I gave birth to my son in march and since my discharge, life at home has been drastically different. The first few days were the toughest. I remember just continuously crying to my husband because every damn thing came at once. Handling baby, pumping, having sore nipples, rock hard breasts, low supply and little sleep...it was just so overwhelming. I expected it to be hard but not to this extent...
One of the most stressful part of this experience is breast feeding. Since my son had to stay in the hospital for a while, he was bottle fed there. Given this he has developed preference for bottle. So when I went home, he refused my breast. Once, I forcefully gave him my breast, and he bruised my nipple. It was so pain and frankly the only reason why I kept trying was because my husband and in law was giving me a shitty hard time, saying that formula is not as good and that I should try to breastfeed. I honestly resent them in that moment because they have no idea what I was going thru. My breast was hurting and all they kept saying was just try and try to breastfeed, invalidating my feelings.
Dear mothers I don't wish to scare you but please take care of yourself during post partum. There is no denying that it will be stressful. My husband during pregnancy was so thoughtful and caring. Now he still is but of course with the baby, priority goes to baby. I won't fault him. Things are different w a baby. Try to get as much help from your parents/family/friends. Get confinement food sorted. Get someone to help w the night shift. It's going to be tough but honestly when we walk out of this, there's really nothing else we mothers can't do. We give birth to a human baby (with no epi), have stitches, walk the next day, pump for our lil one every 3 hours and run on very very little sleep. I love my husband but men really have no idea what we go through...