World's Best Perineum Ice Packs

Healing after birth totally sucks. As if trying to keep a crazy, little milk monster alive weren't enough, you've got to worry about an extremely tender vagina that is bleeding more than you ever thought possible. Oh joy.

I only had three stitches with my little: one on the top, one on the bottom, and one on the side. I think I'm pretty lucky, considering a friend of mine had her LO's head and arm pop out at the same time and ended up with nine. Even if you don't need any stitches at all, your downstairs is going to need some love. Except the hospital cold packs totally suck. They stay cold (kinda) for about thirty minutes tops, and their design means you end up sitting on what feels like a really thick balloon, digging sharply into your lady-bits. Not fun. Not soothing.

I was fortunate enough to have an incredible nursing staff during recovery who made the world's best perineum packs, and I thought I'd pass the knowledge on. I probably went through two to three of these a day after I came home from the hospital, so plan accordingly.

You'll want to start with big, cheap pads. Make sure they're the fluffy ones filled with cotton, not the thin gel-filled kind. These Poise pads worked quite well, but if I were to do it again, I'd get the kind with wings.

Next, cut a little off the top, straight across.

You'll want to make sure you can access the inside.

Next, separate the inner cotton from the plastic back-side of the pad. I did this by sticking the handle of a spoon down the back and pushing it from side-to-side. Be careful not to split the plastic. 

Stuff it full with crushed ice - fill it as full as you can. 

Fold the BACK side (the side with the adhesive) down and tape it up with regular Scotch tape.

Next, you'll want to pick up the giant, extra-long, overnight maxis. The Always Overnight worked well for this.

Remove the adhesive from the back of the ice pack and stick it to the front of the overnight pad. This will help absorb the water from the ice as it melts. You can tear the wings adhesive strip in half so they don't stick to the bag when you freeze the packs later on.

At first, I used Tucks pads and layered them on, then sprayed it with Lidocaine spray to make them stick to the pad (instead of me), but I've since found these incredible padsicles that I think would make a really good combo. That's what I'll be doing when I make these for friends.

Fold the bottom up and pop them in gallon-sized freezer bags until you need them! I layered four or five in a bag. The only down side with these pads versus the hospital packs is that they leak a little as they thaw. It feels great on your stitches, but sometimes the overnight pad doesn't soak it all up, and you end up with a wet spot on the couch, so be sure to bring those big, blue absorbent pads home from the hospital to sit on. 

Happy recovery, ladies!