5 Things I Felt My First Night After Giving Birth

So, this isn’t my birth story, I need more time to work that out. But I did want to share a few things I experienced the first night I spent with my baby boy.  A few of these I was aware of and others… not so much.

I was itchy.

Like, really itchy. Once I got in my room and we were all settled in I started to feel a tingling sensation on my face. It wasn’t bad at first, it felt like a little itch on my chin. So I scratched. Then I started to feel it all over my face. So I kept scratching. When my nurse came in, she explained to me that itchiness was a side effect of my epidural and it would eventually go away. But I couldn’t stop scratching my face! My husband got me a cool, damp rag to put on my face to try to help but it only felt like it was helping if I squeezed out the cold water on to my face constantly. I ended up scratching my face raw that night. I didn’t know it would be so bad!

I had pain.

DUH. It sounds sort of stupid to write about it but I’m not really talking about my c-section pain. Once I was in my room, my nurse came in periodically to push on my stomach to check how my bleeding was doing and it was pretty painful! I didn’t know that they were going to do that, so that is really why I am sharing this part of my experience.

I was super emotional.

I would look down at my baby and just start crying. I would be sitting in my bed and watch my husband sleep on the couch and I would start crying. I would be thinking about what I had just gone through and I would start crying. I know it was because of all of the hormones and fatigue and I knew to expect it and I thought I would be fine but I was a sobbing mess! It was okay though, it felt good to get it out. It also felt good to just say what had made me cry out loud to my husband. We would talk through it and everything would feel normal again. Until I cried again!

The hunger was REAL.

Oh man, was it real. Especially when I was breastfeeding. As soon as he would start feeding I felt the need to stuff all of the food in the room in my face. It was the weirdest feeling! I can’t tell you how many snacks I downed that night. It felt like nothing satisfied the hunger, either. I probably could have eaten all the food in the cafeteria if I had the chance.

The thirst was also real.

I couldn’t get enough water. It felt so good to drink a big cup of ice water. Again, it was pretty intense during breastfeeding. It felt like I probably drank a couple gallons of it that night.

That night, to say the least, was full of new experiences for me. Full of pain and snacks and ice water and tears and joy. Best night ever.