Welcome to the MamasteFit podcast. In today’s episode, Roxanne is going to be sharing how she is preparing for postpartum because she is super pregnant and has another month to go, ideally of her pregnancy, maybe longer. She’s going to be sharing how she is preparing for the postpartum period because this is a big question that a lot of folks have been asking us.
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Roxanne: Welcome to the MamasteFit podcast. Today on our episode will be discussing how I am preparing for the postpartum period for myself, baby, family, all of the things on how to prepare for this super great time. Postpartum.
Gina: So a lot of folks are pretty focused on preparing for birth. And so it’s like, what’s my birth plan? Or they’re getting like the nursery plan together. I think the only nursery I made was for my first, but a lot of us forget that there is this whole postpartum period that happens that we also need to be preparing for and it was something that I was not aware of before I had children.
So I apologize to all of my friends who had kids before me. I didn’t know what you needed from me. I wish you communicated it. Or maybe I should have researched it.
What are the top things that you're preparing for in the postpartum? What are your like big considerations that you're planning for?
Roxanne: Oh, gosh, yes. Because I was not prepared for postpartum at all. With my first I thought I was a labor and delivery nurse. I was a postpartum nurse for like a year. And I was like, I got this postpartum easy peasy. You have a baby and then you’re fine.
But it hit me like a train. Yeah, a train, a mack truck, all the things.
So my second time, I was definitely more deliberate. It was my postpartum prep and I need to be more deliberate with this prep because it just gets harder the more kids that there are while you’re trying to rest.
What's the first thing that you're thinking about when you think of preparing for postpartum?
Roxanne: So the first thing that I think of is planning who is going to do all of the things. So like it’s Important to.
I’m not doing anything. I’m laying in bed and feeding a baby and like just living, just trying to exist, while trying to nourish a small child.
But it’s like the house, like who’s going to make sure my house just doesn’t turn into a dumpster fire while I am laying in bed for the next 4 to 6 weeks?
Gina: Our mom. Yeah.
Roxanne: That’s my mother, not my, our mother. She’s not just mine, but during those 4 to 6 weeks, she is she is just my mom at that time.
But it’s like, who’s going to clean the house? Like, how what meals are we going to eat during postpartum?
Because it’s like the first 4 to 6 weeks. I’m not getting up and making a four course meal postpartum.
But like you can’t just not eat for 4 to 6 weeks. Like you need to have nourishment. So what are we going to eat?
And then picking the chores that are like most important to us to like, live in our house, like, can’t just let the garbage pile up like that. I always laugh when I see that TikTok videos of like, the wives, the garbage is like piled to the top of the ceiling and then they just come by and put their piece of garbage on the top because, like, we don’t take the garbage out.
That is their job. That’s their chore. They will take this garbage out. But that’s kind of an important like that needs to happen. Someone’s got to take the garbage out. So who’s going to do that?
If you really care about what your lawn looks like, who’s going to mow your lawn because you’re not going out there and mowing your lawn at four weeks postpartum?
Who’s going to do the laundry unless you just have 4 to 6 weeks worth of clothing for you and all of your family members? Someone has to do the laundry
Like the dishes. I mean, you can get paper plates in like “f” the environment and you know, it’s easy. Are you going to get paper plates? Are we going to do the like, who’s going to do the dishes?
So all of these things need to be determined who’s going to do that? Most of the time, it’s going to be your partner who takes the full load of household chores, whereas before you’re kind of splitting it, they now are probably going to be doing everything like who’s going to be vacuuming, who’s going to dust off? I don’t know if the the dusting is really number one priority.
But like, who’s going to do all of these things?
Do you hire a housekeeper? Like, do you hire someone to like clean your house for you because like maybe your spouse works or your partner’s working, so they’re not able to do a lot of these chores. So do you outsource these things? So that’s what like the first step is like deciding all of these things.
Gina: Sounds like the first thing that you’re focusing on with planning is household management.
Roxanne: Yes, because I’m not managing any household
Gina: and then figuring out what needs to be outsourced.
Roxanne: Yes, that’s number one. And I feel like we have a plan pretty well, a establish for that. Like we know we’re going to hire a landscaper and we’re going to have someone coming clean our house and my husband will just do the rest.
My mom will do the rest most likely. My mom will do a lot of it because my husband does have to eventually go back to work.
Gina: So that’s another consideration.
Do you have any sort of like family support that can come and help you or like friends or who is going to be a part of your postpartum support team? And for some of us, we don’t live anywhere near support or we maybe moved to a new area or like we don’t have family that lives nearby.
And so could a family member come and help you postpartum or like you’re really going to have to start letting go of some things. And then whether or not like you and your partner get any sort of maternity or paternity leave will also probably play a big role in like who is your support team after birth?
Because for my first baby, I had maternity leave because I was still in the army at the time and my husband was supposed to have paternity leave, but he got three days of his ten days, which I know for a lot of folks is already a lot.
And so it’s like, well, I should be grateful, but he was supposed to have ten full days, which was one supposed to help us like register our child into insurance and all the different military systems. And because he only got three days, one, I was healing pretty significantly from birth, like still bleeding like a good amount at the time that he went back to work.
And then I was just by myself with this baby trying to figure out like what to do. But I only had the one baby at that time. So if I had multiple children trying to navigate this, this would have been a little bit harder.
And so I think with my second, the thing that I was thinking about for postpartum prep was also the other children.
Yeah. That you now have to you can’t just lay in bed with your baby. You’ve got a toddler that you need to have not hurt themselves and be completely independent.
Roxanne: Just turn on Encanto. They’ll be Fine.
