My baby girl is one month old as of the 16th. I think now is a good time to write some things no one tells you about labor and delivery...well, no one told me at least.
WARNING: this post might have TMI, but I'm just being honest about my first experience giving birth.
*This is my experience as a first time mom. Everyone's birth experience is different.
- Your water can "break" multiple times.
- I got admitted after my water broke at home. The doctor came in to check me and he questioned me asking, "are you sure your water broke? because I feel it's still there between the cervix and the baby".... So, yes...my water broke at home and the doctor broke it again.
- Contractions feel like constant period cramps that won't go away, well, for those few seconds/minutes. They aren't stabbing pains or unbearable, just uncomfortable and annoying. At least that's the experience I had with contractions.
- Getting the epidural didn't hurt at all. Some women, I know, are scared of needles or pain, but this hurt less than when the nurse put the IV needle in my arm.
- Side note about the epidural: they send your partner outside while the anesthesiologist puts the epidural in. I guess too many partners have passed out while watching this being done, so they just send all husbands out of the room (at least my hospital did).
- Once your epidural is in, your contractions and your progress might stall or go backwards.
- This was the case with me. Once my epidural was in, my contractions weren't progressing like the nurse and doctor wanted to.
- The nurses do way more work than the doctor.
- I was in the same labor and delivery room for around 30 hours. The doctor was maybe in my room for a total of one hour throughout my whole stay. He came in to check on me every few hours. But, it was the nurse and my husband who stayed with me, helped me push, gave me ice chips and everything else that goes along with labor and delivery. I tell everyone that Mike and the nurse, Katie, delivered our baby. The doctor was in the room to actually deliver our baby and that whole time was probably 10 minutes. And then I never saw him again.
- It is true what everyone says, "once you see your baby and they're here, you'll forget about all the pain you went through just minutes and hours before." It's weird, but it's true.
- After you have your baby, they have to press down on your stomach to make sure everything is out of your uterus...or something like that.
- This process hurts. And the nurses have to push on your stomach multiple times a day to check.....something. I'm not really sure why they do this, but I do know it hurts.
- You will bleed more than you ever thought was medically normal during the whole process.
The moment you see your baby, your heart will experience a love that you never knew existed. I love you, my baby girl!!
