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Postpartum Recovery Products I Wish I Had Before Leaving the Hospital
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items Nobody prepares you for what your body goes through after delivery. The bleeding, the soreness, the night sweats, the crying in the bathroom because sitting down hurts. I spent my first week home frantically ordering things I should have had ready. T...
Sections
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Postpartum Pain Relief and Healing
Postpartum Comfort for Sleep and Rest
Breastfeeding and Pumping Supplies
Postpartum Mental Health and Self Care
Postpartum Wardrobe and Nursing Friendly Clothes
Postpartum Pain Relief and Healing
Sitting down felt like a punishment for the first two weeks. I tried ice packs wrapped in paper towels before I figured out there were actual products designed for this exact situation.
Grab these before your due date. I was using frozen gloves in a pillowcase like some kind of medieval patient until a nurse told me these existed. The cold plus the pad in one step saved me at 3am.
Frida Mom Instant Ice Maxi Pads, 8 Count HSA/FSA Eligible
Keep one in every bathroom. The hospital gave me a tiny can and I rationed it like gold. For anyone terrified of that first post-delivery bathroom trip, this numbing spray is the reason I survived it.
Dermoplast Pain Relief Spray for Minor Cuts
Layer these inside your pad. Sounds weird, works miraculously. If you had any tearing or stitches, the witch hazel cools everything down and you can actually sit on the couch without wincing.
Tucks Medicated Cooling Pads Powder Fresh, 100.0 ea
Ditch the mesh hospital underwear the second you get home. These hold everything, feel like real underwear, and nobody at Target knows you're wearing them. Stock up for at least two weeks.
Medium
Use this once the acute pain fades and you're in the itchy healing phase. Applied it every diaper change (mine, not the baby's) and the difference by day ten was wild.
Customer reviews for Earth Mama Organic Perineal Balm
Start taking these before you leave the hospital. I cannot stress this enough. The first postpartum bowel movement is scarier than labor and these make it manageable. For anyone who just got stitches, please trust me.
Colace Regular Strength 100 mg Stool Softener ...
Swap between hot and cold depending on what your chest is doing that hour. Engorgement hit me on day three like a truck. Microwaved these and draped them inside my bra for instant relief.
Lansinoh Breast Therapy packs with Soft Covers
Postpartum Comfort for Sleep and Rest
Between the night sweats soaking my sheets and the hormones making me wide awake at 2am even when the baby slept, rest felt impossible. These helped me actually close my eyes.
Try satin when your hair is falling out in clumps around month three. Less friction means less hair on your pillow in the morning. Also feels cool against your face during those awful night sweats.
Bedsure Satin Pillow Case Standard 2 Pack
Pair this with your nursing pillow for middle of the night feeds. I pulled out half the filling so it supported my neck without pushing my chin down. Saved me from the zombie neck pain every new mom gets.
Coop Sleep Goods Original Loft Pillow Queen Size
Keep a stack by your bed for the night sweats. I was going through two shirts a night until I just started sleeping on a washcloth. Sounds ridiculous, worked perfectly, and they wash easily.
Utopia Towels 24 Pack Cotton Washcloths Set
Get this running before the baby comes home so you associate the sound with sleep. White noise drowned out my husband snoring AND the anxious thoughts. The warm light setting doubles as a nursing lamp at 4am.
Hatch Rest Go Baby Sleep Sound Machine & Soother
Slather this on your legs after a shower when the baby is down. The lavender scent tricked my brain into relaxing even when my mind was racing through every worst case scenario. For the anxious new moms, this small ritual helps.
Customer reviews for Burt's Bees Butter Body Lotion for Dry
Toss these on your bed when the night sweats hit hard. They dry fast, wash without pilling, and I stopped caring about ruining nice sheets. Bought two sets so one could always be clean.
Mellanni Microfiber Sheets & Soft Microfiber Sheet Sets
Swap to these at night so you're not waking up to a leaked-through onesie AND soaked sheets. Fewer blowouts meant I actually got consecutive hours of sleep for the first time in weeks.
Honest Company Overnight Diapers Sleepy Sheep
Breastfeeding and Pumping Supplies
I thought breastfeeding would be intuitive. Instead I spent the first week crying, Googling ‘is my latch wrong’ at midnight, and bleeding through nursing pads. These products got me through the worst of it.
Bring this to the hospital in your bag. By day two my nipples were cracked and bleeding and the lactation consultant just handed me this. Apply after every single feed for the first month. Your future self will thank you.
Lansinoh HPA Lanolin Nipple Cream 10ml
Wear this so you can actually eat a sandwich while pumping. Holding flanges with both hands for 20 minutes eight times a day is not sustainable. For anyone exclusively pumping, this is the first thing to buy.
Kindred Bravely Sublime Pumping Bra Hands Free
Toss pump parts in one of these and microwave for three minutes instead of boiling everything on the stove. I was hand washing parts at midnight before someone told me these existed. Wish I'd known from day one.