What are you doing to prepare Lily and Colin for the new baby?
Gina: And so sensory Ben’s was like really successful for us last year when Sophie was born. And there’s so many different bins out there and they vary in price too. But the main thing is it’s some sort of like textured filler, like colored rice or just plain rice. It could just be dirt, it could be kinetic sand, it can be water beads, Jell-O, not recommended.
Do not do Jell-O. You’ll see that on Instagram. Like, look at this really fun ocean sensory Ben with Jell-O and stopping you now and telling you it’s a horrible idea. It’s sticky, it’s hard to clean up. It gets in everything. Worst zero out of ten do not recommend like it takes.
Roxanne: Longer to clean up than the actual.
Roxanne: So siblings of the baby are very excited. I have learned Lily was very excited to be a big sister for Colin, which I was a bit surprised by because she was like two, but she wanted to hang out with Colin all the time, with me and Colin in the bed, unless she was entertained by other people.
So having somebody there to entertain Lily so that I was not entertaining a toddler while also being sleep deprived and nursing a baby was key.
So for Lily, Gina and her family were there for about a week and they took her to the aquarium and the children’s museum and they got her out of the house. And that was really exciting for her because she loves her cousins.
And then after that, my mom kind of took over, like taking care of Lily. So like she would take her to the museums or like play with her out in the living room
Then also getting specific things that they got. One, they got like a present from their new sibling of like brand new toys that they could play with and specifically like something that they were really wanting, but also like an open ended toy that would entertain them for long periods of time.
So I know with Sophie we bought like a ton of sensory bins for the kids and that like was a hit. And so with this one, we’re prepping by getting some sensory buttons because Colin loves sensory bins and Lily loves them. So we’ve ordered a few different types of sensory bins, and then we’ll also still get them like a toy that they’ve both been really wanting.
So it’s like, Oh, this new baby came in and our lives are a little bit different because mom is laying in bed all day with this baby. But I got this really cool toy from that baby, so I guess I’ll forgive them.
Sensory Bin Tips
Gina: And so sensory bin’s were really successful for us last year when Sophie was born. And there’s so many different bins out there and they vary in price too. But the main thing is it’s some sort of like textured filler, like colored rice or just plain rice. It could just be dirt, it could be kinetic sand, it can be water beads, Jell-O, not recommended.
Do not do Jell-O. You’ll see that on Instagram. Like, look at this really fun ocean sensory bin with Jell-O. I’m stopping you now and telling you it’s a horrible idea. It’s sticky, it’s hard to clean up. It gets in everything. Worst 0/10 do not recommend.
Roxanne: Longer to clean up than the actual play
Gina: Gelatin and Jell-O. Not my recs, but like rice, sand, beans like any sort of filler that they can scoop and pour into a cup or mold into something, Play-Doh. So think about like the bottom base of a sensory bin, the next thing you throw are some random animals or you make a theme from it.
So right now we have like a garden theme and a dinosaur theme set up at our house and it’s just like black and green rice with like some flowers, some pots and then some spoons and so, Eoghan takes it, and he pours it into the pot and he’s sticks some flowers in and then he gives them to me. So that’s like our garden bin. And then we have like a book that is themed to that bin.
And then we have a dinosaur, one that’s like dinosaur bones and sand and then they just sweep the sand.
So we’re thinking about different things that are going to evolve different like fine motor skills. Like pouring, tweezers.
You could either make your own bins by buying the filler and then the toys that go in it, but that requires planning. And so you have to think about what your themes are.
It also gets really expensive to buy all of the pieces because they don’t sell one dinosaur. It’s like 50 dinosaurs. So right now I have like to have 500 bees because I try to make a bee themed sensory event instead of buying the $30 bee bin.
Roxanne: There are businesses on Instagram that sell like sensory kits, [Mama of Joy is one we like] so you just buy like the bin and then they’ll send you the fillers. So like we’ve ordered from a bunch of different companies like the fillers, where it’ll come with the rice or the beans or whatever. Oh, they’ll tell you what to put as the base.
So like kinetic sand or whatever. And then they’ll give you like five cars, because you really don’t need more than like five cars. Or they’ll give you like the flowers or the pots or whatever. And that makes it a lot easier to just like throw them in the bin. They play with it and then you clean it up and put it away.
I will say I found that having the sensory beans in a either specific location that is easy to clean up makes it easier for everybody, or they have like blankets and like little like play area mats. That makes it really easy to clean up the sensory bins. So like we have the Rudie Nudie mat and then we got another one that I can’t remember the name of off the top of my head.
But that one has sides, so that one makes it really easy because I literally just pick it up and like pour it in. But the sides contain the mess.
Gina: So big things that we do for siblings of the baby as we get them, activities that are open ended that will entertain them for a period of time. Also, iPads, TV shows, screen time is okay, especially during the postpartum when trying to entertain your kids, having somebody that will take the kid to do activities, having your partner take the older kids to go do activities.
That was usually one of my husband’s tasks was to entertain my older children so that I could just focus on baby as well.
Meal Planning
Gina: Now, the other thing that I was looking at, when I am prepared for postpartum, so I’m pretty sure you do too is meals, meal planning for the postpartum. And now you can make a bunch of freezer meals ahead of time.
Fed and Fit has a really great postpartum freezer plan that you can grab and it I think it lists it all out for you.
Roxanne: Yeah. With like ingredients and everything.
Gina: So you could either prep them yourself.
You could have like I saw people that do like a baby shower that is themed for postpartum food prep instead of playing like is this diaper poop or candy? You play can you bake this chicken for me and put it in the freezer? So I did see that, which I thought was pretty cool.
