r/2under2 • u/sheebeezi • Apr 17 '26
Need some cheese to go with my whine Recovering from surgery with 2 under 2
So I’m almost 4 months postpartum with my youngest. Oldest is 18mo. I just got home from surprise-appendix-goes-bye-bye surgery today. I’m in pain, I cannot lift anything over ten pounds (baby is 12 lol) and I’m not supposed to do much bending for the next 2-4 weeks. I’m having to pump and dump for the next ten days while I finish a round of antibiotics. Baby was ebf before this and is now taking formula and I’m so scared she won’t want to nurse after this. My husband has no leave from his job the best they can do for him is let him work from home with flexible hours. This leaves him doing everything physical for the kids, giving me time to pump, and working all through the day and night. He’s already so stressed. We have some family members that are going to be coming on and off through the week but they all work still so help is very limited. I’ve never been in a situation like this where I am so very needed yet almost completely worthless. I’m hoping I heal up at super speed. Anyone else had this surgery? How’d you heal? Anyone been in a similar situation? Could use encouragement, ideas, solidarity, anything.
2
u/Mama_Co Apr 17 '26
Going through this right now. I had my gallbladder removed a week and a half ago. My baby is now 10 months old and my toddler is 2.5 years old. It is not easy. I've definitely had to temporarily lift them at some point in the last few days. It absolutely sucks not being to pick them up. My 10 month old is crawling everywhere (and trying to start walking) which makes it even harder.
My mom took a week off to help the first week and my husband is taking 2 weeks off. So I only get 3 weeks of help and then I'm back on my own with them. I literally have no idea how I'm going to do it. I am just hoping it works out. In the meantime I'm just trying my best to not lift them as much as possible.
I wish I had advice to give you. Good luck with your recovery!
1
u/sheebeezi Apr 17 '26
Ugh yes not lifting them is so very hard. I hope you’re starting to feel a bit better from your procedure!
2
u/kelli-fish Apr 19 '26
Hi! I had a similar issue, but my gallbladder and I wasn’t able to lift anything “over a gallon of milk” for 6 weeks. I was 5 weeks postpartum and my baby was at least 2 gallons of milk at the time lol.
I wasn’t able to completely just stop carrying/picking up my newborn, so we did a lot of adapted things. Example, husband would get baby out of the crib as much as he could then hand him to me. I would set baby down on the bed and get up, then pick up baby carefully to change a diaper or put him back in the crib.
I didn’t get toddler out of his crib for the entire time, there just wasn’t a safe way to put him in or take him out (he’s like 30lbs). If I needed to help him up somewhere, I would hold his hands and basically help him do it without lifting him. We have a toddler tower that opens and closes, anytime I was solo with him, that’s where he ate his meals, then I didn’t have to lift him into his chair. If I was sitting on the couch and he wanted up with me, I’d hold his arm and he’d do most of the work to wiggle up.
If I had to be on baby duty alone, I tried to limit the amount of time I was walking around and holding him, I would make sure to sit down as much as I could.
You do NOT want to hurt your incision site, I’m sure it’s similar but they told me I could get a hernia at the incision if I did too much, so just do your best. I found just thinking through each situation and moving slow was the best way to go. It’s not easy but I did it for 6 weeks, you kind of just find what works each day. It’s the worst when toddler would want me to pick him up but I just made sure to get on the ground and hold him or whatever to still give him what he needed.
I’m sorry you’re going through this, it honestly sucks but you are healing (which is most important!) and you’ll get past it. 💚
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u/ImpressiveRoll4092 Apr 17 '26
Recovering from surgery with two under two sounds exhausting I leaned on family help for the first week and kept everything simple. Rest when they nap even if the house is messy. One day at a time.