1 Year Postpartum Check In - Sivan
12.03.19

1 Year Postpartum Check in

Well well well…I made it to the 1 year mark postpartum (about 2 months ago) and I thought some of you might be interested in my recent experiences now that I am a full year out. Honestly I was waiting for a lot of shit to hit the fan from the moment I came home from the hospital since that’s all I ever heard, but was pleasantly surprised that almost none of it happened? I mean…I’ll take it, right? Who wants to deal with PP hair loss, bleeding, pain, etc. I give my body a lot of credit though, I felt great pretty quickly after birth and my overall physique was in good shape, too.

I would say I had an above-average PP recovery if we are being perfectly honest here. I attribute A LOT of it to one crucial thing: sleep. I got lots of it thanks to our night nurse and also the fact that I was blessed with a baby who loves to sleep. It also helps that Paul / Richard implemented a feeding and sleeping schedule from the moment we got home so things were kept pretty planned out and organized. Basically we just always knew what to expect and never really went through the whole “once you get into a new routine things change and it’s all out the window” thing. THAT’s the beauty of a scheduled baby, but to each his / her own.

Anyway, back to me and my PP recovery. So everything was pretty standard straight after – I went into a whole blog post about it if you want to read about shit that I already forgot about (ie: the immense night sweats I endured for like 4 whole weeks!). I’d say around month 9 PP is when I really started to see my body look like it’s pre-baby self again, width-wise. My hips were just wider from pregnancy and childbirth and it took 9 months before I was back in my pre-baby jeans comfortably. As in, could wear them AND sit down without unbuttoning the waistband.

Around month 10/11 PP I started noticing either the new hair growth or loss at my hairline around my face. I usually have baby hairs so I wasn’t entirely surprised to see this but I guess this is something that bothers some women. I also noticed a surge in my nail growth and strength and I’m back to rocking my Cardi B pointy nails.

Disclaimer: the next paragraph is major TMI & graphic so…stop reading now if you’re not down with the truth. 

The REAL reason I wanted to publish this post is because of what just happened to me. So back in August I got my first “period.” I air quote it because it was very light and spotty. It arrived while I was in Mexico, which of course was just lovely timing, but I kind of attributed it to my body being a little out of wack after traveling. The damn period lasted 3 weeks. Since it was my first one in over a year and a half I figured this was standard.

A couple [2] weeks later I got my period AGAIN. Same thing, super light and spotty and but this one lasted about a week. Now this was around the time I was getting ready to launch + Lux Unfiltered, it was Capri’s 1st birthday,  and I was knee-deep in shit. So much going on, so busy, too busy to call a doctor or care, so I just dealt with it. A couple more weeks go by and again, my period decides to show up unannounced. WTF.

I pretty much have spotted off and on for 3 months. I missed my 1-year appointment with my OBGYN because I was busy and didn’t reschedule so I was left to figure all of this out myself. Still need to go btw. Okay, so fast forward to the last day of my pop-up. I get home (I’m wearing jeans btw) and I feel like I just peed my pants. Or better yet, what I imagine your water breaking feels like. I’m drenched in blood like a 13 year old who doesn’t know how to have a period. I panic because the amount of blood is insane and it was gushing out of me like a running faucet. I immediately take a pregnancy test because I was convinced I just had a miscarriage – the amount of blood was INTENSE.

Sorry for the TMI here but I couldn’t even use a tampon. The flow was heavy and I needed a super with a PP pad, which for the record, I never used. Luckily I didn’t return all of the stuff I never used during my initial recovery days because they came in super handy during this period. I’ll spare you more bloody details but just know that the following morning I woke up to what looked like a murder scene. Blood everywhere – my white linen bed frame, sheets, pajamas, my HAIR, there were bloody footprints on the floor…I mean, Paul was super concerned for my life (LOL) as he helped me scrub blood off the hardwood floor.

What I think happened is this: my body was trying really hard to have a period but it couldn’t. I was majorly stressed and every time an even more stressful time approached I started spotting. This is normal. I also experienced weight loss during this time, which was throwing my body out of whack. I feel that on the last day of the pop-up I finally allowed myself to fully relax and in turn in turn my body was ready. Ready to bestow upon me the worst period of my life because it knew that I could finally handle sitting at home in my sweats all week, eating my feelings because I was FINALLY not stressed.

Plus, after almost 2 years of not having a period it makes perfect sense for the first real one back to be x100000. Phew…I feel so much better knowing I’ve shared this. No one warned me about this – I was only warned about the initial bloodbath that is your vaginal recovery right away, but I didn’t really experience that. I hope this post helps anyone out there who might be wondering about your period postpartum. I’m sure this isn’t the case for everyone but I wanted to share my experience just in case. Now I need to make an appointment to see my OBGYN stat! 2020 goal, I guess.

Did any of you experience any crazy PP side effect? Share with me below.