And then so that could be an option. Instead of having like a traditional baby shower, especially for postpartum prep.
Roxanne: Second, third baby idea for the Baby shower.
Gina: Yeah. After you give birth, you can do meal trains. And that’s like a free website where folks sign up to bring meals to you.
Roxanne: Especially if you have a large support system like in the location that you’re at. So like you have lots of friends or family who can bring you freshly cooked meals.
Gina: The other option, if you have family members or friends that live really far away and it’s this is not realistic for them to fly all the way to you to cook a meal is you can have them send like DoorDash or like meal gift cards. So whatever your kind of food delivery services, they can buy you gift cards for that.
For us locally we have spoon lickers catering that does home cooked meals delivered to your door. And so usually a popular thing for us in the gym is folks will buy gift cards to spoon lickers because it’s like really high quality food, local foods made by professional chefs and they just give them to you at your doorstep, which is like crucial for me.
So meals is a big, big thing.
The other thing that you consider looking at is there are some like postpartum doulas that will cook meals for you. Like that’s a part of their role is cooking. So I only did one postpartum doula support and part of my role was I made like little lactation balls for her and some meals.
So that could also be an option available to you as well.
So figuring out nourishment, postpartum is like a huge, huge deal because it can really support your healing. It can really support you postpartum like just long term, as well as how well you were kind of nourishing yourself in that postpartum period because there is so much depletion that happens from all the blood loss that happens like the normal blood loss during birth.
And so kind of reinvigorating yourself and then breastfeeding is like a lot of calories. Every time I go to the pediatrician, he continues to tell me to eat a sundae and eat brownies and stuff. And I’m like, I understand that you’re telling me to eat more calories, but I could also eat foods that are like really nourishing for me.
In addition to my dozen s’mores cookies and I’m getting from for Alyssa [Ginger & Thyme], I’m really excited to have those things on order.
So yeah, meals huge postpartum figure out a plan for that. Like my husband really likes cooking. And so that was like a big role that he assumed. He had too many things to do to support postpartum that he couldn’t cooked every single meal for me.
Roxanne: He did just want to cook you every meal.
Gina: He did, but he had a lot of things to do.
Older Children Weekly Activities/Classes (Pets)
Gina: Another thing to consider is who is taking anybody to any sort of requirements like appointments, who’s taking the kids to school? Who’s taking them to their activities? Who’s walking the dog? So kind of like the daily or weekly schedule, who’s kind of assigned to do what and what things are we not going to go to?
Roxanne: Yes, especially like we have school aged kids now. Well, I guess like preschool still counts. So both my kids are going to preschool slash toddler group that they need to go to starting in September when I’m going to be either 0 to 2 weeks postpartum and will not be taking them myself, if I do, they’re just not going to school that day.
So who will be taking them and then like figuring out will it be easier if Gina’s kids will get dropped off at the same time?
So that is one thing that we’re figuring out right now is like coordinating activities that the kids are a part of and who will be taking them.
So like we go to swim lessons up in Cary once a week. I obviously will not be going to swim lessons with my two year old when I am still bleeding and also like immediately postpartum. So will my husband be able to take all of his paternity leave and will he be the one taking the kids to the swimming lessons or will potentially somebody else be taking them?
So that’s another thing that we’re figuring out right now is like, I guess child care and drop offs.
What about the appointments that you have to go to? What is your plan for when you have to leave the house?
Roxanne: So like, you know, kind of like when you’re going to be going to appointments most likely for, like baby has set the times when they need to go to the pediatrician, and then I’ll have set times that I need to go to postpartum appointments, but also like postpartum massage, treat myself. I just had a baby. The chiropractor.
Usually my kids have, both had, tongue tie issues and feeding issues. So I am going to proactively know that I’m going to need like a chiropractic visit for my kids and like cranial sacral work for the kids and like finding someone to do a tongue tie release most likely. So these are all appointments that I’m thinking about of like, okay, who’s going to watch my other children for these appointments?
And then like kind of an idea of when I would need to go to them and is someone going to come with me to help me during these appointments?
Because usually they’re before that 4 to 6 weeks healing time because I’m not waiting three months like I did before to get a tongue tie released. If you’ve had a tongue tie, baby, you know.
Support Garments
Gina: So other thing that I was considering, are the things that only I could do, like it’s really hard for someone else to take the baby to the pediatrician without the person that is breastfeeding them.
I would wear supportive garments. So having a belly band already prepped, having the Baobei bloomers prepped, anything that’s going to provide some support for like your perineum. So like Mama Strut has a really great like belly band support perineal support device. I tend to prefer the belly bands of supportive devices that have that perineal support as well, not just the belly support.
Sometimes we make the belly bands too tight and it can cause a lot of extra downward pressure on the pelvic floor.
So if you’re using any sort of like supportive device, we want to make sure that the band is not so tight, that it’s restricting your breathing and potentially looking at getting a supportive device that has more of that perineal support, like the Baobei bloomers, Mama Strut has some perineal support as well.
So any time that I had to leave my house, I was making sure that I was wearing clothing that was going to be supportive for me to kind of take away any sort of like damage that I could be causing. So what things are you preparing postpartum.
Roxanne: So items for myself that I am preparing. I already have the Baobei bloomers, so I have two of them to help me for postpartum.
Gina: Before you before you move on from the Baobei bloomers, we get the question a lot where folks are like, well, how many do I need to buy because they’re not cheap. So I would say you only need one or two because you wear diapers.
Roxanne: Yeah, you just wear them over the diapers.
Gina: You wear them over whatever it is that you’re wearing. So they’re not like your underwear. You don’t need seven.
