Congratulations, and blessings on you, your husband, and Lon Chaney Jr.
Regards,
Shodan
Congrats, Zsofia! I’m so glad you got to the hospital in time, and that everybody got to leave on time. LoL!
The belly slice heals faster the more you stay still, so try to make yourself stay put and let somebody else bring the baby to you whenever possible. Move, but do it when it’s just you, so you can prioritize catching yourself if needed. I got a side sleeper, and was thrilled with it. It allowed me to just hug and roll rather than having to get up and pick up, which is very hard when your stomach muscles have been so horribly mistreated. 
Above all, don’t be hero. You have help, so use it. Don’t be afraid to crawl, it is actually faster and far less painful. Roll up onto the sofa and then use the arm to get upright.
At least once per week take a mirror selfie of yourself holding the baby. The day after tomorrow his feet will be down to your knees, I swear. You just can’t believe how fast they grow.
Hang in there, it gets easier!
Congratulations and welcome back!
I tried, but he wouldn’t use them. I didn’t have inverted nipples, or anything.
TMI:What I have are HUGE areolas, and the LCs were insistent that the entire thing had to go in his mouth. I think they were too much, and it was gagging him, because when he started doing things the way he wanted, he was leaving out a lot of areola.
I tried everything. I really think that it just took the boychik getting enough head control that he could do things the way he wanted. I was just glad I didn’t have to wash bottles anymore. We didn’t have a dishwasher at the time.
Congratulations! I’ve learned in my whole four months of motherhood that, if you are genuinely trying, it is really hard to screw up irreparably. And that the nurse line is really used to scared parents and will not laugh at you if you are worried.
I got pre-eclampsia and felt horribly guilty that I had to be induced early. So, additionally, don’t feel guilty about your body having a little hiccup. You are healthy, baby is healthy, everything is fine and nothing that happened was your fault. You are doing wonderfully.
We had much the same experience with ours (I’m a guy, so really it was my wife having the experience with me helping out as best I could).
Like you, we did not intend to have a c section; but after a whole day of labour without results, it was happening whether we wanted it or not.
Some things that happened to us:
(1) My wife got angry with the doc after the surgery; she was supposed to be up and about, and she was in too much pain. Doc was dismissive about it, and my wife shouted at him. This earned her a visit from the hospital psychiatrist, who not-so-subtly attempted to determine if she was crazy.
As it turns out, she had a post-operative infection missed by said Doc.
(2) Don’t even get me started on lactation consultants. The kid would not latch. We did literally everything - I wore tubes on my fingers, we hired at vast expense a private consultant, we were told repeatedly: every baby latches! You just aren’t trying hard enough!" Bullshit. We pumped and bottle fed, for some months.
Do not endanger your kid’s health because some person has a theory that every kid must latch and be breastfed. Not all do.
Anyway, I came out of the whole experience annoyed by the medical profession, but on the other hand - without them, wife and kid would have probably died.
Congratulations, ZSofia!!!
Glad you’re home with baby Tater and beginning to recover. What a frightening and painful birth. Your preemie kid, BTW, is doing great, latch-on or no latch-on. Other posters have said it better, but cut yourself whatever slack you need on the breastfeeding / pumping / bottle-feeding end. Some preemies eventually catch on to breastfeeding; some never do. My daughter fell into the latter category, born at 32 weeks after I ended up with GD, polyhydramnios, pre-eclampsia, and PROM. I pumped for a few months (she was in the NICU for a few weeks) and her latch-on reflex was really not there, so it was breast milk in the bottle for a while and eventually formula. She’s healthy, 18, and heading for college in a month, so don’t worry if you end up giving Tater formula or feeding him breast milk in a bottle. Either way, he’ll be fine.
Also, it can be quite traumatizing to have birth go complicated in a hurry. Don’t worry if you feel freaked out, even fairly long after the fact. I certainly did, and it’s totally normal.
Yeah; if your baby doesn’t latch, and you have to keep pumping and bottle feeding breastmilk, and end up supplementing with formula, that’s exactly what formula is for. Formula probably saved my son’s life, because I couldn’t keep up with him pumping in the first couple of weeks. And I had to sleep sometime. When I was actually getting four hours of uninterrupted sleep while DH took care of him, and the pumped milk ran out, so DH made a bottle of formula, thank goodness.
I would encourage you to keep trying as long as you are OK with it. It took my son just a little over a month to get it, so it could be a while, and I’m glad I didn’t give up, but I was home with him, and not trying to get ready to go back to work or anything. Going all formula works fine for a lot of people, but half & half works too, and it’s an option that is not often presented-- people seem to have an idea that you have to go all formula or all breastmilk.
Ultimately, it won’t matter that much, though. Some day he’ll be in high school, and you won’t be able to pick out the exclusively breastfed kids, from the soy formula because they were lactose intolerant kids, from the breastmilk from a bottle for three months, and then dairy formula kids.
Congrats on the baby and good luck!
CONGRATULATIONS!!!
Just to second/third/whatever what people have already said: this is absolutely the worst bit. It truly does get better from here.
