FTM questions for STM 8/6

cait5413

@MJDsquared You will be advised to avoid stairs for a while. I went up and down a couple times, but not every day. I would talk to your OB and consider getting stuff set up in your room upstairs and/or baby's room so you can stay put as much as possible. 

@yodalsgreen @flowerpower5838 is right--72 hours is the norm without complications. I checked out early because I was doing well and DH wanted us all to be home together. This time, I am not sure I will leave early--being able to have the nurses take the baby at night and bring her back when she needed to be fed allowed me to get a little more sleep. At the same time, I'm not sure I'll want to be away from DD for 3 nights. We'll see how it goes. Oh, I should mention DD was jaundiced when we left--I'm Rh negative and she's Rh positive, so she had a slight issue, but she never needed the bilirubin light and her jaundice levels continued to drop after we left; we just had to come in for a few more check-ups. If it had been a little more severe we would not have checked out early, though. 

threatlevelmidnight

darkfyre said:

kvacmak said:

@alyssaleighw @whiska
YES! You definitely can train for labor! Core and pelvic floor training are the cornerstones of pregnancy training, but just general strength training will have massive benefits. Oh and glutes.  Focus on ALL the glutes. Having strong glutes will help keep your pelvis well supported and open and balance your pelvic floor! 
I suggest following Brianna Battles, Jessie Mundell, Pregnancy Exercise, Julie Weibe on IG or FB if you want more info!
I also have a blog for my personal training stuff but I'm not sure I'm allowed to "self promote" here?

Yes! Along with this I would also work on baby's position. Long labors, especially long pushing stages are often caused by poor positioning. Check out spinningbabies.com for ways to get baby not just head down but optimally aligned. (I realize try are trying to sell video packages but if you can't /don't want to pay just be patient and work through the site. All the info is stil there you just need to find it) Also get upright in labor. The 'classic' position you see on TV actually makes it really hard to push out a baby. Long pushing is rough on the body but can usually be avoided by an active mother.

Yes to all of that! My baby was in the optimal birth position and my labor was short and smoothe. I squatted and he came out in one push lol. Nevertheless, my muscles were still sore for days from being tense. Lol

Tennis11785

Oh man, I didn't even think about the stairs and a possible c-section.  How long do you need to avoid stairs?

 I live in a 3 story townhouse.  You enter on floor 1, but there isn't much else there.  Main living and kitchen are on floor 2, and then bedrooms are on floor 3.  I can't imagine being confined to one floor all day.  I guess we'd adjust and make it work, but it will be a PITA.  

TigerCakes

@Tennis11785 I tried to avoid stairs as much as possible for a couple weeks.  I forgot to mention in my last post that I also have a set of stairs that you have to walk down into my house.  Since my son was in the NICU I did at least 2 flights per day. I slept upstairs so did that set daily and I went to the hospital daily so I also did the outside set.  As long as you take it slow you should be ok.  I was also adviced not to carry anything while going up or down the stairs during that time.  Since my son was in the NICU this wasn't too hard, but would probably be more difficult with a baby too.

tmk0325

Yes to everything @cait5413 said about the csection. You'll get a catheter and once that is out you are encouraged to try to walk and get in and out of bed. My worst pain was about a week or so after where anytime I tried to go from a laying to sitting/getting out of bed it felt like something was ripping on my right side. It had me in tears. It eventually went away... I had an easier recovery than most I'd say because I actually got to recovery without having to pick up the baby and do night feedings. My boys were in the nicu for 35 days so while they grew, I recovered. I did the standard 4 days in the hospital as well. 

elcd458

@YodaIsGreen  You definitely will be there more than 24 hours with a CS.  Many of the procedures required can't be/won't be performed until a CS baby is at least 24 hours old (hearing screening, car seat test, sometimes circumcision, etc.)