We are all on a journey, but the ebbs and flows of each of our paths can be somewhat different.

This is totally the case when it comes to our post-baby-bearing postpartum season.

Even in my expanding group of friends and relationships, I’ve found this reality. Some birth/postpartum experiences are easier than others, some have more challenges. 

But one thing is for sure…they are all beautiful processes!

My desire is to just share with you, some of the details of my process.

I had a very smooth labor and delivery. Even as I write this, my first thought was to say “it was easy” …but as I review in my mind what I went through to bring baby Grayson into this world, I realized, yeah there was nothing easy about it. HA! 

But I believe everything went according to plan, and honestly the whole process was so peaceful, and I wouldn’t change anything about it. 

I had an unmedicated natural birth. I really do believe this was a big part in how fast I recovered. I had such an easy recovery process. I got a very mild first-degree tear and only had to have 3 stitches. I didn’t even have to take any pain killers afterwards. 

I was in the hospital for three days and two nights. My son had some jaundice, so we had to stay to put him under the blue lights. While my husband and I were there we were so blessed to have our parents and family here to help us. They brought us breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. Good healthy food (candidly, it was a nice alternative to the “regular” hospital food), lots of water, and getting back on my vitamins right away really helped to get my energy up and jumpstart the healing process. My body just went through “the ringer”, so I needed to give it everything it needed for it to bounce back. 

I chose to breastfeed my son. My milk came in 2 days after birth. Our breastfeeding journey has been very good. The first week was a little difficult because Grayson wouldn’t latch on the left side very easily, but after he got the hang of it, everything has been smooth sailing since then. 

When I got home, I resumed the same way I was eating. I discovered certain things that didn’t agree with Grayson’s stomach, so I had to cut some stuff out of my diet. 

One of the helpful discoveries I found is that everybody should be drinking water, but especially breastfeeding moms. Water is the number one key to keeping up your milk supply and giving you and your baby the hydration you both need. 

Around two weeks postpartum I started going on walks again. Definitely slower and shorter walks, but I still got my body moving. 

In a previous post, I mentioned my secret weapon to my recovery. I know this will be very weird to some people…I had my placenta encapsulated and I take my placenta capsules daily. 

WHAT? Yep. Weird huh? 

But oh, my goodness…this was a game changer. I have a good friend who does this for a living. When she first mentioned it to me, I honestly thought she was crazy and this was so gross. I started researching it and found so many amazing benefits of encapsulating your placenta. I knew I had to try it. 

I got my capsules back the day I got home from the hospital, took them and in 30 minutes I felt a world of difference! I literally felt my energy go up, and my mood completely change. I was so impressed how fast these made a difference. Your placenta is full of good hormones and nutrients which are vital to postpartum healing and restoration. Ingesting it helps your body to regulate and transition after you’ve delivered your baby. I personally had an increase in energy and milk production along with a decrease in postpartum depression symptoms, recovery time, and postpartum bleeding

There are three different methods of encapsulation. Raw, balanced, and subtle method.  I chose to do the raw encapsulation method. The raw method is the most potent. It offers the highest iron content and the biggest energy boost.

To read more about the benefits and methods go to http://www.afterglowbaby.com

If I could share with other expecting (or soon to be expecting) mom’s one thing before having a baby, based on my experience, it would be to encapsulate your placenta. If there is a medical reason why it is not possible, then by all means disregard this. 

But for those who can, I really believe this has the potential to be a game-changer for you. I know it was for me.

What are things you’ve learned in your postpartum journey, good or bad? We’d love to hear!