Can I Wear Makeup During A C Section

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Equally I went through my most recent C-section with Zion, I could non cease thinking about how I wanted to write a blog post sharing practical details well-nigh the surgery, what to expect pre- and post-op, and an insider's encouragement/tips. I know how nervous I was to have one with our firstborn, and so my goal is to put your mind at ease if yous have to have a C-section!

Before we become started, allow me preface all of this by maxim that every woman's story is different. Every woman'southward torso is different. And every woman has a dissimilar doctor and hospital. Some of what I share today might not employ to you! Just, for the about office, the data beneath is pretty standard for planned C-sections. And I am hoping that other C-department mamas will chime in with their comments below and we tin can all support one another!

And so here nosotros go!

Why do people have C-sections?

There are lots of reasons why C-sections happen. Here are a few…

Infant is in the breech or transverse (sideways) position.
The placenta is covering the neck (this condition is known every bit placenta previa).
Yous have had C-sections before.
The baby is predicted to exist likewise large to pass through the pelvis.
Emergency situations like infant'southward centre rate becomes irregular during labor, the period of claret/oxygen through the cord is restricted considering of cord or baby's position, the placenta has started to detach from the uterine wall, or the baby is not moving down the birth culvert.

Click HERE to read about why I had to have my showtime C-section!

I accept had 2 more surgeries since! They don't necessarily get easier physically (I am getting old, people), but they do get improve mentally. I am thankful that knowing what to await (too equally having an amazing squad of doctors, nurses, and family support) has helped us through each 1.

Earlier Surgery –

Exercise! Stay as active every bit possible throughout your pregnancy! This will pay off HUGELY on the other side of surgery. I wasn't equally good about exercising this last pregnancy and I tin totally tell. At that place is grace for that, but if I tin encourage you lot to practice it – do information technology! I wish that I had known more well-nigh the Breadbasket Team before my C-sections!
If you take to have a C-department, do some research to make certain your doctor is experienced with them! I volition never forget the night earlier I had to have my first surgery, a friend texted and reminded me that my doctor was known as one of the best C-section surgeons in South Florida. Information technology was such a condolement!
IMPORTANT >> Get your fingers and toes painted the day before surgery. I like to accept one part of my body feeling glamorous throughout this very unglamorous ordeal. 😉
Y'all will non be able to eat or drink anything afterwards midnight the nighttime before your surgery. My outset 2 surgeries were early on in the forenoon, and so this wasn't too difficult. My most recent surgery wasn't until lunch time, so my hugely pregnant and food-dependent cocky was a little hangry about this.
You won't exist allowed to clothing jewelry during the procedure.
Take a shower before heading to the hospital and do your hair/make-up – C-sections are great because you lot don't accept to sweat your face off later having contractions for 22 hours. You will await great from start to end!
When you bank check in at the hospital, they will put yous in a room and give y'all a super attractive infirmary gown to habiliment. Once yous have that on (and zilch else), yous volition likewise put a belt on over your belly that volition go on a monitor in place to track baby's heart crush until you are set for the OR.
The nurses will requite your husband scrubs to wear.
You will be asked to shave your lower regions (this is something that you tin practice at home beforehand and salve fourth dimension! Accept your husband practice it for y'all as i last super sexy pre-birth rendezvous – wink – since yous won't be able to be physically intimate for nearly 6 weeks post-surgery). 😉
The nurses volition start an Iv to allow for fluid and medication administration. I had a super sweet nurse who asked if I planned to breastfeed because if yes, she would put the IV further upward my arm so that my hands were costless for nursing the baby.
They will put some pinch things on your legs that volition periodically squeeze to help keep your blood flowing from the time of surgery until you lot are able to get up and moving again.
They will give you one of those blueish mushroom-shaped surgery hats to tuck abroad your hair.
At this indicate, you lot are basically naked, shaved, and fastened to an Four pole. Merely yous will accept your painted nails!
Y'all will head into the operating room with the nurses. Hopefully yous will have a nurse who thinks to encompass your shoulders and back with a blanket and so that you don't moon the labor and delivery hallways on your way into surgery.
Heads upward – Hubby has to stay behind for near 15 minutes while you are getting prepped.