Medela Quick Clean Micro-Steam Bags, 5-Pack
Suction this onto the other side while you nurse. I was losing so much milk to letdown leaking into a towel. Collected four extra ounces a day doing absolutely nothing. That adds up fast in the freezer.
Haakaa Silicone Breast Pump with Suction Base
Stuff these in your bra before leaving the house. I learned the hard way at a grocery store when my milk let down because a random baby cried three aisles over. The adhesive strip keeps them from bunching.
Lansinoh Stay Dry Disposable Nursing Pads
Switch to this if your baby is going between breast and bottle. The nipple shape is close enough to the real thing that my daughter didn't get confused. Saved us from the dreaded nipple confusion spiral.
How do I assemble my Natural Response bottle and teat?
Pour milk into these instead of bags. They freeze into one-ounce sticks that fit inside any bottle. Defrosting a whole bag for a two-ounce feed felt so wasteful before I found this system.
HONGLIN Breastmilk Freezer Storage Organizer
Postpartum Mental Health and Self Care
Everyone asks how the baby is doing. Almost nobody asks how you are doing. The hormonal crash around week two hit me harder than labor. These small things gave me five minutes of feeling like a person again.
Hand this to your partner before the baby arrives. Mine read it in one sitting and suddenly understood why I was sobbing over a commercial about dogs. Short, practical, and written for people who don't read parenting books.
Pre-Owned The Postpartum Husband: Practical Solutions
Scribble in this during nap time even if it's just three words. Getting the dark thoughts out of my head and onto paper made them feel less permanent. For anyone scared to say the hard stuff out loud, start here.
Back To Me: A postpartum journal, (Paperback)
Pour a cup into a warm bath once you're cleared for soaking. The first real bath I took at three weeks postpartum made me cry happy tears. My sore back and swollen legs needed this more than sleep.
Lavender Epsom Salt
Sip this while you pump or nurse. Whether it actually boosts supply or just makes you drink more fluids, the warm mug in my hands during a 3am feed felt like a tiny act of self care.
Traditional Medicinals - Organic Mother's Milk Herbal Tea
Keep taking prenatals but switch to these postnatal ones. They have DHA for breastfeeding and taste like candy, which matters when you're too nauseous from sleep deprivation to swallow a horse pill.
Customer reviews for Vitafusion Prenatal Gummy Vitamins
Use this for a five minute blowout before a pediatrician appointment. Looking slightly put together made me feel 40% more human. For any new mom who hasn't washed her hair in six days, this is fast enough to use during a contact nap.
Revlon One-Step Volumizer and Hair Dryer Brush, Black
Scrub this on in the shower when you get your precious seven minutes alone. The smell is so strong it snapped me out of the fog for a second. Felt like a vacation compared to my usual routine of crying under the water.
Tree Hut, Shea Sugar Body Scrub, 18 oz
Postpartum Wardrobe and Nursing Friendly Clothes
Nothing in my closet fit. Not my maternity clothes, not my pre-pregnancy clothes, not even my husband's sweatpants. Finding things that were comfortable AND gave me access for nursing took embarrassing amounts of trial and error.
Grab a pack two sizes up from your pre-pregnancy size. High waisted enough to sit above a c-section incision, soft enough that the elastic doesn't dig into bloated skin. I lived in these for two months straight.
Fruit of the Loom Women's Beyondsoft Underwear
Wear this instead of fumbling with a shirt at 2am. The snaps open with one hand while you're holding a screaming baby in the other. Washed it so many times it got softer. Should have bought three.
Kindred Bravely
Pull these on when you need to answer the door for a delivery but your pajamas have spit-up on them. Cheap enough to not care about stains, comfy enough to sleep in. For anyone between sizes right now, size up.
Hanes Women`s ComfortSoft EcoSmart Sweatpants
Toss your underwire bras in a drawer for now. This sleep bra holds nursing pads in place without squeezing your sore chest. Wore it 24 hours a day for the first six weeks and it held up surprisingly well.
Secret Treasures Maternity Nursing Wrap Sleep Bra
Keep a pair by the bed for midnight feeds. Cold feet on tile floors while holding a baby is miserable. The memory foam felt ridiculous but my swollen postpartum feet needed the cushion more than I expected.
Dearfoams Womens Memory Foam Comfy Slide Slippers
Layer this over any nursing tank for when visitors show up unannounced. Buttons make it easy to nurse without stripping down. I wore the same black one for three weeks and nobody noticed because it always looked intentional.
Time and Tru Women's Button Front Textured Cardigan
Swap to these when sweatpants start feeling too frumpy for your mental health. High waisted, thick enough to hide a postpartum pad, and stretchy enough for a body that changes shape every single week. Wore them to my six week checkup and felt almost ...
Athletic Works women's Plus Size Dri More Leggings