Looking for advice on C section recovery...can you help?

mamajanna28

I thought I would post here as I am pretty sure most of you have been through this before.  I had a c section on the 27th (10 days ago) and I am feeling pretty good.  I have been up and cleaning, taking care of the baby  on my own and driving since around day 5.  I do still have some pain in my incision but stopped taking the pain medications after day 6 as the pain was tolerable without it and I am breastfeeding.  I have gone for short walks and have been on my feet for long periods of time.  I am wanting to start taking short walks around the neighborhood with the baby in the stroller but am not sure if this is safe.  I googled this question and recieved a mixed bag of horror stories about incisions opening up and infection from being overly active.  I am 28 years old, in good health and have always recovered quickly from injuries and healed quickly from stitches in the past.  Am I risking reopening this incision if I start to try to get back to normal?  At this point it looks good and appears to be healing well. 

Luv4Minnesota

Go slow and you'll be fine.  Just listen to your body and don't push it.  You should have a 2 week check up coming up, right?  They'll look at the incision and be able to put your mind to ease as well. 

Best of luck with the rest of your recovery-sounds like you are doing great!

JaysonandKristin

IMHO you are already doing too much and the walks are only going to add to the stress you are putting on your body.  

You may feel great, you may recover in record time, but take it easy.  6 week pp rule of thumb is there for a reason.  Hygiene and baby care should really be the only things on your mind and schedule for now. 

I did NOTHING but sit for 3 weeks pp and I was still able to lose my 75lbs pregnancy weight within 6 months.  If you're bored, take up knitting or something else you can do while sitting.  Sit. Relax.  Take it easier... 

capulet

I went to the mall a couple of times with family in the first few weeks (flat, obviously), and looking back at my blog it looks like I was taking walks of a mile or two on mostly flat surfaces once or twice a day by about a month postpartum. I needed to do something to get out of the house!  I had an easy recovery so I wouldn't necessarily have recommended the same thing to anyone else, but after a couple of weeks I was able to take short walks and would probably have gone crazy if I didn't.

Brownie_222

I was taking some short, flat walks around the neighborhood by 10 days pp.  It actually really helped lift my spirits to get out and get some sunshine and not feel so housebound.  I would notice if I overdid it (i.e. walked up a too steep hill, did too much around the house, etc) because I would be sore.  If you are going slow and not pushing yourself, I think this mild exercise will do you good.

Just take it slow as PP have said and listen to your body. 

pinkmoonlight

JaysonandKristin:

IMHO you are already doing too much and the walks are only going to add to the stress you are putting on your body.  

You may feel great, you may recover in record time, but take it easy.  6 week pp rule of thumb is there for a reason.  Hygiene and baby care should really be the only things on your mind and schedule for now. 

I did NOTHING but sit for 3 weeks pp and I was still able to lose my 75lbs pregnancy weight within 6 months.  If you're bored, take up knitting or something else you can do while sitting.  Sit. Relax.  Take it easier... 

I totally agree with this. I too was much like you I did not need pain medication after 5-6 days. My pain was nothing a little Tylenol could not handle. While I felt great and wanted to get up and go, I knew way better then that. You just had MAJOR surgery, they cut you wide open down to your organs. I do not know about you but the fact of that scared me enough into listening to my doctor. I was terrified of pulling stitches, making my incision pull open and worse yet infection in which my incision would have been left wide open... So sit, rest, relax your body and baby need this from you more then anything else.

holly321

I too think it might be too much.  I didn't really do much at all for the first few weeks, but my ob said I was overdoing it just but looking at my staples.  And then at week 7 pp, I had to go back on restrictions that I been off for weeks, because I injured a muscle. 

octbride2006

It is great to be up and about.  But please take it easy.  Believe me, you don't want to put yourself at risk for infection or opening your incision.  Keep staying active, but really listen to your body. As PP said, you just had MAJOR surgery.  Take advantage and relax a bit while you can!  Best of luck!

roonarpia+1

I say just listen to your body.  Sometimes it is impossible for women to take it easy and their incisions are fine.  I will say though, after mine I could not take it easy and it took a really long time for my incision to heal.  It didn't reopen or anything like that, it just hurt for almost a year afterwards!