don't sweat it momma... or do?

Delivering a baby is so glamorous. Any mommy can tell you that. And perhaps equally as glamorous are those first few post-partum weeks.

If you’re like me, you imagined those first few weeks filled with outings to the park, the shopping mall, and your favourite coffee shops... with your darling little babe all bundled up in his brand new pram. Everyone would look on at your beautiful bundle of joy with adoration and look at you as if you’d just succeeded in the most noble of human tasks.

I thought that surely their eyes would be nearly overflowing with the overwhelming emotion that came at the mere sight of my gorgeous little babe. They would ask how the delivery went and I would give a short, polite (censored) version of the magical water birth I had, and gush about how wonderful natural birth really is. Yes, I would be a bit tired, my boobs might be a little sore, but I would be glowing and grinning... everything but signing autographs.

Imagine my surprise when—15 hours into labor—I had to be wheeled in for a last-minute, unplanned c-section... and five days later I was still in the hospital due to some mystery infection.

Needless to say my recovery wasn’t all that glamorous! I was sore and hunched over and needed help showering for the first several days. Laughing and coughing and sneezing sent me to the verge of tears and getting up and down out of bed or the couch made me feel like a 95-year-old woman! My dreams of finally sleeping on my belly again were (temporarily) crushed and my back throbbed far more than when I was ready to burst at full term.

As unglamorous as the whole thing was, I was pleasantly surprised that the recovery seemed to go a little quicker than I had anticipated. Within the week I was keen to get out in public (to show off the baby of course – the world needed to see him!). And by three weeks or so I was back to driving and doing little things around the house. I was also starting to look more and more like my pre-pregnant self. In fact, by week three I was also down to my pre-pregnancy weight... and I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty happy about it.

But I have a little secret.

I didn’t try... It happened by accident.

But please don’t hate me. The next part is nothing to brag about.

About 10 days after giving birth I woke up in the middle of the night drenched in sweat. Granted it was the height of summer in Australia, but we sleep with the AC absolutely cranked to avoid melt-down and our room was a pleasant temperature. And you have to know I’m not talking about just a bit of sweat on the forehead... I’m talking about so much sweat that my husband seriously thought I had wet the bed!

My hair was soaked, my pyjamas were soaked, the sheets were soaked... this was profuse sweating at it’s best (worst?).

At first I wondered if my post-c-section fever and infection had returned... because what else could possibly make me sweat like that besides running a marathon? (Or, since I’m not a runner, running around the block?)

I felt fine but took my temperature anyway. No fever. (That's a good thing.)

The next night it happened again.

And then again.

For those of you that know me, I know what you’re thinking: what else should I expect after having a baby during the middle of summer in the tropics? But I’m telling you that my husband keeps the bedroom AC so cold during the summer months that I sometimes use more blankets as the temps climb.

Anyway, after the third night of ridiculous sweating I finally looked in my What to Expect When You’re Expecting (pregnancy bible) under postpartum recovery and found... I was normal.

I discovered that about one in ten women suffer from excessive night-time sweating after giving birth, and it even has a medical name for it: diaphoresis. There is no cure, no treatment, just a suggestion: sleep on a towel until it goes away! Apparently it’s hormonal (along with everything else) and is one of the ways that the body gets rid of the excess pregnancy-accumulated fluids.

No one tells you this stuff before you get pregnant!

Well, I continued to sweat it out for the next two or three weeks, unable to sleep with the blankets off (room too cold) and unable to sleep with them on (sweaty wet blankets in the cool room made me even more cold)... and constantly rotating the beach towels that now covered my side of the bed.

What a dilemma! J

And then as fast as the night sweats appeared, they were gone again. I had sweated out my baby weight... and I was back to my normal night time (dry) self.

I will probably forever look back at those first few weeks after having my son as some of the most unglamorous of my life... But, they were also the most precious. Adjusting to life with a newborn is like nothing else! I’ve never cried so many tears of joy and happiness, never wondered how my heart could be so full... and never thought I could be such a sweaty, slow-moving, emotional mess and yet not really be bothered by it.

After all, my dream had come true: I was finally a mommy. 

P.S. Dear mommy friends, did you experience any post-partum “glamour” that caught you by surprise?

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