Roxanne: But you don’t need seven unless like you are like bleeding so heavily that you’re like bleeding through your disposable underwear.
But if that is the case, you need to go back to the hospital because you should not be soaking through an adult disposable underwear. That thing is huge. If you are soaking through that, please go to the hospital.
But yes, you do just need like one, or two for when you’re doing laundry, but you’re not wearing these like support garments when you’re laying in bed. You’re really only needing to wear them when you get out of the bed or when you’re going out of the house somewhere just for that external support.
Postpartum Supplies
Roxanne: Obviously we talked about the disposable underwear, I think I used the Amazon brand disposable underwear. And then or this one, I got the Rael.
Gina: Baobei gifted it last time. The disposable underwear diapers, they’re so much easier than a pad. The pads get all bunched up and there’s like you’re getting like a pad wedgie.
Roxanne: Your mesh underwear just gets all crazy. And, like, it’s just so much easier to just put on some diapers.
Gina: Just match your baby.
Roxanne: Just to put the diapers on, bring them to the hospital because the hospital doesn’t always have the diapers to give you. So I will pack probably a couple of them in my hospital bag as well, because those first couple of days is when your bleeding is the heaviest. So having those disposable diapers is just so much easier to just throw those on.
And then when you put an ice pack in there for the first 24 hours, I put an ice pack in the disposable diaper. It actually holds some pressure where the ice pack is actually touching your perineum and doing the work of an ice pack. Whereas with those mesh underwear, I felt like I had to pull them to my nipples to like actually get any sort of pressure when I wasn’t laying in bed.
So pack those with you, but get them also. You don’t need like 17 packs of them. I think I’ll have like two.
Gina: Yeah, I think I made it through like one and a half.
Roxanne: Yeah, that’s really all. That’s all you need because after when your bleeding slows down, then you can just start wearing a pad with, like, comfortable underwear during the day. And then at nighttime is when I would just wear the underwear, the disposable diapers, because they’re just easier to deal with at nighttime. So pads, bloomers, disposable underwear, some perineal spray is nice.
Gina: A Peri-bottle.
Roxanne: The Peri-bottles, you’ll get ones at the hospital or the birth center. And I think most home birth kids come with like that regular Peri-bottle there, too. Those are trash.
Gina: You want the one with the handle that goes under!
Roxanne: It’s so hard. When you’re already, like, sore to be like, how do I use this Peri-bottle to get it at the perfect angle to hit the actual perineum! So getting those ones with the little like angles…money.
Gina: I find the perineal spray is better than the balms at first because everything’s very sensitive. I thought the balms were helpful when I had stitches after about like a week or two, and the stitches were healing and itchy, the balm was nice because it kind of moisturize the area. But initially I found the spray to be much more comfortable because there’s a lot going on down there
Roxanne: And it smells nice, the sprays will smell nice and you feel less just gross.
Gina: If you did get stitches, though, Derma-Plast is fantastic. It’s a numbing spray or epi-foam. Usually you could get epi-foam at your hospital, which that was like a game changer for me.
Roxanne: So hospitals would either have one or the other, so they either have epi-foam or they’ll have derma-plast both of them do the same exact thing. They’re like a numbing agent. They don’t recommend spraying directly onto your perineum.
You put them on them on the pad and then apply. Do not use it with ice packs.
Gina: And ice packs, You don’t need beyond like 24 hours postpartum. You don’t need to make like 75 padsicles, you probably don’t need any padsicles if you’re using like a perineal spray, just an ice pack is fine. They also have some like reusable ice packs that you can then use for like engorgement to help with managing that as well.
Baobei has a really nice reusable freezer pack that actually fit into the bloomers, which is what I use. So I’d wear the diaper, you put your spray directly on the diaper and then the ice pack fit into the bloomers that sat up against the perineum to kind of cool it. But I only used it for about the first day.
Roxanne: Really only beneficial for the first 24 hours. Maybe if you had like pretty severe swelling and trauma for the first 48 hours to kind of help. But after that, it’s really not beneficial and it potentially could hinder healing as well if you use prolonged ice because it decreases the amount of blood flow that’s going to that area. But we do want some blood flow going to that area to actually heal the trauma that has occurred.
So if you’re not delivering at home, I would say you don’t need padsicles. And I mean, they just feel weird, like wonder like this frozen block that eventually thaws out and then you just feel really like wet.
Gina: Yeah. Not our recommendation. Yeah.
Roxanne: Some people love them.
Gina: Perineal spray would be my recommendation.
What are you doing to prepare for breastfeeding?
Gina: Because I know for you breastfeeding is a little bit more of a challenge initially.
So for my first I had a lot of like clogged duct issues, which I think was related to her latch. And then I also had damaged nipples initially because of like a poor latch to begin with, which I think was more related to just like the trauma of birth.
Like she just had a lot of jaw and head and neck tension. And so once we got an adjustment, everything was like, fantastic, but I pushed for 2 hours. With her hand by her face. So lots of lots of trauma to the jaw.
And so because I had so many like clogged duct and nipple pain issues, I was like overly prepared for my second and then for my third where I had all the clogged up tinctures and the sunflower lecitin.
And I had silverettes and I had all of these gel pads to soothe my nipples and nipple balms. And I used none of them except for the silverettes. I did use the silverettes, but everything else, I never needed because Eoghan had a fantastic latch. And Sophie also has did. The two of them just fell out. So it was a much different breastfeeding journey.
But I had prepared all this stuff because I was like, You know what? I don’t want to be up at 2 a.m. in pain and I’d rather have some things to help me. And this was a problem that I had.