^^^ Notation MY PAINTED NAILS 🙂 ^^^

DURING Surgery –

In one case you are in the OR, they will accept you sit down on the table to get prepare to receive an anesthetic. For planned cesareans this is typically a spinal. Your anesthesiologist volition have you hug a pillow while he/she inserts a numbing medicine into your spine. That part is a little uncomfortable. Then they will add the anesthetic,
They volition help you lay down on the table. At this point your legs volition brainstorm to experience heavy. Information technology is the craziest feeling because yous tin can totally notwithstanding feel things from the belly down, merely you won't be able to feel pain.
They will butterfly your legs (classy) so that they can insert a catheter. This is the part where I like to break downward any lingering embarrassment on my office by introducing everyone to my who-ha.
Everyone was And so nice in all 3 of my surgeries. It is SO important to have a stiff squad of empathetic eyes in the room (since everyone is wearing surgical masks). I cannot fifty-fifty tell you what a comfort the nurses and doctors were to me through this process! Experience free to ask lots of questions! Information technology's their job to help you feel equally comfortable as possible.
They have yous lay both artillery outward, in a cross position. I asked if they were going to strap me downwards and they said just if I didn't behave. Ha!
They volition hang a big blue drape at your chest. Mine had a little window that one of the nurses asked if I wanted to peek through during the surgery and I politely declined. That would accept taken manner too much mental energy for me to not throw up or freak out.
Side by side the doctor comes in and and everyone in the room introduces themselves. I liked that function. It gave me a run a risk to say thank you to specific people existence so instrumental in my intendance and our infant's!
The doctor begins the surgery.
An incision will be made through the wall of your abdomen and so the wall of your uterus. You volition probably feel slight force per unit area at the incision site, simply not whatever hurting.
Note – You may smell something not corking during the procedure. It might be burning flesh. It sounds awful and information technology is, but you will be okay. I just wanted to make yous aware of this possibility so it doesn't alarm you.
At this point, Hubby can bring together you! He will enter the OR looking amend than Dr. McDreamy and you will exist so relieved to have him by your side again.
When the doctor is ready to pull the baby out, he will tell you to become gear up to feel some force per unit area. This "some pressure level" is more like a rhino sitting on your chest. I did not like this office and had to speak a few of my favorite Bible verses out loud to go on my mind on what is splendid and praiseworthy instead of wondering how many people in the OR were piled under my boobs.
Baby volition exist pulled out and everyone volition get to work making sure the baby is good for you. Hubby will get to cut the string. For us, the doctors did all of their initial examinations on a table that was inside my eyesight. I got to see our babe flailing and crying and I basically told everyone to hurry upwardly so that I could get my hands on him! 🙂
One time babe was fix, they laid him on my chest and I got to talk to him for most ten minutes while they began to close me up. It was the best distraction.
After that, husband got to become with baby to our room for skin to skin time while they finished the surgery.
Your uterus and abdomen will be stitched upwardly. The stitches in your uterus volition dissolve on their own. Depending on your doctor's preference, your abdominal incision will be closed with stainless-steel staples or nonabsorbent sutures, which can be removed anytime after three or four days, or absorbable sutures beneath the pare surface, which dissolve on their own.
They will cover the incision surface area with large pieces of what feels like Duct Tape and so you are ready to get be with babe!

AFTER Surgery –

You volition be lifted onto a infirmary bed and rolled to your room. They put babe right to my breast every bit soon as I got settled. This was such a approval to me considering I wasn't able to nurse so quickly later on my first two C-sections.
ITCH Urban center >> Y'all, as the anesthesia was wearing off I had a serious instance of itchiness. Like I wanted to just rub my face up on a porcupine for relief. Exist warned.
Also, go set for some serious gas. Your abdomen was just open to the universe of elements and now you have some extra air floating around your insides. This was probably the most painful part of the surgery backwash for me! My incision hurting was a piece of block compared to the gas pain I was feeling upward in my shoulders post-surgery. There is medicine y'all can take to help with this, or you lot tin manage it naturally by drinking some hot ginger tea and go moving as soon as they allow you lot to.
Best C-SECTION RECOVERY TIP – Go OUT OF BED As Shortly AS POSSIBLE! My hospital said I could get up within 12 hours of my surgery, so around i in the morning I asked for my catheter to exist removed and so that I could get out of bed. Take it slow. If you move also quickly, y'all could laissez passer out. Yous have been sitting for a long time and yous have not eaten. This is a recipe for disaster if you try to conquer too much as well fast.
In that location will be a lot of blood. For the outset day, the nurses will change your bed regularly – nurses truly are heroes. In one case you are moving on your own you volition article of clothing a behemothic pad and a pair of Mesh Underwear. Daughter, Allow ME TELL Yous RIGHT NOW HOW MUCH Yous Volition LOVE THOSE MESH UNDIES – SO Go YOUR HANDS ON As MANY PAIRS OF THEM AS Yous CAN.
It will be a big bargain for you to pee and poop on your own. They may give you stool softeners to help your trunk get set to go #ii again since it will accept some fourth dimension for your insides to figure it all out once again.
Find out when you tin eat/beverage again. They had me showtime out with liquids almost 18 hours subsequently surgery. This was probably the lowest point for me postal service-surgery, I was STARVED, struggling with the gas pain, and notwithstanding attached to the IV. And I was sipping soup broth. I just had a baby and I wanted a filet mignon. I deserved a filet mignon, But hang in there. Information technology will get amend!
Medication >> I chose non to take the Percocet that the doc prescribed. This was a totally personal decision! I actually wanted to be nowadays with my family after everything was over and I also wanted to exist mindful of what I was putting in my trunk on peak of everything else information technology had endured, so I stuck with Ibuprofen here and there to manage any discomfort.
Tip – Practise not look too closely in a mirror after your surgery! You will be puffy from IV fluids and may look like a swollen pickle. Y'all will have a big giant surgery area. You lot volition take mesh underwear and a pad the size of a meter stick. GRACE AND PEACE TO YOU SISTER. BUT you lot will still take your painted nails.
Drink lots and lots of water. The goal is to flush your system to get all of the extra fluid out. Drinking and peeing was SO helpful in getting me back to feeling somewhat normal again! Staying hydrated will also help your milk supply if yous are breastfeeding.
Go on MOVING. You lot will probably not like information technology, but you have to continue getting out of bed. Take walks around the postpartum hallways. Pray for the other mamas going through their ain postpartum issues as you pass closed doors. Make friends with everyone at the nurse station. Only go moving!
Hug a pillow >> It is going to be super painful to do the following three things: laugh, coughing, sneeze. Holding a pillow to your tummy will help with this. My husband is a funny guy always but for some reason later I have C-sections, he suddenly becomes like Jim Gaffigan'southward humour twin and I had to inquire a nurse at one point if someone has ever dissever open their incision from laughing too much. (For the tape – no.)
We had our babe on a Friday, and then by Sunday morning the nurse removed the record from over my incision and I was encouraged to accept a shower. This volition be a completely wonderful experience unless you forget to bring your own bath towels. The hospital ones are basically similar sandpaper cocktail napkins, and then make sure to add towels to your infirmary pocketbook. They will tell you to let water and soap wash over the incision (practise non apply directly) and then make sure the area is patted FULLY dry when you are done.

