I have had 3 c-sections. When my 2nd was born he was 2 years 2 months and when my youngest was born my eldest was 3.5 and my 2nd was 16 months.

For my 2nd section my eldest at 2 was a little scared of the tubes etc but it wasn't a huge deal, for both they came and saw me in the hospy the afternoon after the surgery. They survived great without me whilst I was in hospital. I was a little worried but my husband never had any issues with them for those couple of days (I was only on hospital 3 days with each of them)

I had some help with family in the first few weeks after surgery for the heavy lifting. But I spent the weeks leading up to surgery teaching my littlies how to climb into car seats, booster seats and beds to make life a little easier. After a week or two I would get them to climb onto the couch and pick them up from there.

I never had any issues with them sitting on my lap. My pain was always fairly minimal. I was worried how I would cope with the other kids after each surgery but after its happened you just make it work and you'll find you were stressing for no reason. At least that's what I found.