The Crazy Night Sweats by Teresa Palmer

Oh my word, I have never sweat so much in my life, I don’t know how I stayed hydrated those first couple of weeks. I would wake up in the morning with a wet bed! I wasn’t even that hot, it’s just that my body was constantly drenched in sweat. I thought I might be the only one, but in talking to Sarah (my YZM co owner) and others I realized. That it was all a part of the post birthing process.

The science behind it is that the sweating is how our bodies eliminates all of the extra fluid we took on in our pregnancies. We, as pregnant woman retain a ton of fluid and it’s the natural way to release it. It’s also speculated that the dramatic drop in estrogen causes the body to sweat profusely. You also urinate a lot more frequently too. Our bodies are such magical things that it utilizes everything it can to help restore balance into our now non-pregnant bodies.

I personally (and I understand this is not the norm) lost the 22lbs I gained in my pregnancy in those first 8 days. Mind you my body responds to nursing as though I’m running a marathon so I was dropping the weight very quickly from a combination of breastfeeding a boob obsessed baby round the clock, eating super clean meals that my husband was cooking me, AND all the crazy sweating I was doing at night time. I honestly thought my body was going wacko!

The way I handled the sweating was by wearing a light cotton t-shirt so Bodhi could still easily access my breasts during the night but I didn’t feel trapped in sweat filled pajamas. I also had a fan next to the bed to help dry me out! Once this water weight was lost the sweating started to die down as did the frequent urination. If your sweating is accompanied by a fever then it could be an infection like mastitis which is common in breastfeeding mothers.