Bear in mind that you just went through something massively traumatic, both physically and psychologically. Our society’s attitude is that women can’t possibly be traumatised even by a traumatic birth, because you got a BAYYYBEEEE which is all women really want, so any emotion other than delirious happiness should be either dismissed or labelled post-natal depression. That’s bullshit. It’s totally normal for you to feel like a truck just hit you, physically and psychologically. Did someone mention that it will get better?
I think I was insanely lucky with both my C-sections, because even after the emergency one I was walking a mile or so with the baby in a sling by Day 6, so I don’t know if this advice is any use to someone who’s had as rough a time of it as you…but I swear by Spanx, or whatever control pants you can get your hands on. They hold the wound in place so that it doesn’t move every time you do something outrageous like laugh or stand up. Made a huge difference to me.
I second what Sattua said about breastfeeding. I love it. It’s great. If it works for you, that’s wonderful. But you know what’s even more important for you and the baby and your family? A relaxed you. If you reach the point where you realise breastfeeding just isn’t working out, then stop. The world will not end. And don’t feel guilty about it.
(WTF is abdominal massage?! It sounds horrible.)
I didn’t get it either, BECAUSE I had a c-section. And it was the reason that I felt like I had a rock in my gut for about four days after I got home, and couldn’t find a comfortable position to lie down, so had to buy one of those reclining pillows. It’s supposed to help your uterus shrink faster by moving fluids out, but if you had a c-section, it can tear the inner incision-- it can tear the outer one as well, but that’s immediately obvious-- tearing the inner one can lead to internal bleeding. I’m surprised the OP got it. Maybe it was a mistake.
Congratulations! I’m so happy that everything turned out well. And yes, C-Sections are from hell. I had one with my first, and back then, in the middle ages, you spent 10 whole days in the hospital after one! I wish they’d go back to that. Anyway, yeah, we’re gonna need pictures, ASAP.
Congratulations!!! I’m glad there was a happy, successful result (albeit with the pain). Take your time, and let yourself heal. Don’t feel guilty, it’s not worth it. And yes, pics when you can. 
Would you believe my husband got a call when we were in the pediatrician’s waiting room that his mom, who went into the hospital yesterday because the cellulitis in her foot wasn’t getting any better, is going to lose the foot tomorrow? (That hospital is, of course, two hours away.) He isn’t planning on staying the night but I had him take a bag just in case. I guess we’ll see just how recovered I am, right? (I can always call my mom, but I really would prefer not to - I really appreciate her running to the grocery store and all for us but I don’t know exactly how much I want her sticking around, you know? I love my mom, don’t get me wrong, but my husband and I had been starting to get the hang of this.)
Here’s a picture. (You can’t see the back hair from here. I really think it’s thinning out, which is kind of sad - it was hilarious back hair.)
The good news is that everything is good at the pediatrician - his bilirubin is fine, etc.
The abdominal massage stuff was definitely part of the c-section - that was in the recovery room that I did my feral cat impression!
You know what almost hurts more than the incision sometimes? There’s a spot way over to the left of the surgical area, so completely not related, where I swear to fucking god somebody accidentally scalpeled off the top of a fat roll or something. Seriously! It’s a super-shallow skinning cut about the size of a quarter or so, like when you were young and not very good at shaving your legs and sometimes you’d take a bit of shin off? Just like that only way, way bigger. I bet whoever did that is the guy who asked “are you crying because of the pain?” It’s big enough to not want to scab over and of course it wants to stick to everything. Youch!
What a beautiful baby.
I didn’t use nipple shields. And if she wouldn’t have latched, I wouldn’t have been able to pump for daycare - pumping was not sufficient to keep lactation going for me. It is what it is.
My son is adopted and was bottle fed formula. And except that he is a teenager - a condition they go through, he’s turned out fine. Don’t worry about it - what works will work.
Lon Jr. looks practically perfect in every way.
My sympathies to the hubby’s mother. That’s horrible.
StG
That is one adorable baby!
Just to agree with what everybody else said-you will continue to get better. You’ll probably be surprised at how soon you forget the pain (keep this thread to refer back to). As long as the baby eats something he will be fine; generations of babies were raised on formula and turned out OK. Get rest while you can and enjoy your little cutie. (And best wishes for a speedy recovery for your mother-in-law; hopefully the thought of a new grandchild will help her feel better).
I really feel bad - she said something really freaking horrible to me on the phone the night after surgery that normally I’d have brushed off as just her usual MO but being full of hormones it really upset me, and I’m still really upset about it, but not so much I actually wanted somebody to cut her foot off.
I’m not a mother, so I don’t know these things. Why did you have to go to the pediatrician already? Is Lon okay?
StG
Zsofia, I have just pronounced myself clairvoyant; I awoke this morning wondering what your due date was and making a mental note to nose around the board looking for news … but promptly forgot until seeing your thread. CONGRATULATIONS! And welcome to the new little spud.
What an ordeal! I’m so sorry you had to endure a life-threatening condition! But so happy you and baby are OK. C-section recovery is so awful. I am like you when I hear women WANT them!? wtf
Take care of yourself! Drink plenty of water and take all offers of help. Put someone on the vacuuming immediately and other chores. Rest, heal and enjoy your new little one!