I really like the Motherlove nipple balm was really nice for me. I liked having happy duct’s tincture available and then I liked the Silverettes for to help with healing. Silver does have a lot of healing properties and so can heal like damaged nipples, which is super beneficial. Also holds a little bit of breast milk, which is also healing as well. And so those were like the things that I was like specifically preparing for the postpartum in case breastfeeding was a little bit more challenging because clogged ducts were like really painful for me and could develop into mastitis, which is an infection.
And so I had prepped all this stuff, I didn’t need any of it, but I prepped it again for my third in preparation for potential issues with breastfeeding.
What did you prepare that's different?
Roxanne: So I just really used the silverettes. I didn’t like the nipple balm because it like kind of like got clumpy and then like you had to wipe it off before nursing your baby. For a lot of them, they have like stuff within the nipple balm, they say that you’re not supposed to let your baby nurse immediately after putting on the balms.
So I use like coconut oil, really with my first and second, when I needed it for like nipple damage but mostly was using the silverettes and then doing like Epsom salt soaks.
So I would get like a little shot glass, fill it up with like a little bit of Epsom salt and some warm water and just do like 5 to 10 minutes. So I’m not like holding my nipple over a warm bowl. It just like you put the shot glass on and you can like walk around and do stuff.
So I’ll have like some Epsom salt ready just in case, I already have coconut oil, and then silverettes, literally magic in little cups. Magical.
Gina: Every person that I gift them to, they just they just text me. “This is magic.”
Roxanne: Like the soreness after, like Colin I didn’t have like a ton of damage at all really. Like, I think he had like one bad latch and then it was fine. He never had like an issue with latching. It was just like reflux and side tangent of issues.
But with Lily, I had just like damaged and they’re probably still just like scarred from, from the damage.
So I just lived in the silverettes, but I’m also like a leaker. I leak milk everywhere. And the silverettes do not do a great job of preventing the milk from leaking because it’s just a silver cup over your nipples. So it just leaks everywhere outside of the cup. So I have ordered nipple pads or milk pads pretty much.
I’ve tried every reusable pad, every like washable pad out there and some of them are good like for like a couple hours and like they’ll stay put. Some of them like moved like terribly and like literally like when you put a pad on and it’s like not sticky anymore and like moves out of your underwear and it’s just like, now it’s a waste.
Some of the nipple pads out there are just garbage. But I learned that reusable ones for myself. I leak too much milk for them. They fill up within an hour and then I had to change them out. And then I ran out of reusable pads over time. So disposable bamboobies. The only thing that works for me, I literally had 15 of them within my diaper bag at all times, in my purse, I had them in my back pockets.
Everywhere I went, there was a bamboobie pad, a nursing pad, because I leaked everywhere, but I couldn’t not leak because then my bra would stick to my damaged nipples and then that would just prolong the healing. So I had to continue to wear the silverettes so that my nipples wouldn’t stick to my bras, but then I was then leaking milk everywhere.
So that was a long tangent to say silverettes, bamboobies nursing disposable pads (sorry environment), coconut oil, and then having a lactation consultant.
So with Colin, I didn’t, I could not find a lactation consultant that would see me or respond back to my emails. And with Lily I had a friend who was a lactation consultant and then we have some here.
So like I had that resource for Lily, but I did not have it for Colin, which made it really hard to address all of his issues with nursing.
So having a lactation consultant available, that you trust and know that they’re good, plus all of those items.
I never really had a ton of issues with clogged ducts, so the tinctures I would take them, but I would still get a clogged duct if I was taking them. So I’m like, I don’t think this is doing anything.
Gina: It’s all about milk removal and the clothing. The clothing that you wear. So that’s a big thing that I prepared postpartum was my my nursing clothing because I am just going to live in a bra. And so Bodily has a really wonderful bra, Everything bra, that is I think is developed by a lactation consultant. It doesn’t dig in at all because sometimes when you get clogged, that’s in like the armpit, like side boob area and it’s because your bras are too tight and they’re cutting off like circulation to a milk duct.
And so it’s getting clogged. And so it’s really important that the bras that you’re wearing are not like compressing your boobs at all. And so Bodily everything bra is really nice. It’s not compressing at all.
It’s not great for me as like an all the time bras. I really like Baobei Bralettes a lot for like my every day bras and is typically the one that I’m sleeping in now.
But Bodily was really nice early postpartum for me, like the first month when I was sleeping because it was just so not compressive at all.
Baobei’s I don’t feel like cinches off anything.
The nice thing about the Everything Bra from Bodily, is it’s a clasp once you unclasp and then it’s like whole boob hanging out, which is really nice when you’re trying to get this newborn to figure things out.
While Baobei bralette is a pulled down one, which I feel is like has more longevity to it because it’s like cuter.
So those are like the two bras that I was primarily wearing in my early postpartum and Baobei’s bralette is what I continue to wear postpartum like when I’m sleeping and sometimes for workouts, usually isn’t a great workout bra. You want to wear like an actual sports bra for workouts, but those are the two bras that like I definitely had on deck to support early postpartum and breastfeeding because you want to make sure that there’s not compression against your boobs at all because it just causes a lot of issues.
Roxanne: So I definitely have all of my bodily bras ready and pulled out of the drawers because I did. I loved them for the first like six weeks postpartum, but I am not like Gina where I need to wear a compressive bra all the time. I honestly would just not wear a bra if I had the choice. But again, I leak milk everywhere so I need to have something.
Gina: I wear bras all the time. Probably not great for my lymphatic flow.
