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I hope your spouse has more than a few days off work? Plan to be downstairs all day until bedtime and if you need something upstairs try to ask someone else to get it, your kid if they can or your spouse. Order food for a little bit if you can or use freezer meals. Get your spouse to bathe your kid. And also stay on top of the beds shedule they gave you, whether it was heavy pain killers or just Tylenol/Advil. It makes a huge difference to how you feel and your ability to function. You don’t want to be chasing that pain along with trying to deal with your new baby, kids, and life.

In my opinion the more rest you can get in the first few days at least, the better off you will be because of it. So for me that meant no laundry, no dishes, and no cleaning really. Any time you’re bending down for stuff and twisting it can be hard on your incision and slow healing. I just moved around very slowly and walking around my house slowly for the first week was my activity. I think I went to the grocery store with my husband at the end of the first week and drove myself to er one night during that week.

Make sure your older kids use a stool or chair to get stuff, get in and out of bed and the bath, etc so you’re not lifting them. Not sure how old your kid(s) are. I’ll come back if I can think of anything else. Also, I wore a belly binder band and that made a huge difference in my ability so walk around comfortably and not feel like all my insides were going to spill right out of me.

As long as you don’t push your body to hard then healing should happen pretty steadily. You’ll likely feel like you got hit by a truck for a few days, but it gets better even by 4 days out! And I say that with having had a skin infection in my incision that slowed healing. A friend told me that at 10 days she felt way better and that was true for me too.

@mediagirl: My c-sections were not all that bad. I was back at work 2 weeks after my 1st (against OBGYN's orders, mind you) and was attempting to clean my house due to being stir-crazy about a week after my second one. That stated, I am a terrible example. I also tore stitches with both for "overdoing" it so, I will state that my advice to you is based on what was helpful for me rather than what I did that resulted in multiple visits to the ER.

At the time of my c-section for DS, my DH was AD Army and was alotted 2 weeks with me. Our DD was 6. My DD was born at the end of her holiday/winter break. Closest family was 8 hours away and I had to learn to "make due" quickly. Here are a few ways that I made my life easier:

(1) If your bedrooms are upstairs and EVERYTHING else is downstairs, figure out how to spend the majority of the day downstairs... that includes couch-sleeping, baby feeding/nursing, changing clothes, etc. Set up "comfort areas" for resting, feedings, and bathing both you and baby the best you can.

(2) place a basket (or 2) at the bottom of the stairs for clothes, loose items, etc. Have your DH or older children bring the items upstairs and the baskets back down.

(3) Do not refuse help from friends or neighbors. This one was SO hard for me. I am a perfectionist and have to be the entertainer when someone visits. After my c-section, I had to relinquish the need to be a proper hostess and allow myself and DS to be pampered.

(4) When in doubt, order out. I made many large-batch meals before my CS; however, when I came home with a newborn, I was just too d#mn tired. DH came home REALLY late some nights and DD couldn't wait until he arrived. Grubhub delivery has seen me at my worst. 🤣

(5) If your kids can help (with ANYTHING), let them. Also, if they want to help with the new arrival, there is nothing better than a moment of bonding for them and free hands for you.

(6) A cleaning service - I was gifted 3 mos of a 2x monthly cleaning service. Besides food gift cards, meals, and diapers (I had forgotten the sheer amount of poop that can come out of something so small! 🤣); the cleaning ladies were my FAVORITE gift ever. They made life spectacular. I have, since, invested in a service to visit monthly to give my home a once-over. Trust me, after a c-section, the LAST thing one wants to do is clean.

(7) Listen to your body - (* I half-arsed this one. 🤣) If you need to sit and rest - do it. If something is sore and doesn't seem right, call your OBGYN. If you are hungry or thirsty, take the time to nourish yourself. Sounds like commonsense, right? Well, you'd be surprised after having a CS how far you will push past "the ouch" and ignore your "thirsty" for your baby and to accomplish "one more thing" before you sit down. I know, I did it. *facepalm* Learn from my mistakes and don't end up in the ER.

BEST OF LUCK, Mama! I can't wait to see an update with your new bundle!

I didn't have stairs in the house we lived in after my c section, but I would say the biggest thing was having a basinet high enough that you didn't have to bend over to get the baby in and out of at night.

I'm two weeks post c-section today. I was in the hospital for about the first 78 hours afterward. My first day and half at home I was pretty useless, but, by day 3 my incision was feeling mostly okay. I did set hard limits with my partner and my kid about driving, lifting, and activity. Much easier to do a little more than promised than to overpromise and have to scale back (especially when negotiating with a 3-year-old!).

I felt a lot more normal about a week postpartum with both c sections. DH was home for a week to 10 days each time. It helped to have meals prepped, DH did all of the clean up from meals, toys, etc. DS1 was 2.5 when DS2 was born so he was able to understand that I couldn't pick him, play with him on the floor, etc. He didn't like it, but he understood what we were saying. I didn't limit the stairs too much but most of what I needed was on the first floor so I wasn't going up and down too much anyway. My recoveries weren't too bad, I hope yours is the same!

@Sams Mom: Yes! Our daughter slept in the pack and play at night and that wasn't an issue, but I had to keep the rock and play next to a chair and sit down to get the baby in or out. I also kept the bouncy seat on a table so I could get to it. I know you're not supposed to, but it was the only way I could reach it, and as a newborn she wasn't kicking hard enough to move it. I also didn't leave her unattended in it. The swing was off limits for me unless someone else was home because I couldn't bend over to get to it.

I had trouble standing up for a week or so after surgery. I would have to sit in a chair with sturdy arms and push up or else have someone help me. Granted, my recovery wasn't ideal. Hopefully your husband can get some time off. Also, we have a memory foam mattress, and that was the worst for trying to get up out of bed. I had to sleep on our traditional mattress in the guest room if my husband wasn't home to help me up.

I was really worried about this and almost compulsively bought a rollaway cot for the first floor but in the end I was totally fine. I made DH take the car seat in/out for the first few weeks but the stairs were no issue. I did have some superficial skin re-opening (nothing internal, just skin) when I reached for something up high on a shelf because I felt so dang good, but otherwise I think I felt much better than my bff who had a vaginal delivery a few weeks later.

Couple of questions:
1) is this a second c-section?
2) will you have the older child at home all of the time?

I found my second recovery to be so much easier than my first. I credit it to TWO things:
1) I didn't labor at all, first c-section was after a failed induction. Second c-section was completely planned.

2) I was just more active. Having a child to keep up with during my second pregnancy just naturally made me in better shape so to speak. I fully "enjoyed" my first pregnancy with lots of laziness. I didn't have that opportunity on round #2.

My older kid went to daycare most of the days I was home on my maternity leave so it was just me and the baby. I still did get up with the rest of the family and try to get myself ready before DH left. I had a setup of everything I'd need downstairs as well. Though, doing stairs the second time around was so much easier and I was doing them unsupervised quicker.

Good Luck, but the second time really was simply easier for whatever reason.

@mediagirl: We’re only on one level, but if it were two I would be sleeping downstairs for a bit.
My husband is taking 2 weeks off work which is going to be amazing. Our daughter is turning 2 right before my second is born. We plan on keeping her in daycare for a couple days a week after my husband goes back to work to make things easier.

@mediagirl: Congratulations!!! Such spectacular news!