There’s a lot of things you need to prepare for once you’ve had a baby – getting all the clothes washed, packing your hospital bag, but the one thing I didn’t prepare for was the amount of pain I would be in after I’d given birth.

To be honest, it complete blindsided me, maybe I was being a bit naïve by thinking that once the baby had popped out, everything would be fine and dandy! But *sweeping statement alert* I’d rather go through the pain of labour again than going through the pain I experienced after birth. I suppose you’re meant to be completely infatuated with your new baby, that you couldn’t possibly complain that their exit has given a whole new meaning to the word sore?

So Jack was born at 9.25am, and I spent most of that first day lying in the hospital bed with visitor after visitor, I didn’t have the time to think about how my downstairs was feeling. Before I knew it I needed to use the loo – and I was terrified! I was very lucky on the stitches side of things but I was still scared of the almighty sting that everyone talks about when you have that first number one! Holding my breath I pee’d away and it was absolutely fine *phew!* but it was only when I crept back to my bed that I realised how sore I was ‘down there’.

It’s worth pointing out that Shane was still on crutches from his knee surgery for the first couple of weeks post labour, I could tell that he felt completely helpless so was on a mission to get back to normal as quickly as possible – but he couldn’t walk with Jack, so it meant it was up to me to carry around our new 8.1-pounder from room to room as well as carrying on with the day to day running of the house.

It was quite clear that my body was screaming for me to take a break, I was in a LOT of pain – but how was I supposed to take a break when I was essentially flying solo? Walking up the stairs was agony, sitting down hurt, standing up was worse, it was just a blur of achey soreness. Gel ice packs wrapped in towels became my saviour, I would sit on them pretty much all day (classy huh!), along with popping arnica tablets, paracetamol and (after I stopped breastfeeding) ibuprofen to try and take the soreness away.

I had my routine midwife appointment 11 days after Jack was born – when Shane hobbled through the door it was as if the midwife saw him with three heads – she just glared at his knee in disgust – how dare he be recovering from major knee surgery! It was then that I realised I shouldn’t have been bleeding for as long as I had been (according to her you’re only supposed to bleed heavily for a few days and then period like bleeding after that) and it all comes down to the fact that I was just doing to much, but what else was I supposed to do? Not move!?

Sorry if that was all a bit TMI, but nobody told me how sore I would be! Other women just seem to focus on the pain during, no one ever tells you about after! So ladies, make sure you get those ice packs in the freezer before your little bundle arrives, you can thank me later!