It's Been a Busy Ten Days

On December 1st, Sophie Camille Jones was born at 9:37 am, weighing 8 lbs, 11 ozs, and 20 1/2 inches long. I had to have her via C-section because I had broken my tailbone having my first daughter by normal delivery.  She's beautiful, see for yourself...

Everything's Relative - That Applies to Recovery Too

We were blessed to have good insurance that wouldn't shoo us out the door in 24 hours.  After having Sophie Wednesday morning, we were able to stay in the hospital until Sunday midday!  This was some great recovery time and wonderful one-on-one bonding time Steve and I both got to have with baby Sophie.  I felt pretty good considering I'd had major surgery - a lot of people are so nonchalant about C-sections, but it is major surgery, people! Before the first 24 hours post-birth had passed, I was up and walking around.  Everything's relative, but this recovery seemed so easy compared to the time in the hospital with blood clotting issues and a broken tailbone (that I should add, is rare enough that everyone treated it like a sore strained muscle and basically ignored it until it continued to hurt so bad and was x-rayed weeks after the birth!).

Recovery Regimen in Hospital

Steve and I kept me super-hydrated and eating lots of food, and we made routine walks around the entire maternity floor of the hospital. More than one loop around the floor at times.  I didn't max out pain pillsl quite the opposite in fact.  Many times the nurses would come in with one encouraging me to take it because it had been so long since my last one - they were worried the pain would intensify and I'd be stuck waiting for a pain pill to kick in at that point.  So I took just enough to continue recovering and resting, and not end up staying in bed the whole time.  The doctor was so thrilled with the recovery that they took out the staples across my incision early on Saturday rather than before discharge on Sunday.  Knowing my runner history, and seeing how I was doing, the doctor encouraged me to go ahead and keep walking and increase distance and pace a little at a time as long as I listened to my body and felt okay.

Recovery Once We Got Home

Back at home, I was completely off pain pills within a couple days.  Between the fourth and eighth days post-C-section, I walked 5.8 miles over those 4 days, at a very slow pace. I'm taking time off from my walks now until I have my checkup with the doctor on Wednesday to verify that how good I'm feeling warrants my activity level. I don't equate slow walks with "exercise" (general guidance says you should wait 6 weeks post-delivery before exercising), but thought it good to check up with the doc.  I have been very good about not going up the stairs but a few times (unlike some doctors, mine said I could use stairs but take them very slow), and I have NOT been lifting anything heavier than the baby. Not even baby + carrier.  I think the lifting is probably a place where a lot of women get complications during recovery - I had luckily spent the last few months of the pregnancy retraining myself and my 3 year old that she wasn't going to be carried anymore, and that's helped a lot.

Meanwhile, my weight is dropping nicely.

• I gained about 30 lbs over the pregnancy.
• I was 190 lbs at delivery.
• In 10 days, I've lost 24 pounds and am back at 166 lbs, the weight I hung at for about 5 years until shortly before I got pregnant.
• At the time I got pregnant, I had lost 6 lbs the couple weeks before, so my weight was 160 lbs, so I have another 6 to lose to get to that point.
• My lowest weight during the pregnancy was 157 lbs in the first trimester.

I'm excited to continue my recovery at a much reduced weight, so much easier on the joints.  And we'll see at Wednesday's doctor's appointment how she feels my recovery is going.

Darling Sophie

Amidst the recovery, I've had my wonderful new baby girl and the joy of seeing Marissa playing the role of big sister so well.  Sophie looks a lot like Marissa did as a baby, but she has the cutest chubb that Marissa never had...

And she's a great sleeper...

Steve and I feel so blessed for this new addition to our family. Now back to enjoying my girls, and looking forward to getting back to running as soon as is wise!

Happy Running All!