Every postpartum is so different with healing, emotions, recovery, etc. I had 3 wildly different experiences with each! What I learned, was don’t compare your healing journey to others. Everyone’s is so different-including your own!

My 1st postpartum was I guess “expected?” Had 2nd degree tearing, sore for WEEKS, Baby Blues, no clue what I was doing, PPA, googling things at 1am.

But things got gradually better around 4 months PP, honestly once he was sleeping somewhat decently (I count 4 hour stretches as decent lol)! Then I felt like, “OK I actually got this!”

My 2nd postpartum was a DREAM! I still had 2nd degree tearing, but I was more prepared mentally for recovery, and for what to expect as far as the baby crying, how to soothe, etc.

Also, I will say, my 2nd born’s sleep was so drastically different from my first. Maybe it was because I knew how to soothe and help him better, but having a baby who goes down easily, makes a world of difference!

3rd Postpartum

My 3rd postpartum was well…the hardest. I labored for about 10 hours which was my longest thus far, and I feel like that set the trajectory for how things were to go my 3rd time postpartum.

Our 3rd was unplanned, and I was majorly unprepared. Obviously I knew what to expect because I had gone through postpartum twice, but I was not prepared for how to care for a 3 year old, 18 month old, and a newborn. PPD hit around 6 months, and my recovery just took a little longer. Things got better around 1 year postpartum!