Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Numbered

First: I am so proud of myself. Because I finally took down the outdoor Christmas lights. On this, March 11th. Clearly, I am ALL OVER my to-do list.

Second: How can I be so astonishingly lazy about things like this yet be driven crazy if the ENTIRE house doesn't get dusted once a week? It's like there's some kind of... priority glitch in my brain. Perhaps there's a pill for this?

Third: I made cherry cobbler today. It was pretty darn good. I'm really rocking the fruit cobblers lately. But I still burnt my last batch of cookies. And the one before that, and the one before that. Cookies. They are my Everest.

Fourth: I am trying to enjoy a drink or two every night until Thursday (last day when I could possibly be ovulating.) Then it is all over for me, my friends, assuming the Clomid works. This sucks particularly since we have a wedding to go to on Saturday. But I never feel comfortable drinking if there's even the possibility I might be pregnant. So, I am currently downing a vodka and orange juice. Which explains my laziness about segue-ing my paragraphs!

Fifth: Tonight I got together with a couple of my friends and the conversation, as is inevitable, turned to pregnancy and birth. We were all telling (or more accurately, RE-telling) our respective birth stories, and it came out that of the three of us, I was the only one who in the end found that birthing was not QUITE as bad as I had expected. Everyone else thought, much worse.
And it's not that I thought labor or delivery was FUN or EASY or NOT excruciatingly PAINFUL. But I was amazed in the end that wussy old me got through it without losing it completely, without even wanting drugs (at least, not the second time. I believe the first time I suggested an epidural at nine and a half centimeters, and was greeted with a hearty laugh.) I also realized, upon re-hearing their stories, that my labors, up until transition/pushing phase at least, sounded much less painful and exhausting. I think I may have really lucked out in this department so far. So here's hoping that trend continues!
What do you think? If you have given birth, was it better, worse, or about what you expected?

13 comments:

Hillary said...

Right after The Boy was born, I looked at my mom and said, "That wasn't so bad."

It really wasn't. I had a fast delivery, and the transitioning was the only time I thought, Oh man! This MUST end. And then it did.

Swistle said...

For me, it was about what I expected in terms of better/worse, but it was so DIFFERENT than what I expected. The contractions didn't feel AT ALL like what I expected, based on everything I'd heard (they felt like HORRIBLE GAS PAINS: stabbing and in one small place, not over my whole tum like I'd expected), and my childbirth class had led me to expect that I'd be walking the halls and so forth, but instead the nurses seemed really keen on me staying in bed. I felt like the whole thing was so different than what I'd imagined---though not worse, and not better, just different.

Erin said...

Hee! This post made me LAUGH at the term "priority glitch." HAHA! I definitely GET that. I've got the same glitch in my own brain.

I feel very fortunate that birth was not as bad as I had expected. Both my boys were induced, about which I felt 100% WHATEV toward. And the labor & delivery were uncomplicated. It can't get much better than that, so I have no complaints about my birth experiences.

Tess said...

Mine was definitely better, but I really think that was due to LENGTH (short). If it went on and on and ON like that, I can see I might have felt differently at the end.

I mean, I ALSO might have had time for the epidural, so who knows. But anyway. I really feel for those 48-hours-of-labor people. Gah.

Emily said...

Childbirth wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I had drugs, though. But I was very nervous about it and it turned out a lot less scary than i thought.

Also, I just took down the last of our Christmas stuff this weekend. . .

Chelle said...

I'm really proud of you; our lights are still up because my husband has had no time to take them down (and is LAZY when he DOES have time).

d e v a n said...

It was different, but it was definitely more painful. I did get the epi each time, although I waited in hopes I wouldn't need it. I think that it's different for different people. I have a friend who doesn't even FEEL her contractions until she's about ready to push. I did not get that lucky. hehe

CAQuincy said...

Labor wasn't as bad as I'd feared. And it got better each time. And even my husband--who used to consider me a big ol' WUSS--was impressed with me and had to change his tune about the amount of pain I could OBVIOUSLY withstand. The last two were completely med-free, and I didn't even have to have stitches. I consider myself very, very lucky!

Jess said...

I am afraid of baking now that we live at high altitude. I think I'll start easy with some brownie mix that has altitude-specific instructions on the box.

Mommy Daisy said...

Yay for getting Christmas stuff down finally. I know how that priority shift can go. I do that a lot.

Mmm, cobbler, yum. I love baking almost anything. Maybe you need some new cookie recipes? Or just call me when you need some. ;)

My labor was different, but I wouldn't say better or worse than I thought. Being induced made much of the difference. They really messed with me with the pitocin. I waited for a long time without an epidural, but finally gave in when I knew I had some time to wait. But all in all, it was an enjoyable experience and I have been ready to do it again since I first gave birth.

Astarte said...

I discovered that I still have some Xmas stuff hanging off of the upstairs sleeping porch!! Whoops!!! Maybe I'll just leave it there or something, and pretend they're fourth-of-july decorations.

Both my labors were way worse than I expected. Josie took 23.5 hours to come out facing the wrong way, and Patrick was induced and his 9.5lbs eventually had to be plungered out of my butt. Not good, my friend.

Kelsey said...

Yes, yes I have that "priority glitch" as well. I might need to use that in a post of my own, but will totally give you term credit!

I didn't labor at all w/ Harper because we knew she was breech and I had a planned c-section. I DID labor with Michael, but that was different than I would have expected because of our situation it was much more medicated/controlled than I would have hoped for under different circumstances: I HAD to be on the monitor constantly, hence NO moving around, I had to have an epidural because there was a strong possibility of landing in an emergency c-section situation, I had to be on oxygen which I didn't like and on and on... I have no sense of time and very little idea of order of events from when my labor got going on a Friday morning until I had my c-section Sunday night.

Katy said...

I never gave birth and now I'm planning on skipping that all together, but i was impressed with my own ability to handle the pain post c-section. I'm a big wimp and I really did not need a lot of pain meds at all. Apparently, I'm not a wimp about having someone cut me up! Just, you know, sweating and stuff.