I thought I had a lot of surprises when I was pregnant, so I felt like I was pretty ready for postpartum and all of the changes that would come. I was ready to be back in my body and have everything be normal again. I knew about postpartum hair loss, to expect to look pregnant for a while after, but I mostly thought I would deflate and might be a little hormonal.
Some of those things did happen, but there was a lot that surprised me once I finally reached the postpartum stage. For the most part I was too wrapped up in learning how to be a new mom for any of these to be too crazy annoying, but nonetheless I think it’s important to talk about all these things because it seems like not many people do. So many people talk about how to care for your new baby, products you might need for postpartum, products you need for your baby, but not too many people go into detail about what exactly might happen once you are in the postpartum phase. So here are some things that took me by surprise:
1. ) Postpartum hair loss doesn’t happen right away
I was dreading the day that postpartum hair loss would start, so I was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t start right after Max was born like some of the other fun things about postpartum. I thought maybe that was one thing I just wasn’t going to experience. What I didn’t realize is that it normally starts around 3 months. I think mine started the day that Max turned 3 months and it’s still going on right now- he’s four months old currently. I have a ton of hair so it’s not too noticeable when you look at me, but I notice it a lot. I feel like my hair is everywhere, and Max constantly has it in his hands or stuck to him some way or another. The hormones are to blame for this one of course. Usually people shed strands of hair daily and new hair will grow in, but when you’re pregnant, the hair stops shedding. So once your hormones go back to normal, a lot of the hair that you’ve held on to for the past nine months will start to shed. It was a little alarming to see all that hair in the shower drain and everywhere else, but it should be temporary, and most women do experience this.
2.) Stretch marks sometimes come later
I thought that because I didn’t get any stretch marks while I was pregnant that I was in the clear and I was pretty pumped about it. Little did I know that a lot of times stretch marks don’t actually happen until after your stomach starts to deflate. I’m not worried about it, stretch marks don’t really bother me because I already had some from gaining and losing weight a few times, so I’ll just take my new ones and add them to my collection. Plus these have a way better reason to be there!
3.) You still look pregnant for a while
I knew that I wouldn’t lose all the weight as soon as Max was born, and I was more than okay with that. Your body goes through a ton during labor and after so I was fine with whatever I weighed, and I knew that it took 9 months to gain the weight so it wouldn’t come off all at once. But I guess I didn’t realize that you really do still look pregnant for a while. I think for me it was about a month before I really felt like I didn’t look pregnant anymore. After a few weeks, I still had to lose weight, I just didn’t look like I was carrying it all in my belly anymore. So if you leave the hospital feeling like you’re still pregnant, and still feel that way a few weeks after, don’t fret, it does go away eventually. I ended up buying a few loose shirts and sweaters and wearing maternity leggings for about a month or two after we came home.
4.) You do lose weight pretty quickly the week or two or three after
I’ve battled my weight my whole life so I was pretty nervous that I had gained way too much weight being pregnant and I would never take it off. I have a few friends that are my size, and they told me that the weight would come off, but not to check the scale right away when I get home because I might be disappointed. One of my friends was within 10 pounds of her regular weight when she came home from the hospital, so it is possible to lose weight pretty quickly, but for me it took a couple of weeks to lose a noticeable amount. I gained fifty pounds altogether, and I think by the third week I had lost 30 of them. I don’t know if that’s normal, but from what a lot of my friends have told me, most of them have lost a decent amount of the baby weight in the first month or so, so don’t freak out if you weigh yourself when you get home and the number hasn’t changed that much, it takes a little bit of time!
5.) Breastfeeding “let down” kind of hurts or at least feels weird
If you decide to breastfeed, you might find that the sensation you feel each time your baby first starts to nurse (and sometimes just randomly) feels a little weird, and almost kind of hurts, or at least to me it did. It felt kind of like tingling or burning. I had taken a breastfeeding class before I had Max, and they didn’t mention this at all so I was a little surprised. I think I actually ended up googling why it was happening to find out what was going on, and it’s totally normal. It’s called your “let down” and it’s the feeling of your milk going down the milk ducts. It goes away after a few weeks, or at least becomes a lot less noticeable.
6.) Sweating
One of my friends warned me about this, but I guess I didn’t think it would surprise me as much as it did. I started having night sweats the night after I had Max. I’d wake up, no matter what I slept in or how cold we had the room and just be covered in sweat. Again the hormones are to blame for this. It’s just your body’s way of getting rid of the extra fluid that’s built up, and it does go away over time.
7.) Breastfeeding hurts a little
I’m surprised more people don’t talk about this. Breastfeeding in the first couple weeks actually makes your uterus contract, so it can be a little painful. It’s a good thing though, because it makes your uterus get back down to its normal size which makes you look less pregnant, and is likely why I felt like I looked less pregnant after a few weeks (which I just learned!).
8.) You’ll be hungry
I don’t think I’ve ever been as hungry as I was for the first meal after I had Max. I know it was hospital food but I’m pretty sure it was the best veggie burger I’ve ever had in my life, and if I could’ve gotten another one- or five- I would have. It’s normal to be super hungry after you have the baby, and for a couple weeks (or months!) after that. You’ve just gone through a lot so your body is probably looking for more energy and more energy means more calories. You also burn an additional 300-500 more calories per day if you are nursing, so eat up!
9.) You can be weepy for a little while after
Again with the hormones, you might be more than a little emotional for a few weeks after giving birth. It’ll ease up after a few weeks. When I was in the hospital with my son because of his heart, a lactation specialist came in and I talked to her about postpartum depression, which I was really concerned about especially with everything going on. She told me that the “baby blues” should go away after the first two weeks, and if it didn’t, to consult with my OBGYN. I think my hormones did level out after the first two weeks, even with the rollercoaster of a first month that we had.
. This was a few days after I had Max, you can tell I still look pregnant!10.) You’ll need a few new clothes but don’t go crazy
Before I had Max, I didn’t what to go nuts buying nursing clothes or any type of clothes really because I wasn’t sure what my body would look like, if I’d be nursing, etc. But when I got home from the hospital I bought like six nursing dresses, a bunch of nursing bras, lots of granny panties, more nursing clothes, and a few pairs of these weird joggers that I thought I’d be wearing all the time. Know how many of those I’ve worn? Like two- really just nursing dresses because they were so easy. Once you figure out nursing you realize you can wear almost anything, and you’ll figure out how to nurse around whatever you’re wearing. Plus those nursing clothes aren’t always the cutest and for me they never fit right. The only thing that I’m happy that I bought besides the nursing dresses are the nursing bras because those I definitely needed (Highly highly recommend these
11.) You should keep taking your prenatals
I never really found a prenatal that didn’t give me a headache, so I was real ready to kick these to the curb once I had Max. But as soon as I stopped taking them, my son’s doctor told me that it’s best to keep taking them especially since I was nursing. According to American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, women should keep taking their prenatals for 6 months if they are not nursing, and for the entire time that you breastfeed if you do nurse. So make sure to stock up on these because you’ll be needing them for a while!
Even though so much was changing with my body, I think I was so wrapped up in figuring out how to be a new mom that for the most part all of these things were pretty minimal. Just remember that none of these things last forever, and your body and hormones will settle down eventually. The first few months flew by, so focus on loving on your little one as much as you can and do whatever you need to do to make yourself comfortable. You got this mama!
I’d love to hear from you! Comment to let me know what surprised you the most about postpartum! If you like what you’ve read, please subscribe to receive updates when new posts come out!
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