Horror stories? Epidurals don’t always work. (actually for me they never work. When you’re having a c-section this is Not Good).
Aside from that, the c-section was a breeze. The 15-hour induced-because-my-water-broke-but-I-wasnt-ready-for-labor sucked much worse. If you have an overwhelming urge to hit the doctor and/or the labor nurse, there is probably a very good reason for it and you should go with your urge.
Heh heh…these horror stories are actually entertaining, rather than horrifying, me. I think that’s a good thing. LavenderBlue, I would loooooove to follow in your footsteps. 
Thankfully, I’m immune to mumps, so that won’t be happening to me Rhiannon. How friggin’ miserable for you.
Flodnak, duuuuuuuuuuuuude. That’s some serious amount of baby! Glad to hear your labors were relatively uncomplicated, though.
Edward the Head…yeah, I think we’re waaaaaay overstocked on newborn diapers. Considering I’m 5’7" and was an 8lb baby, and hubby is 6’4" and was a 9lb baby, I don’t count on this one fitting newborn size for long. I’ll just keep the extras and see if I can return and/or exchange them.
I plan to breastfeed for at least the first 5 months. When I go back to teaching in September, he’ll need to be on a bottle of course…I’m hoping to have enough breastmilk pumped and stored that they can just use that; otherwise we’ll go ahead and start formula around that time.
Chanteuse, holy crap you win the big baby award! Yeeeeeesh!
Mama Zappa, I’m well aware the epidurals don’t always work…and that they sometimes work too well for too long! Some women are still numb WEEKS later. Ugh. Me no likey and no wanty.
9 pound 7 ouncer after being incuded for everyone else’s convenience at 38 weeks.
Did the drugs, broke the water, was offerred a section after pushing a couple of minutes (or so I’m told, I couldn’t feel jack after they finally got the second epidural placed correctly).
DON"T OPEN THOSE DIAPER BAGS. We exchanged a ton of unopened newborn bags, he was wearing 1s in the hospital and moved to those weird 1-2s within a month.
Have you met your hosptial’s breastfeeding staff yet? If they loan you a pump in hosptial, the fittings will generally fit a Medlea and you’ve just saved yourself fifty bucks getting a set of fittings.
Mynn, I’m debating about buying a new breast pump or renting one from the hospital. The hospital uses Ameda, not Medela. Either one is effin’ expensive…the Ameda complete kit is $230; the Medela is $260. Ouch.
Renting kind of grosses me out. I know all the tubing and fittings would be replaced, but yuck still. The breastfeeding class instructor said Medelas can actually have the milk back up into the machinery; the Ameda has a system that prevents this. Since our tax refund is quite a bit more than we were expecting, I’ll probably just spring for the Ameda, but I’m hesitant to spend so much money on something I’m not sure about. How do I know it’s right for me? It’s not like I can return everything after one use. Bleh.
My hospital used Medela, but I didn’t know it at the time and didn’t keep my fittings.
From what I’ve heard of the ‘older’ pumps, there wasn’t much to distinguish Ameda from Medlea performance wise. My sis tried the ‘old’ Medela (they have some new smart suction thing now) against a hospital pump and even though the difference was told to me by the hospital to be ‘minimal’, she says it was significant.
The diff between the home grade and the hosptial grade pumps aside from that is that the hosptial ones are designed to be sterilized between users. At the hospital I birthed at, staff all used the same one w/o sterlizing between, and they seemed fine with it (or brought their own).
I had to travel, so I had the smaller pump rather than the hosptial one (it was still a ton of junk to carry around, I got a rolling suitcase instead of the dumb bag it comes with); this time around I may pump but I’m hoping daycare works out well enough that I can nurse morning, noon, and afternoon. We’ll see.
Have you ever seen the movie Alien…?
Boy have I. It and its sequel Aliens are two of my all-time favorite movies.
And when sonny boy feels squirmy–like he does at the moment–making my belly deform in all sorts of weird ways, these movies are always what come to mind.
Thus his in-womb nickname, Alien (and Lumpy).
So my question is, can I have your positive attitude for when I’m 8+ months along? I’m at 25 weeks and getting grumpy. I guess it doesn’t help to have a 3 year old at home interrupting your naptime!
I too am a teacher, how old are your students? How are they treating you? Are they old enough to know how the baby got there?
Congratulations on your decision to breastfeed, it was hard for me to get a “stash” built up over the summer, seemed like the little guy was eating all the time. We managed to keep a part time nursing arrangement going when I went back to work. Bottles of formula during the day and “mommy milk” on the evenings and weekends, as with any aspect of parenting, you just have to keep your options open.
Did I mention my first was born at 36 weeks? Keep that option open too!
I don’t have a positive attitude everyday, goransmom!
I teach 6th grade, and not only are the kids old enough to know how baby got there, I taught the Human Growth and Development health lesson to all the 6th grade girls when I was nearly 7mos pregnant. (The other female teachers are squeemish about talking things sexual or period-like with the girls…I, apparently, have no shame.) The school joked I was teaching using show-and-tell. 