Roxanne: I think they say that like yeah. I think they said bras can lead to dysfunction but it’s fine.
Gina: Whatever. I like the support.
Roxanne: I like being free, personally.
Gina: If you’re into the free the Nip movement, you’ll probably really like the Everything Bra because it is very like freeing, but it still provides some coverage.
While I prefer Baobei’s bralette because it does provide a little bit more support and that’s usually when I sleep in, I don’t sleep braless. It’s you know, I just accept the repercussions.
Roxanne: But those are good ones. I forgot about bras.
I’m going to get a robe. I have a robe already, but I’m going to like treat myself to a new robe postpartum because literally all you wear is a bra and underwear, like, I’m not putting on like the dress. I’m not trying to put on like pants.
I mean, some people are, but I’m not trying to put on pants. So I’m wearing the bloomers with my disposable diaper and a bra, like not even putting on a shirt. That’s just extra stuff that I have to take on, juggle with. Like there are shirts out there that are like the full length shirts if you need the coverage of your belly.
But honestly, I just like laid in bed in a robe and a bra and that’s what I will. That is my uniform. For the first 4 to 6 weeks.
Gina: I did find that when I gave birth in the hospital, I did like the nursing tank tops because there was like a constant flow of people into the room. And just from my own, like privacy, I found I was more comfortable having my belly covered with, like, a tank top. When like these randos came into the room, I felt like there was like some random person who’s like, we just want to come in and Congratulate you with this onesie.
Roxanne: One’s your husband’s commander is here, and I’m like, All right
Gina: So I found tank tops or the nursing tank tops to be really nice for the hospital. In addition to slippers, and a robe were like, Awesome.
Yeah. When I was home, I was just in a bra because it was my house and nobody’s come in my house unless I let them.
Roxanne: Yeah. So bras. I got my Bodily bras, my Baobei bras. I need to get a robe still, but then I have my bloomers, so I’m set for that.
For breastfeeding, other than that, I probably will get a new hand pump because these hand pumps, you just lose so easily. You’re like, Oh, it’s like 20 bucks. It’s fine.
But when I’m engorged, sometimes that can affect a baby’s latch. I make a ton of milk, which is probably why I also leak milk. It just keeps coming out. I can’t stop it. It’s a water faucet, but by pumping it can decrease the amount of pressure there is on the breast tissue that the baby’s able to latch on to.
So I did usually try to pump a little bit prior to them being able to latch. So that would lead to a better latch for my baby
Gina: Baby is essentially massaging the breast to get milk out. But if it’s like a rock from engorgement, it’s really hard for them to do that. And then you just get more engorged because baby can’t remove milk well, or they’re only able to grab like the nipple, which we want them to grab like boob as they are massaging it out.
And so I also found that really helpful. So you just pump like a little bit for like a minute just until my breast was soft and then I would latch baby. And that was like a really helpful thing for me.
Roxanne: So I think I use like the Medela hand pump is my favorite and then the Haakaa. So there’s a Hakka and then they just came out with the Ladybug.
Gina: The ladybugs are really good milk catcher. Yeah.
Roxanne: The Ladybug. I probably will use a lot this time because I had milk catchers with previous ones, but I didn’t have the ladybug and they like they were okay. The other ones were okay, but the ladybug looks like it’s just a little bit more my style, so I’m really excited to get that. But the Haakaa was great because when I would have my midnight feeds, my other side was just spraying milk everywhere.
Gina: Might as well catch it.
Roxanne: Might as well save it. So we have a little mini fridge. We won it in a Christmas game, I think our family did that mitten Christmas game where you had to like unwrap the present while you had oven mitts on and my husband and I won a little mini fridge. It’s currently our daughter’s like chocolate milk fridge that she puts it in.
But I had that at my bedside for both postpartums and whatever milk I would catch in the middle of the night, I didn’t have to get up out of bed to go put it in the fridge. I would just put it in a bag and then put the bag in the little mini fridge. So it’s a great way to like stock up on milk.
Not that my son drank any of the milk because he refused to take bottles, but it was there. I saved it, instead of it falling into a towel.
But it was really great with Lily because I did eventually have to bottle feed her for a little bit because my nipple damage was so bad. So I highly recommend if you are a leaker, like getting a little fridge for the bedside, you can also put snacks in there.
So I would probably put snacks in there for the middle of the night when I’m really hungry and I just want a perfect bar.
Review
Gina: So for the postpartum period kind of like our big recommendations is have a plan for the household so what chores need to be done who is going to do those chores in addition to what kind of outside the house activities do you have?
Like appointments, things for the older kids who’s walking the dog and kind of assigning those tasks to people knowing when to outsource and then also knowing like what to let go of. Like, Okay, we’re not going to do dishes because we’re just going to use paper plates the whole time. Sorry, environment. The next thing to consider is what kind of items are you going to prep for your healing journey?
So what’s going to help you with healing? Such as? Like are you going to invest in some disposable underwear, invest in some like perineal and belly support devices? What kind of clothes you can wear? So like nursing bras, robe, slippers, things like that, so that you can be comfortable. Postpartum will be really important. We want to think about can we do activities for the older kids?
And so for us, the big thing is setting up activities ahead of time for the older children so that they can be entertained and make it a little bit easier on the folks that become their primary caregiver. Because for us, Roxanne and I are the primary caregivers for our children because our husbands work full time outside the home and we work in the home and so we’re primarily looking after the kids.
And so ensuring that whoever is doing that knows what the activities are and then having these activities for the kids be open ended to occupy them for a prolonged period of time. And then also like screen time, movies, things like that can be really helpful during this time frame as well. And then the other thing that really consider is meals.