Click HERE to read what I packed in my C-Section Hospital Pocketbook!

AT Dwelling –

Yay! You fabricated information technology home! This is no small feat, mama. I am so proud of you! Yous volition love beingness home for the rest of your recovery. The only thing you might miss from the hospital is the support bar adjacent to the toilet in the bathroom. 😉
You will not exist allowed to bulldoze for 2 weeks post-surgery, and then if someone offers to aid – say YES, PLEASE. Have friends and family bring a repast, drop off groceries, or take your older kids to the park. It takes a village, daughter, then allow your village anoint you.
For me, Solar day 5 mail service-surgery was a definite turn-the-corner kind of day! I however felt discomfort getting up and down and my incision was tender, but overall I felt so much meliorate!
Incision care at home – my doctor told me not to do anything to the incision except wait for the piffling adhesive strips to fall off and to brand sure I patted it completely dry out after showering. I likewise found it helpful to wear super loose wearable so that nothing was rubbing against that area. I Honey the Nursing Dresses from Undercover Mama for this very reason – I basically live in mine these days!
Don't miss your follow-up appointment with your OB so that he/she can check on your incision and brand sure information technology is healing well.
And above all, bear witness yourself a truckload of grace, girl. You just had major abdominal surgery. It does get amend, just every bit you recover, call up to be patient with the process and savour those newborn snuggles while you sit in a comfy chair with a pillow in your lap.

Finally, if you lot had a C-department and you are struggling with feeling like you "missed out" on a "real" nativity feel, let me speak over that existent quick >>

I GET IT. I struggled for a long time to get over the disappointment that I couldn't have a natural birth. Even during the months leading up to my 3rd surgery, I prayed fervently that I would accidentally have the baby naturally! At that place is a part of my eye that only really wants to know what that is like. Plainly, that didn't happen, so I have establish it very healing and very helpful to remember a few things…

Take your disappointment to Jesus. He wants you to lay your heart – disappointment and all – before Him. Tell Him everything. Then find a way to land at these 4 words, "YOUR will be washed." There will e'er be hurts and disappointments in life. The goal is to surrender it all in faith, recognizing that He is a adept and loving Father and does what is all-time for His kids. I may not fully understand why my birth stories happened this style, but I am choosing to trust that His ways are higher and always way ameliorate than mine!

And, by golly, I will make the all-time of this story He has written for me for His glory!

Likewise, who cares?! You accept a super ambrosial, perfect infant in your beautifully manicured hands and that's really all that matters.

Click Here to read my top 10 reasons why I loved having a C-department!

Well, this was a novel. God bless you for reading it. If you are having a C-section (or have had one already), I am praying that you found something here that was encouraging and helpful equally you join the incision sisterhood.

Joyfully,

Julie 🙂

Julie Brasington is a Preschool Director, married woman of a South Florida Worship Pastor and mom of three boys. She writes at Happy Dwelling house Fairy where you can notice easy craft ideas, FREE printables, simple recipes, holiday fun, thoughts on raising kids, and encouragement for moms.

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