sleep, your boobs are going to get full and they might wake you up. But don't let that discourage you from trying to get more sleep at night. Your milk production will adjust, but you need to give it time.

This. I kept my pump in our bathroom to take the edge off if my boobs woke me up. Had a pump early on as one side baby couldnt efficiently empty.

Don’t be afraid to take a unisom. You need the sleep. - don’t cosleep right now either. Room share ok but better if you’re in another room. Wear earplugs.

[Anonymous]

My wife and mom are helping me but I cannot sleep even when given the opportunity. Both also need sleep and night is when it’s the worst with cluster feeding. Mt wife is pushing me not to try the bottle till 2 weeks per our LCs advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FTM. Overall good birth experience but had some tearing and bladder retention paired with pelvic floor/tailbone damage that makes me have little bowel control.

Baby is one week old and I’m sure I’m dying. Can’t sleep even when given opportunity. Nauseous, shakey and flu-like feelings. Insomnia on top of frequent wakings to feed baby.

I’m certain I’m going to die. Yes, OBGYN knows about symptoms. Everything normal.
No fever, normal blood pressure etc. I’m on anti-anxiety medication.

Didn’t expect to feel like I got hit by a bus postpartum.

Baby is doing great thank God but I am not, what is and isn’t normal? I think I get 3 hours of sleep in a 24 hour period on average. Can this kill me?

OP this is not normal! Please get help so you can get more sleep. Yes, i did feel like I got "hit" by a bus after a normal vaginal delivery, in that my body felt weak and sore all over, and I had no strength in body parts unrelated to the pushing (like my fingers). But none of the other symptoms you mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife and mom are helping me but I cannot sleep even when given the opportunity. Both also need sleep and night is when it’s the worst with cluster feeding. Mt wife is pushing me not to try the bottle till 2 weeks per our LCs advice.

If you're nursing you make the decision.

[Anonymous]

Many of us breast-fed, who are responding to you. You will still have a good breast-feeding relationship if you introduce a bottle. It is really hard when your body won’t let you sleep, but if someone can give over to taking care of baby overnight, that would be really helpful. It’s important that that is a shared activity (yes, even if your wife works during the day). You need sleep to heal. You need sleep to heal. You need sleep to heal. You need sleep to heal.

[Anonymous]

Cluster feeding blows.

[Anonymous]

Been there. It’s so hard!

[Anonymous]

OP, you need your thyroid checked ASAP.

[Anonymous]

I had major tearing and basically didn't sleep much at all for the first five days because my baby didn't sleep much. However, I didn't feel like what you are describing. I think you have an infection or something is wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many of us breast-fed, who are responding to you. You will still have a good breast-feeding relationship if you introduce a bottle. It is really hard when your body won’t let you sleep, but if someone can give over to taking care of baby overnight, that would be really helpful. It’s important that that is a shared activity (yes, even if your wife works during the day). You need sleep to heal. You need sleep to heal. You need sleep to heal. You need sleep to heal.

Agree with this. Is your wife a morning person or night person? If she's a night person she gets to have the baby from 7pm to midnight. If the baby has regained birthway s/he can last one 5 hour span. You put in ear plugs, white noise, take a rapid dissolve benadryl. The baby can cluster feed on a bottle. Baby needs to learn night and day so don't give baby prime boobie all night. The solution to every fussy baby problem is not your boob, at least not for those 5 hours. You will feel waaaay better if you can string together a couple of REM cycles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife and mom are helping me but I cannot sleep even when given the opportunity. Both also need sleep and night is when it’s the worst with cluster feeding. Mt wife is pushing me not to try the bottle till 2 weeks per our LCs advice.

So much of this advice is so overblown. Give a bottle if you need to! I'm saying this as someone who breastfed for two years.

[Anonymous]

Normal to feel hit by a bus and like you might not make it. Not normal to feel like you’re actively dying.

I’d say you need more sleep.

[Anonymous]

Three kids delivered vaginally (including a uterine inversion) and I think there’s something wrong op. Off top of my head are: Retained placenta, extremely low iron, or adverse reaction to the epidural?

The weird thing about vaginal delivery is that recovery is strangely swift, up and walking pretty quickly. The nausea, shakiness, and insomnia are concerning to me.

Keep pushing the doctors. Make sure they do a blood panel. In the meantime, start supplementing and ask one of your support to set their alarm to take a 5 or 6am shift with a bottle so you can get in a six hour stretch. Make sure you are drinking lots of fluids and getting sufficient red meat

[Anonymous]

Even if you ruin your latch, and I don’t think you will, it will be worth it to save your sanity. Have your wife and mom give bottles. All the bottles that you need to give until you’re feeling better. I too could not sleep even when I had the chance. I think my psychiatrist gave me a sleep medication. Obviously I could only take that when someone else had the baby. But I did feel like I was dying, and it was all sleep deprivation and anxiety.