Well, hello, welcome so this is your first real week. I hope you're excited hopefully you're home or you nearly home and you're getting to know this beautiful little baby. Firstly, I'm going to talk about up because there's lots happening in your body and you know you're thinking blood and ditches and nasal these tablets. I've gotten my boobs sore my nipples are Thorn, oh my god. And you didn't really think about this. And that's really normal.

Because you kind of only thought about the little baby. What clothes Do you need and what nappies DNA and you forgot to realize that there's a lot that happens in your body. So I guess hormones is our first thing to talk about. That now you know, that milk came in and boy did you cry like a baby because he didn't know what was going on. It was really overwhelming. Everyone talks about the day three blues, but they don't talk about the two week blues.

So your hormones are a bit crazy. You get introduced, you're a bit cranky or itchy, be impatient, bit sweaty. And that is all related to an overproduction of estrogen. Now this hormone reaction has to happen. It even happens if you don't breastfeed, but certainly is very heightened with the hormonal changes in the breast milk. And also that uterus that needs to, you know, come back down and heal itself over.

So firstly, you've got to go with it. Because if you fight it, you'll just be cross with yourself and unbearable to live with. So you know, if the Johnson and Johnson advert on the TV makes you cry, then cry because that's okay or You know, the Kmart catalog has the cutest little baby that you've ever seen. You know, that's okay. It's a very, it's a very intuitive protection mechanism for your body, the world becomes very small you don't, you know, you don't want to deal with the stuff that worried you before. And it makes you very much focused on your world with your baby.

And so, you know, there's definitely a friend who's being a pain in the bum, you just think with any of that anymore, that is hormones, but it's also a changing perspective in your life and your focus. And you know, this little baby takes a lot of your time up, and it's a 24 hour system as well doesn't just clock off at five o'clock like he did at work. He goes for the whole day. And that's a new thing to come to terms with as well. So hormone changes. So the hormones as I said, it's about two weeks.

So don't freak out. Boom. I'm still in gorged here. So remember that layer of swelling that we talked about before, that goes away at about day seven each. So, um, you know, that really full feeling is gonna be there for a few more days, so don't worry too much about it. Now I talked about the gentle massaging in the shower to help to shift some of that fluid, but it's not a problem solution.

It's the fact that that fluid is going to keep sitting there because your boobs are still over producing. And you might find that your nipples, even with perfect positioning or getting a bit sensitive. There's lots of different creams and tips and tricks for that and their skin. So you know, if you've been by the campfire for a few days, you find that your lips get a bit dry so you add moisture to them. So a lot of the nipple creams are moisture based about adding moisture. So you land Tonight, Michael and Paul Paul crane.

They're all available in Coles and Woolworths. If they're really mad at me, like, Oh, they really saw, there's some wet dressings. And I'll add some information in the resources section about, you know, what the pros and cons are a lot of these things are, but you know, there's which are things that help to accelerate the healing process. There's things like nipple shield, which is exactly as the name is, it's like a little shield or a cover that protects your nipple. So that when the baby attaches, it's not that direct attachment. So I guess, you know, in essence, it's like if you're, you were going to not walk through a day and you were going to crawl and your knees were getting really tender.

And so you wore, I guess, a knee pad. And so the nipple shield has holes so the milk comes through, but it protects the nipple from the context of the baby, baby being on there. Again, there's lots of different question on that I'll have like a little written thing that you can refer to. And certainly if you're a bit overwhelmed, you know, add add a question to the Facebook group and and we'll get back to you whenever and we'll have something to add. I'm super Booth was producing lots of milk. And you'll find that in the mornings they're filling, gorged and fall, but by the afternoon, they're still a bit tender but not as full.

Now that is very normal, your supply should be quite high. And as the day goes on, your supply tends to dip down. And that's because there's not quite as much water in your afternoon milk as there is in the morning. That's perfectly normal. That's exactly how it should be. You know, you can't have these massive burning full boobs forever.

You need to know that this supply and the feeling is going to normalize and that's okay. You know, and that's something that we're going to educate you about and give you lots of tips and tools. So for this first kind of four weeks, to be honest, so that you really, you just get it and you roll with it and you understand it. So you might be quite focused on doing a coup. And now you know why old people talk about all the time because you're like, I don't want to do a poo or Well, I think I should and you think, Oh, my God, I might be constipated. And that no one wants to talk about that.

