Post-delivery Pains, Baby #2

I never really did discuss what happened to my body due to labor and delivery of Clark. I have to say that my experiences with Elise and with Clark were totally different. With Elise, everything was pulling and stretching for the first time. With Clark, his large size was the issue. As I mentioned before, I was able to endure the pain of Elise's birth without an epidural, but Clark was just too big and I needed help with pain management in order to get through his birth.

After Clark was born, I got a few stitches in my lady parts where I tore. But the tear and the stitches never bothered me. I never felt extra pain there, it didn't hurt when I peed. Nothing.

I got a small (according to the nurses) hemorrhoid-- I guess from pushing. It didn't bother me for a little while. I didn't really feel it until about 4 or 5 days after Clark was born. It's still not completely healed. Mostly, but not entirely. I only really feel it when I wipe my butt. For a while it was sore every time I sat down, but as it healed, that went away. Weird that I pushed a giant baby out of my vagina, but it's my butt hole that's sore for weeks. Go figure.

And my pelvis! Oh, lord, my pelvis hurt after Clark was born. Right up front. The pubic arch area. I could barely walk for about a day and 1/2. I seriously thought I may have fractured my lady bones. God almighty, it hurt. And like an idiot, I kept refusing pain medication. I refused it until I started having really painful post-delivery contractions as my uterus was shrinking back down, and then the pain of my pelvis and my uterus together became more than I wanted to deal with so I finally took some Motrin.

The only other big pain that I had after Clark was born was from the epidural. It felt like I had a big bruise on my back where they had put the needle in. I didn't-- I kept making Husband and the nurses check for me. Apparently pain at the site where the epidural was inserted is pretty common, so no big deal. It went away after a couple of days.

I feel good now. It took a couple of weeks to feel normal again. Mostly the pelvis pain just kept lingering forever... my hips will probably never shrink back to their pre-Clark size. He was worth it, though. Of course, he was worth every bit of it.