i was at the stage of shuffling, a few steps at a time, and needing to be close to walls, to hang onto for support. so i got wheeled to the car.

i'd spent five days in hospital for an emergency c-section, and when they opened me up, there were complications (bilby wasn't breathing when she was wrenched out of me by the leg). ANyone else have "bandl's ring" happen to them during labour? your baby gets strangled by your uterine muscles, literally.

it would have been nice to have had a straightforward/healthy labour/birth, so that i could walk to the car, and hold my baby.

i remember being scared, and in so much pain, i felt EVERY bump in the road (on a ten minute journey home) and i was so upset i coudln't twist around to see how bilby was in her carseat. i was worried she wasn't strapped in safely enough.

Getting in and out of the car was so ouch.

DH half carried me inside once we got home.

really hard to look after a nb when you're feeling that poorly.

so all these people that are up and about three days after their c-section, good on them, but it sure wasn't like that for me. (took months to recover).

i think it's like bad period pain, if you've never experienced it, it's easy to think "oh they must be putting it on". As soon as you experience it yourself, it's like "whoa, it IS bad".
I felt so brainwashed that "everyone was fine after c-sections", that when i wasn't, i was too embarrassed to admit it, at the time, in case i was accused of malingering. Just knew how i felt, and felt like a failure (about taking so long to heal, walk normally again, being in pain etc.)

Often the times i have mentioned it, subsequent posters put comments about "pain threshold tolerance", i actually know i have a high pain threshold, because i've been told so by medical staff.