25 years later, my mother still blames me for being two weeks late.
She had both me and my brother completely naturally, aside from the 1970s indignities forced upon her when I was getting ready to make my appearance. Four hours with me and five for my brother. Ouch.
Damn, I feel so jealous reading this thread. Seriously. I know I must be missing something really cool by being a man.
…You know, when I first saw this thread I thought jarbabyj and her hubby had a little announcement to make.
Don’t feel bad, Fiver. I’ve always suspected that I got cheated when I didn’t get a neat little organ that could go up and down all by itself.
…and write your name in the snow 
I forgot to mention the joy of now having hemorrhoids!! I can’t believe no one else mentioned them. I didn’t have them until my 2nd pregnancy and I still have them to this day. What a pain in the ass. [sub]pun intended![/sub]
As for medication during labor… it’s completely up to the woman whether or not she wants it. With my first baby my water broke when I was 35 weeks along. Contractions hadn’t started but they wanted me to deliver the next morning because once your water breaks they like to have the baby out within 24 hours… mostly to keep infection down. I was given Pitocin and within 30 minutes I was in HARD labor. My contractions were 90 seconds apart and just off the charts. You talk about pain! I didn’t ask for an epidural for 6 hours and when they finally got it in and gave me my test dose I was dilated to 10 cm and ready to deliver. I felt everything! It wasn’t until almost 5 minutes after she was born I was completely numb but at least I didn’t feel them stitching me up. The epidural didn’t do me a bit of good and I wish I hadn’t had it for that delivery.
With my 2nd baby I went into labor on my own. My contractions started about 5:30 in the morning and I went to work from 8:00 - 9:00 and then went to the hospital about 10:00. The contractions were about 2 minutes apart and off the charts but this time there was no pain… just a little pressure. The doctor broke my water at 2:00 p.m and I was 6 cm. I got my epidural at 3:30 and they checked me afterward and I was dilated to 9 cm so they called the doctor. 3:45 he told me that the baby was lying face up and had to be turned over so they cranked up the epidural and turned him over and I pushed 3-4 times and he was out at 3:54. Totally painless labor but I still had an epidural. If I hadn’t had the epidural and the doctor had to turn him over like that… I don’t even want to think about how painful that would’ve been!! There really wasn’t a reason for me to have an epidural with my second one but when they asked me if I wanted one I said yes. I just wonder if I didn’t have some kind of a sixth sense that they were going to have to turn him or something. Kinda weird.
I wasn’t allowed to get out of bed with my first delivery so there wasn’t much I could do to try to control the contractions. With my second one I was up walking the hallways for most of the time I was in labor in the hospital. That really helped. I wanted to get into the hot tub but I was advancing too quickly and they wouldn’t let me.
One little piece of advice… after your baby is born make sure that you take stool softners. The first time you poop after having a baby is the worst feeling. I don’t know if it makes a difference whether or not you’ve had an episiotomy but it feels like everything’s falling out!
LifeOnWry:
I’d never claim maleness doesn’t have its advantages and pleasures (although here in Atlanta, writing my name in the snow has never been one of them), but golly! Having another human being inside your own torso? How cool is that? That has to be worth any pain or discomfort it causes.
In the male population, only those of us with parasitic twins get to know what that’s like.
Because the baby grows pretty slowly, its hard to really notice that your intestines are squished (except for the heartburn). Its easier to notice your bladder, because that always feels full. Its more like one day you can sleep on your tummy still, and then it less comfy, and then suddenly you remember you haven’t slept on your tummy in weeks and it would be really nice to sleep on your tummy. Oh, and you can’t lie flat on your back either because the weight of your pregnancy threatens to crush you, so you borrow every pillow in the world in order to sleep semi-upright, or do what a girlfriend did and spend the last trimester sleeping in the lazy boy.
There was a several week period where I was sure my daughter had her little fists around my ovary and was squeezing it. That was followed by regular jabs to the kidneys.
I never had the shortness of breath a lot of people complain about as your lungs get compressed.
Both of my kids had hiccups regularly before they were born. They also started occasionally at loud noises. For example, my son really jumped one morning when I ran the coffee grinder too close to my tummy. I felt a bit guilty about that, but I figure it was nothing compared to the surprise he got a couple of months later.
We are expecting our first critter around the new year. I have been amazed by the things happening to my body that no one ever mentioned - I guess these are the things which, according to my mother, “a lady doesn’t discuss”. Mom’s never been to sdmb.
Things are just beginning to get really squished (I am 5’3") and heartburn is the worst thing going on this week. I’ve had non-pregnancy heartburn and it sucked but this is ten times worse. I would be so appreciative of any suggestions for battling heartburn - Tums are my new best friend, but they don’t keep me from waking gagging in the middle of the night…
That’s exactly what I did with my son. I had one of those long body pillows, and I would get on my side in the Lazy-Boy, with the pillow under my belly.
Oh, the memories this thread is bringing back.
