It certainly has been a while! My daughter (R) was born on February 15, 2011, which was a little unexpected. My due date was February 28, but I was sure I was going to be a week or so late, I think mostly because I was nervous about becoming a parent and wanted it postponed as long as possible. Since I was so convinced of this, I decided that I would work until the 18th of February (note: this was a bad idea; I should have taken my mother's advice and taken off a week or two earlier). I decided to do this even though my blood pressure had gone up for the last two weeks and I was scheduled to come in for periodic stress tests (to make sure that the baby was OK).
On Monday the 14th I went in for another routine appointment and found that my blood pressure had risen yet again. They sent me to get another stress test, where they discovered that my amniotic fluid was really low and had almost all disappeared over the last week. So I was told that I would have to be induced. I was not happy about this, as I had been hoping to avoid induction and other interventions, but they told me that it was necessary. So off I went to the hospital, where I spent the morning and afternoon receiving prostagladins (to ripen the cervix in preparation for pitocin) and making various phone calls. B and my father arrived and hung out with me: I really wasn't uncomfortable or feeling anything whatsoever. My mother arrived in the late afternoon.
Eventually they began giving me pitocin as well: I think I got three doses before I started feeling anything, which wasn't until the evening (maybe 10 pm). By then I had decided that nothing was going to happen until the next day, and had sent my mother and father home for the night, although B was still there. Of course then I started labor! It began with vomiting (of course, every time I am at all sick I vomit) and pain in my abdomen. I was convinced that it was the monitors strapped to me that were causing the pain, and ripped them off and left them on the bathroom floor. Unfortunately, the nurses told me I had to wear them for the time being so I had to put them back on. That, however, was the only problem I had with the entire experience; other than that I didn't experience any kind of intervention I didn't want and was never pressured into anything at all. I had been nervous that I was going to be forced into doing all sorts of things, or that they would suddenly give me an episiotomy , but it wasn't the case at all. This makes me suspect that the natural childbirth people are exaggerating considerably about the evilness of hospitals (especially because I didn't even pick my doctor/nurses or have a doula, so I just went with what the hospital provided).
After I put the monitors back on, my labor continued and I was very uncomfortable. They gave me doses of two different painkillers (one I think was some kind of opiate) but I was able to move around as I wanted, and I did, since I couldn't stand being in bed. I spent most of the time crouching on the floor (in a squatting position) whenever I had a contraction. I lost all modesty and concern about how I was perceived and just moved around mostly naked squatting like an animal. At some point the anthesiologist came in and I didn't even care that some strange man was seeing me naked, vomiting and bleeding all over the floor.
B and I had attended a childbirth class, which made up his mind about pain medication (as in I should get an epidural). I was agnostic about it, since pain sucks (I have had multiple kidney stones so am familiar with mind-bending pain) but I was worried about "unnecessary interventions". However, since B was in favor, and I had had to take Pitocin (which supposedly makes the contractions worse), I got an epidural. And I am so glad I did! It was an excellent decision, and has definitely turned me against natural childbirth, as torturing women with unnecessary pain.
Once I got the epidural, my pain magically vanished and I basically passed out for the next few hours (I suppose the combination of the other drugs and labor contributed to this). My body continued laboring, but I was not really that aware of it. In the early morning, I had dilated enough that they told me I could start pushing; I waited perhaps another 30 min or so, and then felt an increasing urge to push (although still not at all in pain). I began pushing, and did so for maybe 40 min? (I am not sure exactly), with the coaching of the nurse and the support of my mother and B. Soon little R was born and they put her right on my chest naked and covered in vernix, with the cord still dangling off. The nurses offered B the chance to cut the cord (he declined because it's gross) and eventually they took R off to one side (though still in the room-- I could see everything-- to bathe her). Then they returned her to me and we all got chances to hold her.
I spent two more nights in the hospital, with R in the room in a little bassinet next to my bed the entire time. I was encouraged to breastfeed, which I had already planned to do, so R just ate colostrum and was not offered any bottles, etc. She only left my sight for about 5 min to get a shot and be weighed. The only problem was the usual hospital issues (ie they wake you at inconvenient times to get blood pressure etc, and the food is terrible), but actually it was much nicer than my other hospital stays have been: I had a lot of privacy (no one bothered me for hours at a time) and they were very responsive (I got attention whenever I pressed my call button within a minute).
Labor was not that bad at all, although of course I think this was because I was lucky (my labor was short and relatively easy). Having kidney stones or even my appendix out was worse. I had very slight tearing, so for the first week or so it was painful and stung when I went to the bathroom. But even the first bowel movement (the next day, I think) was really not that bad. Peeing for the first time was worse, since it came out looking just like blood and freaked me out. I was quite weak for the first few days (climbing up the three flights of stairs to my apartment was tiring) but it wasn't worse than having a slight flu. By the end of the first week, I was feeling not too bad, and was more-or-less recovered by two weeks (I did continue bleeding for the next four weeks though, in gradually reducing amounts). I had sex for the first time after 5 weeks.
All of this surprised me, because based on That Wife and OMG Mandy said I was expecting it to be really terrible, and it just was not at all. However, I did not have a C-section which of course makes it much smoother. Being pregnant definitely sucked way more than giving birth, which after all was just a few hours.
I will have to post about what it's like being a mom later.
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