I actually had to leave work a month earlier than normal (normally they give you 4 weeks before your due date, and then 6-8 weeks after you deliver) because my back completely freaked out and I could hardly move without severe pain for 3 weeks. I left the classroom very abruptly–I didn’t think I wouldn’t be back–and I plan on returning to visit my kids maybe next week to give an official goodbye. This way they’d have been with their long-term sub for a month and have had time to adjust to her. I don’t want to show up early and disrupt things right as she and the kids are getting used to each other. I will not be returning to teach this year–I’ll take a few weeks without pay no problem to stay home with my son. I will return to full-time teaching in the fall.
Yeah, I’m well aware our son could make an early appearance. In fact, my sisters ALL delivered theirs early–at 34, 37, and 38 weeks. My mom delivered the three of us just a few days before our due dates. So, if family patterns hold true, this little guy won’t go over the due date, and likely will be early. This is why we’re cramming to get as much done now as possible!
What do you do when nasty, evil, impolite total strangers come up to you and grab your belly? I know someone who in return grabbed their crotches.
HA! Okay, no, that’s not what I do. Actually, total strangers have yet to do this. Coworkers, friends, and family have, but not strangers. It happens so rarely with the coworkers and such that I don’t mind.
But my plan is, if a total stranger does rub my belly, I will turn around and rub theirs in return.
We decided not to have our twin boys circumcised and discovered an unexpected benefit: when they pee, it just flows out instead of doing the dreaded pee fountain. So there’s one good reason not to have it done. 
GeoBabe…really?? How cool is that?
We’re not circumcising our son, so this is an unanticipated and very positive benefit. Whoo hoo!
I made a discovery yesterday – I’m a parent.
That discovery came when I realized my brain has made a change. I was carrying my daughter to the tub, sans diaper, when she started pooping. For 38 years, my brain was wired to think “Look out! Poop!”, but last night my brain said “Poop! Catch it!”
Hmmm…now that I read that, it almost sounds like an advertising slogan…
My experience with not circumcising:
My son is now 21 and is NOT happy that I didn’t have him circumcised. He says girls think it’s weird. He’s even considering having it done as an adult. :eek:
It makes me feel guilty. My reasons were not religious, but just that I couldn’t bear to “mutilate” my boy. And his biological father was uncut.
Just something to consider from the kid’s point of view… YMMV.
I understand, Dolores. Our reasons for not circumcising him are similar to yours, although instead of using the word “mutilation” we just hold the opinion that performing cosmetic surgery on an infant just so he’ll look like everyone else isn’t cool. Most doctors actually recommend against it, and recent studies show there is little to no medical reason to have it done. (We’ve researched the crap out of this.)
If he hates it so much when he’s older, he’s welcome to have it done, and hell, we’ll probably pay for it, or at least help pay for it…but then, at least, it’s his choice. DeathLlama is circumcised, but actually wishes he wasn’t. No undoing that, though.
F’real. I don’t know if this is going to change when they get bigger (my guys are 5 months as of today), but it’s sure a nice side benefit for now.
The number of parents who circumcise has been getting smaller all the time (the national average is just over half, I believe), so by the time our fellas are old enough to be concerned about such things, it probably won’t be as much of an issue.
You want horror stories? My dear mother, when she was in labor with my second-youngest brother, came down with kidney stones. Yes, kidney stones and labor at the same time. And to top it off, Desert Storm had just started, so the doctors and nurses were constantly distracted by the television.
A year later, she gave birth to my youngest brother. This time, while in labor, she came down with gallstones.
She hasn’t given birth again.
Good for you! I hope you have a labor as easy and complication free as mine was.
I did not have any pain killers. Key things that helped me:
[ul]
[li]I kept my eyes open, closing your eyes really focuses you on the pain.[/li][li]I thought about mundane things like posts from the dope and the pattern on the curtain.[/li][li]I did not clench my muscles. Those helping me lightly massaged my hand and belly as a reminder to relax. [/li][li]I napped between contractions. The 30 second to one minute naps really helped.[/li][li]I moaned during contactions, making a big O sound and thought the word OPEN, and promised myself I would nap as soon as I was done with the contraction.[/li][li]Someone fluffed my pillow every so often and lifted my hair off my neck. Each time it felt like heaven.[/li][/ul]
It did not hurt as much as I was led to believe, even with the pitocin. As I was getting close to transtion, my voice would catch and I would not be able to maintain the steady moan. This told my doctor I was ready and he did not bother me with another exam. I pushed my daughter out in three contractions. She can flying out and spent most of the first hour of her life nursing.
On circumscision. My husband could not have children because of complictions of circumscision. My brother was not circumscised and chose to have it done at 13 for cosmetic reasons he survived after a week of discomfort.
I am opposed to performing cosmetic surgery on those who cannot give consent, especially if it could interfere with grandchildren.