I went on my first post c-section walk today. A slow .7 mile in the neighborhood with my mom and #JadeTheBoxer. Alex stayed at home with daddy. We went at 9:30, so even though it is September and it’s a tiny bit cooler, the mid-80′s temps did feel a little uncomfortable to me.

The best news about my postpartum body is the terrible edema I had has finally disappeared. All the sudden yesterday it went down. I was swollen from the waist down after all the IV fluids they pumped into me.

My giant uterus is shrinking back in fairly fast. It is very odd to have my abdomen feel so soft, but I think it would cause more body image angst if I didn’t have a big incision there too.

I struggle with the limitations on my physical movement. I’m not allowed to traverse my stairs more than once a day. So I come downstairs in the morning and go back up at the end of the day. I can’t carry Alexis on the stairs, nor in her infant carrier. I can’t drive. I feel a little like a prisoner in my own home! The hospital discharge instructions said all of this would be in place for 6 weeks, but I will ask (beg) at my incision check for a reduced sentence.

My mental state is pretty good, I’ve gotten a little weepy at times but I think that is normal with the hormone changes.

Going into this I thought I wanted a natural birth, because “that’s best” and I feel like there is a lot of judgment out there in the mommy world about various birthing methods. But there used to be a much higher mortality rate for mom/baby and birth. If I was in the old computer game Oregon Trail, I probably would have been left behind on the trail because of the difficulties. So I am grateful for modern medicine.

And I have a sweet, beautiful baby girl. She’s worth all of this!