After the birth of my son, I was in for many changes. My body was healing and adjusting to the lack of sleep.
My chest ached from the milk that was constantly being produced, and the rest of me continued to look like I was still four months pregnant.
I struggled with breastfeeding and keeping up with the nutritional needs of my baby for long feeding sessions during the day and exhausted night feedings.
Also, I noticed that every night when I awoke to his hungry cries over the monitor, my skin was drenched.
It seemed to start just after coming home from the hospital. The first night, I woke up and was freezing cold. I shivered as I made my way to the closet, where I fumbled through the dark until I found a pile of sweatshirts.
I layered on two over my pajamas and moved back towards my bed, my teeth still chattering. My husband woke up and asked me what was wrong.
“I’m freezing,” I managed to whisper through the chattering. He wrapped his arms around me under the covers and I placed my ice cold feet between his warm legs.
Next came the sweaty nights. Without fail, every night for what felt like weeks, my pajamas were soaked when I woke up for nightly feedings.
My hair stuck to the back of my neck, my skin was sticky and wet, and sweat soaked my nursing tanks. It reminded me of having a fever break.
I began to actually keep a second set of pjs close to the bed so I could change. I didn’t remember reading about it in my pregnancy books.
I started to wonder if something was wrong with me. Then I talked to some of my mom-friends and realized that they had experienced something similar.
Was it related to breastfeeding, hormones, or my body losing fluid over weeks after giving birth? I don’t know. I meant to research it but since I was still experiencing “pregnancy brain,” I never remembered to do it.
It eventually went away, but I still I had very similar experiences after giving birth with my next two pregnancies. For weeks, I felt like I was “sweating off the baby weight” without a single trip to the gym.
Edited by Jessica Obert