Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Let’s Talk Bowels


One thing people tend to not talk about a lot after having a baby is your bowels. Specifically I’m talking about bowel movements. In my case the lack of movement in general that is taking place. Now I’m about to get real personal here with my bowel movements here so if this isn’t for you then stop reading now. No offense will be taken. Poop talk just isn’t for everyone, I get that...but if your a woman and you haven’t had a baby this might give you a little heads up. On the other side of the spectrum if you have had a baby then you might have experienced this too and can relate. 

I had our precious baby boy on February 15th via an emergency c section. However, I must say that I was in labor for almost 6 hours and I did dialate to 10 cm. The doctors did have me try to push for a minute to see if he was going to come out naturally but since he went into distress they made the decision he needed to come out ASAP. With all that said, I was already nervous bout the first bowel movement even before I went into labor. I knew that almost all hospitals require that you urinate and poop before they will discharge you. I knew that with pushing it could change the poop situation, however, with the c section I wasn’t for sure how much that was going to effect me in that department.

On the day of the c section they started me on stool softeners. I had to take two a day. Four days after having the c section, I still had not gone to the bathroom. The doctors and the nurses weren’t  concerned and all they wanted to know was if I was at least passing gas. Well I was passing gas but that was all that was moving. Finally I went to the bathroom and let me tell you I was scared to death. Having steri strips and a fresh incision, the last thing I wanted to do was grunt one out. Even with the stool softners it wasn’t pain free. It was painful and didn’t make me want to repeat it. I would sit there clutching my incision and praying that my grunting wasn’t going to pop me open (granted I’m sure it couldn’t). 

Days would go bye and nothing. I was a once/twice a day pooper and then to go once only every 4 days. Geez.... that’s rough people. So now I’m almost 5 weeks out post partum and I’ve just now started to be able to go without having to sit there and think about it and try to grunt one out. I’m also consuming about 90-100 ounces of water a day, eating tons of apples and trying to move around a little bit more. It’s noticeably helped and while it’s still been a little painful when I go the frequency of how many times I’m going is getting better. I’m about to every other day.

I know talking about poop isn’t glamourous but I’m just keeping it real and hey... it could mentally prepare someone if their going to have a c-section and go through something similar. 

1 comments:

Jenn @ West Sac Honey said...

Thanks for keeping it real - I am now scared to poop after a baby as well! :)