-maru

Hi friends, I know that I always appreciate update posts, so I figured I'd offer one of my own. Original post is below the line. I'm currently 19 weeks (4.5 months) postpartum.

The news I have is mixed. I presented to emerg just before Halloween because I was at my wit's end with my mental health and wanted help. They placed me in a psych emerg ward that was filthy and chaotic and honestly very scary (it seriously looked more like a jail than a hospital), kept me there for 6 hours, and then sent me home with instructions to follow up with my GP. There wasn't anything they could do for me because I wasn't suicidal. Things got steadily worse as the weeks progressed. My family doctor referred

Hi friends, I know that I always appreciate update posts, so I figured I'd offer one of my own. Original post is below the line. I'm currently 19 weeks (4.5 months) postpartum.

The news I have is mixed. I presented to emerg just before Halloween because I was at my wit's end with my mental health and wanted help. They placed me in a psych emerg ward that was filthy and chaotic and honestly very scary (it seriously looked more like a jail than a hospital), kept me there for 6 hours, and then sent me home with instructions to follow up with my GP. There wasn't anything they could do for me because I wasn't suicidal. Things got steadily worse as the weeks progressed. My family doctor referred

I have a long history of mental illness, but managed to stay quite well throughout pregnancy. Unfortunately postpartum has been a mess. I had a traumatic birth with a crash c-section, a fraught breastfeeding journey (that has since come to an end), then developed cellulitis at the c-section incision site AND mastitis in one of my breasts. I'm so overwhelmed and exhausted. It's been so easy to fall back into the eating disorder as something that feels comparatively safe. I've lost a lot of weight and I know that I'm eating a dangerously low number of calories; the whole thing has snowballed and I no longer feel like I have any control over the eating disorder.

My healthcare team is recommend

I have a long history of mental illness, but managed to stay quite well throughout pregnancy. Unfortunately postpartum has been a mess. I had a traumatic birth with a crash c-section, a fraught breastfeeding journey (that has since come to an end), then developed cellulitis at the c-section incision site AND mastitis in one of my breasts. I'm so overwhelmed and exhausted. It's been so easy to fall back into the eating disorder as something that feels comparatively safe. I've lost a lot of weight and I know that I'm eating a dangerously low number of calories; the whole thing has snowballed and I no longer feel like I have any control over the eating disorder.

My healthcare team is recommend

I managed to stay quite well throughout pregnancy, but postpartum has been a mess. I had a traumatic birth with a crash c-section, a fraught breastfeeding journey (that has since ended), then developed cellulitis at the c-section incision site AND mastitis in one of my breasts. I'm so overwhelmed and it's been so easy to fall back into the ED as something that feels comparatively safe. My healthcare team is now recommending that I go back to inpatient, but how on earth am I supposed to do that with an infant??? There aren't any mother-and-baby units in my country, so I'd have to leave him - potentially for weeks and weeks. I feel awful and SO irresponsible that I can't get my shit together f

I was recently accepted into this program, which focuses on allowing mums with significant mental health histories to protect their sleep and recover through the first few days postpartum. Anyone else with experience with 5D5N? How did you find it? I think it'll be a good thing for me, but I'm nervous to be in hospital for so long!

tl;dr: There is just so much to do, I don't have nearly the same amount of energy as before, and people keep adding to my plate.

I considered myself very on top of everything, but the last couple of weeks has thrown me for a loop. We suddenly need a new window and a new heat pump, which I've been rushing to resolve before the baby comes. There are lots of mini repairs the house needs and that I somehow I didn't anticipate, but that I'm now managing. It's blisteringly hot outside and I don't have a car, so if I have to go anywhere, it's walking in the heat or public transit (also miserable). My pregnancy is considered high risk, so I have tons of medical appointments. I've increasingly had t

I’ve only heard good things about the S1 on the internet, but the hospital I’m giving birth at also rents out hospital-grade pumps, specifically the Medela Symphony, and I’m wondering how they compare. FWIW, we plan to combo feed for the first three months, and then play it by ear. I’m due in late August and I’m already starting to have milk come in, so if I could pump and freeze some of it, that would be grand.

Basically: somebody on the unit coded when we were there: a code pink, and then a code blue. Hearing the alarm and then seeing the unit nurses looking panicked, and additional doctors and nurses running into the ward from elsewhere... awful, and I can only hope the mother and the baby are okay. Our tour group immediately left the unit and moved on to a cursory tour of the postpartum unit, but it was evident that the tour guide (a nurse) was also rattled a bit.

My husband keeps reminding me that it's the best maternity hospital in the country, and that I'm having a planned c-section, which is a relatively controlled way to give birth. Still I'm scared - not really for my own health, but b

Before becoming pregnant, I had a very unrealistic expectation of what healthy pregnancy weight gain looks like, especially for weight-suppressed folks. My hope was to have blind weights throughout the pregnancy provided that I stayed in range (which I am, at 23 weeks). I just really didn’t want to associate the coming of my first child with all the ED sludge. Unfortunately for me, the ED side of my team insists that I know the weight (taken weekly) for ~ tolerating uncertainty ~ purposes. But I’m finding it really harmful. I was weighed today and saw the number and absolutely flipped in my OB’s office. Then I felt doubly bad because I’m supposed to want my kid to be healthy -you know?- so

Hiya! I see lots of posts about what you need to get through the postpartum period, but most advice seems to be geared towards vaginal births. If you're having a c-section, do you still need things like a sitz bath, ice pack pads, Tucks, etc.? What were the things that made you feel better after your c-section? Cast your net wide - I'm interested in anything that helps!

...Like, absurdly detailed. Something like, "you're asked to show up at a certain time, and when you get to the hospital, first you register at the main desk, then they take you to an L&D waiting room....". I'm not particularly interested in the medical minutiae but something kind of like an itinerary of the boring stuff that takes you through what you as the pt are doing pre-op, during the c-section, and maybe the first 12 hours after.

(I have dx of autism being able to visualize any activity in advance is super helpful. Ty in advance!!)

Talk about problems you didn’t expect…

We sent our registry out to family members and close friends a couple of days ago. We went to bed, and the next morning were bombarded by notifications that my MIL had purchased literally every item - from the Uppababy stroller and the Tripp Trapp to the myriad of items under 10$.

Some context: MIL knows what a registry is and knows that there was no expectation she buy anything, let alone everything. Also, bc we live in the centre of a big city and don’t have a lot of space and bc I have already sourced a lot of baby stuff, we had asked very politely in the message that went along with the registry that folks stick to only buying from the registry.