And, you know, you might be home by now and you think, oh, I don't know what to do. So obviously, your bow has been busy. It's been squished up here into the sides, and all of a sudden, it's starting to come to the middle of, you know, where the uterus is allowed at some space now and it's a bit shitty. So, if it's a bit cheeky and cranky, and you feel like you just don't need to pull you in, it's been a few days, then increase your budget. Make sure you're drinking good amounts of water if you've had a vaginal birth, and your main concern is that everything might split apart, which it won't the schema ages. As you heard in Dr. Hughes's content, skin ages are already healed, that feeling is more about the muscle being a bit cranky.

But you can pop some toilet paper on your hand or a pad and just put a bit of gentle pressure on your pair name with a cap was just to help you to have confidence to to let the poo come out. And so it might be psychological. It might be that you actually haven't been eating enough or you haven't been eating enough fiber so increase your fiber and your water and then you'll have the extra remember poo is what you haven't needed. You have the extra to poo. If it feels really firm because maybe you've been taking some strong painkillers, you need to add something to soften it. So pears, licorice, Tanner's Purina they're all good softness to make the poo nice and soft.

You can get some things from the pharmacy as well. So it's great to speak to the pharmacist. But I always say a parent an apple in some small town is in the days a really good thing to get you're pulling like a trooper, you might need that for the first few weeks are the first week at least. So pulling is a hot topic. You might have a friendly hemorrhoid or two that moved in. Congratulations.

That's your friend forever. So you gotta learn how to figure out what to do with him. Maybe some cream, maybe some ice you know it will tuck back up inside over the next few days or a few weeks so don't be too worried. But yeah, again, you pharmacist if you need some advice on creams or speak to you midwife that you might see and they'll go, no worries, we've got nothing for you. And obviously, you know, you're A bit swollen, certainly not your prettiest days. So don't worry, everyone thinks you're glowing and you are but you are like a fluid ball.

Don't weigh yourself or your cry. Oh, you might not. So you've got this fluid that sitting everywhere boogy hands up Johnny your feet. And so that will shift back into your system, but it will take a few days. So don't freak out. It is all normal, you will wear those pretty high heels that you bought, just before you found out you're pregnant again, just not now.

So that fluids that sitting there, your body will talk more sorted out you don't have to do or take anything for that. your vagina if he had a vaginal birth is a bit swollen as well and that's because it's a lot like your boobs, it's under repair. The fluid is the byproduct of the extra blood flow. So making sure you take care of that area. You know, maybe having an extra shower, changing your pads frequently. And knowing that, you know, it will fix itself, you might need some anti inflammatories just for that heaviness and that feeling.

But how I'm feeling at the moment helps to explain to you that even when you're sitting on the chair, feeding your baby, your vagina is still the bottom point. And so even though you're like, I've just sat down all day, but it's really swollen, I'm uncomfortable, you need to bring your feet up. So you need to, you know, tip, it's very unattractive. But you know, you might tip yourself up so that you increase the angle so that there's not so much pressure. And so even if you've got to put that you can put your feet up when you're talking to your guests. That's going to be better than just sitting for long periods of time in a chair, especially hard chair.

You might do it will be too sore anyway. So yeah, just making sure that spending a bit of time sitting with your legs up we'll take that pressure off of that area. Now if you've had azorean, you know, obviously you need to get yourself comfortable, you will be taking medication because the pain that you feel after suberin is your body saying, slow down, take it easy. No, and you know, knowing how to get in and out of the chair is quite important, but not doing the big, you know, putting pressure on those stitches is important. And you know, listening to the advice that you've got about the right medication to get that balance right. And the dressing that's been on there, you'll just keep, you know, the advice that you got about managing there.

And just making sure you keep it nice and clean and dry and keeping yourself breasted. That's a lot of info isn't it and you kind of you forget that you're as important as the baby or even a bit more important you provide the food for them. So make sure that you look after yourself. We haven't quite got through All of the changes yet. And week one we still got next week as well where there's gonna be some big hormonal changes do you have to come to terms with all of that? And but know that, you know, roll with it, we can't fix it.

You're doing a great job, your body's done an amazing thing. It's produced a beautiful baby. And you know, we really have to respect that.