So we want to nurse ourselves postpartum. So either prepping a lot of meals beforehand, you can have a party where you’re prepping meals like together at your baby shower meal trains or like gift cards for like food that can be delivered or maybe even have like a local business that like delivers hot meals to your door. There probably is one somewhere around you and there are some that you can like order meals to your door and then you just hit them up in the microwave.
They’re not as good as SpoonLickers is for us, but it’s an option if you don’t have like a catering company that provides that service for you.
IG Q+A
How do you prep for the sleep deprivation?
Roxanne: The sleep deprivation can really make postpartum pretty hard because baby is waking up every 2 to 3 hours to eat. And then also you were like probably slightly sleep deprived from labor. So you’re already starting postpartum like in the negative usually for sleep, unless you’re like Gina and you wake up in labor and you have your baby before it’s bedtime.
But I found that having somebody kind of assigned to watch the baby that you trusted, to watch them and like take care of their needs and not, like, neglect the child while you took a nap and like an uninterrupted nap was super helpful. So, like, with Lily, Gina would take her, like I would nurse her and then, like, if she didn’t fall asleep immediately or even if she did fall asleep, they would Gina or my mom would take her for the 2 to 3 hours stretch so that I could have just like uninterrupted sleep.
Because that’s the hard part, is that when you put the baby in the bassinet, if you are not co-sleeping or you put the baby in the crib, wherever they’re sleeping, after you nurse them or feed them the bottle, and then you go to lay down. I felt that I found myself still waking up to be like, are they still okay?
Because no one was watching them while I was sleeping. So by having somebody there to actually watch them, especially during the day, made the biggest difference for me to catch up on sleep.
Gina: The Thing that I found most helpful, and it doesn’t work for every family, is we bed share so baby sleeps in bed with me and I found that that is like the only thing that I can do to still have like a normal-ish sleep during the night. And it, it made a big difference for me.
So my first we did like the bassinet next to the bed and I was like super sleep deprived, pretty much like hallucinating because I would wake up to nurse her and then it would take me a really long time to get her to go back in the bassinet. And then she would wake up like a half hour later. And so I was like not doing well, yeah. And once we brought her into bed with us, it was like a game changer for my sleep.
And you have to set up your bed to be safe for you to be in it with baby and there’s a lot of different things to consider for that.
And then for my next two, we started with bed sharing. From day one, I felt like it made a huge difference with my sleep. I don’t feel sleep deprived. You’re only so rested because you are waking up frequently throughout the night. But it was a lot better than when I had to get out of bed, nurse baby, put baby back to sleep and then come back.
Other things that you can do is you can pump milk during the day and you could do shifts with your partner. And so like like a certain portion of those shift, your partner can be in charge of tending to baby and they could feed baby the bottled milk. And then another part of the shift, you wake up and so you can kind of do that with your partner to figure out different ways.
You can also get like a night nanny or like a postpartum doula that helps you with stuff at night as well. It is usually a little bit more expensive, but if sleep is like really hard for you at this point, that can be a really good option. As well.
Roxanne: And with sleep deprivation, it has been shown that like if you are sleep deprived and you are not getting adequate sleep and rest, this can increase your risk of developing postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety because your brain needs rest for it to fully recover. And when you are constantly stressing your body and your brain from lack of sleep, eventually your like stress response will kind of take over your brain, which can increase that risk of postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety.
So sleep can be such a game changer for postpartum, if you can figure out what works for you, whether having someone watch the baby while you take naps during the day and then doing shifts at night with your partner or bed sharing whatever way that you’re able to, that like well-rested sleep. Those are our tips.
What are must have items and tools for postpartum?
Roxanne: We already kind of like discussed it in the whole podcast. But just to summarize sort of disposable diapers we find is most important, some perineal spray if you’re having vaginal birth or if you’re laboring, because that can really help with just healing of that tissue. Some people like the balms.
Peribottle.
We find having the perineal support garments whether Mamastrut or Baobei bloomers, and a robe
Having on hand things to deal with like postpartum discomfort. So like if you have perineal spray or perineal tears having like that numbing spray on hand, ice packs on hand if you have hemorrhoids, getting those tucks pads or witch hazel pads or getting like medicine from your provider, whether it be dibucaine cream or there’s like these suppositories that are just like money.
Gina: The other thing for postpartum prep is to set things up in the places you’ll need them. So the basket in the bathroom with all of the bathroom supplies is really helpful. I had a basket by my bed with all like my breastfeeding supplies and like extra clothes and stuff for me and for baby. The baby blankets were really nice because they clean up everything.
I’m 12 days postpartum and I feel great. Should I still be taking it easy for X amount of days or weeks?
Gina: So we did a whole episode on postpartum return, a fitness timeline, and the first like 4 to 6 weeks postpartum is definitely on the slow side. Now, once you hit about like 10 to 15 days, you can definitely go for like easy walks and things like that.
You don’t have to just like lay immobile in bed. And the early postpartum recovery course that we have that is free, you can join in. We kind of guide you through the first four weeks of breathing, mobility, some gentle core exercises and help guide you on like when and how to like begin the return to fitness. And so the big thing that I would say to kind of gauge whether you’re doing too much or too little, usually it’s too much is the direction that we’re heading is you have an increase in bleeding.
So your bleeding has kind of dropped a lot and then you have like a bunch of clots. That’s usually a sign that we may be doing too much activity. And so if as you increase your daily activity, if you notice, oh, I’m not bleeding any more, you probably are at a good level. But if you notice an increase, then we need to kind of bring it back just a little bit.