Peeing every 10 minutes, swelling feet, sweating (2 summer pregnancies), unbelievable heartburn…ahh, the joys of pregnancy. It’s a wonder any of us went through it more than once!
But the good stuff…baby hiccups, the rolling around inside you, the kicking back when you poke your belly. Some of it was such a miracle!
:snicker:
Count me in with those who “folded” the new baby up and marveled that he or she had just been inside me!
IANAD, but I have been pregnant, and had ATROCIOUS heartburn throughout. Advice I got too late to help me, but which did help my sister a few years later:
Drink plenty of water, like twice as much as you usually would, and don’t gulp it, sip it all day long. This allegedly “dilutes” your stomach acid, and also helps fool your tummy into thinking it’s busy.
SKIM milk. No other milk will help. There’s an enzyme in skim that actually helps the whatdayacallit, hiatal sphincter(?) to stay closed and fight off reflux.
You need the calcium in Tums, so keep taking them. Alternately, magnesium based antacids are OK, like Maalox. Stay away from aluminimum based antacids. I have no idea why, this was doctor’s advice.
Don’t eat too fast. Little bites, well-chewed, and take your sweet time about it.
That’s all I can remember right now. Good luck!!
Did I really type “aluminimum”?
<sigh> ALUMINUM
Re: accusations of “propaganda”…
I will gladly admit to propaganda in encouraging people to become better educated. All parents must make decisions with regards to the health of their children. The final responsibility lies with you. I think it is not improper or unrealistic to ask that parents make those decisions with full understanding of the benefits and risks of any intervention.
I also do not think it is improper, or evidence of “propaganda,” to reassure a woman (when she asks) that the horrors she has heard bandied about are more the exception than the rule, and that many/most women can get themselves through labor and delivery just fine, if they have good support and if they know what they are doing.
If you want evidence of propaganda, you only need to look at a newsletter I recently received from the hospital at which I delivered 3 of my children. In an article on Pain Management Options for Childbirth, the author asserts that, with an epidural, “little or no medication reach[es] the baby.” Now, I can give you cite after cite of studies that tested cord samples and fetal scalp samples. They clearly show that the medication does indeed enter the fetal bloodstream within seconds. These aren’t new studies. Doctors have known this for years and years. It all depends, I guess, on your definition of “little.” That said, I would be happy to debate the efficacy/necessity/harmlessness of epidurals in the proper thread if anyone is interested.
If you wouldn’t mind, pesch, would you share what variety of “natural childbirth class” you took with your wife? The reason I ask is that, with the knowledge I have, I would never happily have accepted an epidural. I do understand that they have their uses, and that they can be helpful in some circumstances, augmented labors being one. (The intense contractions sometimes brought on by a Pit drip can be unmanagable. Of course, I can also debate the overuse of augmentation.) But it is not a decision I would have made lightly. You describe your wife’s labors as “exhausting” and “messy”, words I might use to describe any labor. I guess our impass may be that those are things that do not necessarily frighten me. I firmly stand behind my assertion that knowledge is power. If you understand what is going on, and why, it is much less intimidating.
zber, basic recommendations for heartburn are to take several small meals throughout the day, rather than the 3 larger meals to which we are accustomed, and to wait a couple hours after eating before lying down. Learning to “graze” is helpful after the baby is born, too, because you will rarely have time for a full meal then, either. You might also want to avoid foods that you find difficult to digest and which give you gas (beans, cauliflower) because they will also contribute to the heartburn. Some women find that it is helpful to prop themselves up on extra pillows while they sleep. There are wedge pillows (designed for propping up the legs) that you might find useful. If you find yourself moving around too much, and falling off your pillows, you can stuff a couple pillows under the mattress, which will raise it up a bit.
[/QUOTE]
I’d never claim maleness doesn’t have its advantages and pleasures (although here in Atlanta, writing my name in the snow has never been one of them), but golly! Having another human being inside your own torso? How cool is that? That has to be worth any pain or discomfort it causes.**
[/QUOTE]
Even with all the discomforts that pregnancy brings, I have got to agree with you on this!
BTW have any of you moms or moms-to-be noticed a distinct loss of brain function? I sometimes think that I am the stupidest human in the world these days! I will be in the middle of telling someone something and a slight interruption will occur, then I can’t remember what I was talking about TWO SECONDS AGO!!! Or I will be telling a story and halfway through will have forgotten the point I was trying to make. PLEASE tell me I’m not the only one who suffers from this!!
Oh, no, Mayflower, you are SO not alone. I honestly believe my child helped herself to a jumbo handful of my brain cells as a parting gift on her way down the cervix.
One of television’s finest philosophers, Woody Boyd from “Cheers”, once observed that pregnancy must feel “pretty spooky, but sorta neato.” From reading these posts, it appears he was correct.
Baby’s favorite food is Mommy’s brain.
I had a really good reply to this comment, but by the time I got to the “Reply to topic” screen, I had forgotten it.
Damn.