And usually around like the 10 to 15 day timeframe, you can start increasing activity a little bit more.
Now when your bleeding has stopped, which is usually anywhere from 4 to 10 weeks postpartum, that would be like a good time to like return to fitness or return to structured activity, like going back to the gym. And then again, when you go back to the gym, it’s not like go for PRs or do a five mile run.
Do some breathing and some gentle movements. And again, we guide you through that with our postpartum return to fitness programs, if that is something that you’re really interested in. But take your time postpartum, but you don’t have to be immobile by any means. Use your bleeding as kind of a gauge.
Around 7 to 10 days, your placental scab detaches and you might have like increased bleeding for a few hours. That’s pretty normal and it should go back down if it sustains like more bleeding that you’re probably doing too much activity.
Roxanne: Another thing to look for if you’re doing too much. So vaginal bleeding is like probably the best indicator of it because it’ll also change usually in color. So if you’re having like that brown or like dark red bleeding and all of a sudden now it’s that bright red bleeding again, that is a great indicator.
But also like how your body feels, you almost might start to feel body aches again, like you have like the flu or something because your body is not rested. That’s your body telling you like you need to slow down.
Also, vaginal heaviness or perineal heaviness, you might start to feel like something is falling out because your pelvic floor is tired from of the activity that you are doing. So you might start to have vaginal heaviness all of a sudden out of nowhere. And that is a sign that, again, you’re probably doing too much, too soon.
So those are the three things that I normally will tell people. Either the vaginal bleeding has increased, you’re having vaginal heaviness or your body is like aching.
Gina: And pelvic floor heaviness does not mean an organ is falling out of your body or organs do sit lower after birth just from birth. And they should kind of lift back up over time if were resting. And again, it is planned trauma to the pelvic floor. And so we do need to give it the opportunity to heal by resting.
And so the heaviness that you’re usually feeling is not usually an organ, it’s typically pelvic floor tension. And so if you’re feeling a lot of pelvic tension, one, you could be doing too much. We might need to just look at kind of our positioning, maybe increase mobility. Sometimes we’re stuck in a position for too long and is causing that heaviness.
Feeling thinking about your breathing can be really helpful.
Elevating legs or the hips can mean other great ways to take some of the gravity off of your feet.
And there’s a lot of stuff that you can do early postpartum.
And then you can also work with a pelvic floor physical therapist. Now they’re not going to probably be able to schedule an appointment right away. They’re probably not going to do internal work before you get cleared, but you can connect with some of them, like virtually potentially, so that you can start getting some things to do because the 4 to 6 week timeframe is too long to do nothing to like wait to do rehabilitation.
But it’s also too short to like jump back to the gym right away too. So we do want to kind of integrate some of that, like rehab work. And if you want, like a guidfe, like a very gentle gentle guide, we have our early postpartum recovery course that is free for you. Where we kind of guide you through those first four weeks.
How to treat postpartum hemorrhoids?
Roxanne: And I only picked this one because it is probably the most common question we get about postpartum is what the heck do you do with these hemorrhoids? It’s very common to occur during postpartum. I had it with my first. I’m going to assume Gina had it with her first. I don’t actually know. And I didn’t really have it with my second, but I pushed for Like 2 seconds.
But with my first I had them real bad because I was probably like trying not to have a baby on the way to the hospital, which made it worse. But I did the witch hazel pads were amazing. Using ice packs on your hemorrhoids is really great. I did not find the dibucaine cream to do anything, but if you are that person who tried the cream and it worked great, good for you.
But the suppositories life changing. Life changing. Because with the hemorrhoids, the reason that they’re so uncomfortable is that it’s the itching and the increased swelling. So finding things that can decrease the swelling, like with the witch hazel, and the suppositories, or that cream can be really, really, really helpful.
Also, sitz baths, we didn’t really talk about sitz baths at all, but they’re great for postpartum. But also for postpartum hemorrhoids. So if you have a laceration or just had a baby, honestly, a sitz bath would be really, really nice if you can do one. Some hospitals will just do them for you. Just automatically at like 5 or 6 hours postpartum or you can do them on your own.
When you get home, you just fill up the tub like a couple of inches with warm water. You can add some herbs in there if you want. You can add some Epsom salts if you want, but really the warm water is what is the biggest benefit in that just helps with like soothing and comfort especially like with hemorrhoids can be really, really, really nice.
So sitz baths, they sell ones that you can just like put on the toilet or you can do them in the tub.
Conclusion
Gina: So there’s a lot to do to prepare for postpartum. It probably feels a little overwhelming after listening.
So what can we do to prepare for the postpartum? Because it is something that we do want to consider is not just birth planning, it’s not just make your nursery beautiful. I’m sure many of you have a gorgeous nursery, that I hope you actually use because I do not use mine at all.
So what can we do to prepare for the postpartum period? And so we want to start thinking about how we can support ourselves after we give birth to our baby so we can focus just on our own healing and on our baby. And so we want to think about what are people that are supporting us, who are those people even going to be in?
What are those people going to be able to do for us? What type of household tasks do we need to accomplish versus what household tasks are we going to kind of let go of? Who’s watching older children? How are we entertaining those older children? Is somebody completely in charge of that child or are we kind of like juggling them with other people Also Pets, too.
What kind of items can we prep to make our postpartum healing a little bit easier and then prepping those items in the places that you will need them is like a big game changer as well. And you may find that you don’t use everything that you buy or you may find that you need something else and that’s okay. Amazon Prime, fantastic.
I’m sure there is a study somewhere of who just had a baby and when most of their purchases are and it’s probably 2 a.m. when they’re like in the throes of motherhood.
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