Your pregnancy/labor experience

[BJ Dealer]

You pose a question and don't answer it yourself, eh somesay?

Overall I'm happy with how my L&D went. I cried thinking about it for the first week, but just because it was so emotional and unlike how I planned, but not necessarily in a bad way.

It was definitely harder than I was expecting. First off, I didn't expect everything to hurt. No one could touch me anywhere while I was in labor. I knew contractions would hurt, but I could barely stand to let them put monitors on me without a ton of pain. Is that normal? I ended up getting the epidural because of the all over pain. And I do believe the epi slowed things down just because I couldn't feel very well when pushing. When it finally started to wear off (yes, it wore off because I pushed so long) I was finally able to really do some productive pushes. I had asked them if they could just turn it off early, or way down, but they didn't. I'm still just very thankful that I was able to have a vaginal delivery even though it included way too much pushing, an epi, an episiotomy, and a vacuum.

The pregnancy, though, was much easier than I was expecting. I didn't really have any morning sickness, just a little. Never swelled. No strange cravings. Very little pain overall. I did gain more weight than I expected, but I carried it well and have already lost all by 8lbs.

[Squishy622]

My pregnancy was the hardest thing I've ever done physically, and possibly emotionally too. It was just one hit after another, and so much stress. It does seem like a distant memory now and I can confidently say it was all worth it, but damn that sucked.

L&D was great. It really couldn't have gone better other than a few complications right after delivery, and of course our NICU time, but I don't think of that as associated with my L&D too much.

[kc730]

This pregnancy was harder on me than my last two, mostly physically. Between a demanding work schedule, running after the little one, and the horrible hip pain, I was so done. Also going late when my other two had been a little early really messed with my head. I never expected to have to be induced, or to be in labor for nearly 22 hours - again, first two had been so different at 8 and 10 hours. It was my second pain med free delivery and to be honest, I don't think if I do it again I will go that route. I was not in the same place mentally with this one and it made a huge difference. Pushing was better as it was quicker and I didn't tear as much as I had in the past, so healing was also easier.

[cnbpa3027]

My pregnancy wasn't too bad physically, i was only sick for about 14 weeks, which was a huge improvement over the last ones. The SPD was pretty bad, though and started much earlier. I feel like I am so out of shape now because I could barely move for 4 months. Emotionally, after our loss I feel like I wasn't really able to enjoy this pregnancy. Since I already have two healthy kids, I couldn't(and still can't) shake the feeling that we were tempting fate. this makes me a little sad because it was likely my last pregnancy.

As for labor and delivery, I am still a little frustrated about it, but over all, it really wasn't that bad. I never posted a birth story, so here is the short version. I went in to be induced again. When I checked in I was already at 4cm and having contractions every 4 minutes even though I couldn't feel them. Because the pitocin didn't do anything for me last time I asked if they could just break my water and he said no, we had to see how I was progressing first. So I sat on pitocin feeling nothing from 9am until 5:20 when he broke my water. He then left and told the nurses to call him when I was at 7cm. The nurses asked him not to leave given my history (daughter was born 40 minutes after they broke my water last time) but he left anyway. Well, he missed the birth. The wonderful nurse delivered my daughter (again-different doc than last time, though). The nurse was awesome and over all this experience was much better than my last, and once the doc left, I knew he wasn't going to be back in time. I am just mad that this one progressed exactly like the last one, but I feel like my doc didn't take me seriously, or though I was exaggerating. I am happy that the nurses knew, and I could tell that she was pissed at my doc.

[Smootiepie]

Emotionally, the first part of my pregnancy was the worst (PGAL brain and bad NIPT test results), but got better once I could feel DS moving. Physically, I was surprised how easy the first part of my pregnancy was, but then the end was absolute hell. Between the heartburn, intense hip pain, and 3 weeks of constant contractions, I was so ready to be done.

I go back and forth about my L&D experience. All my life I've been deathly afraid of giving birth in terms of whether or not I'd be able to handle it and what it would do to my body. I definitely was able to handle it (especially after the epidural), but then I ended up having to have a C section. Sometimes I feel robbed of the birthing experience, sometimes I just feel thankful that DS was born healthy.

[aves0708]

Physically pregnancy was easier than I thought. I was sick in the beginning but it was manageable and sleeping was rough at the end with my hip pain, but overall it was fairly easy. Emotionally it was much harder. IF and loss really left me with a ton of anxiety and I just kept waiting for something bad to happen. That lasted the whole pregnancy.

My labor and delivery experience was wonderful. I really thought I would need to be induced but I ended up going into labor on my own and even went into the hospital already at 6cm. The epidural was great, I could feel and move my legs but didn't feel any pain, and was able to get some sleep, and my water broke on it's own just after I got it. After the epidural it was so easy going and when I was checked again her head was right there and I only had to push for 3 contractions. The only bad part was I had meconium in my water. Because of this they whisked her to the other side of the room immediately to suction her so I didn't get to see her right away or have her on my chest immediately. It really only took like 5 minutes for them to give her to me but it felt like forever at the time. Overall I thought my experience was nearly perfect for me.

[shadylady]

I did not enjoy pregnancy overall. It was much harder than my first, mostly because I couldn't rest with a toddler to take care of. I felt sick for the first trimester and was exhausted for the whole 9 months. And had serious Braxton hicks starting about half way through. Plus no wine!

My labor was intense but very short. My first son took 24 hours, my second only 2.5 hours. So I barely made it to the hospital in time, no time for any pain meds. But I much preferred the short intense labor! It was really neat to have actually felt everything as I pushed my new LO out. And I got to have skin to skin with him for a solid 2 hours afterward. Loved it! Although I did proclaim "no more babies!" After he came out and they put him on my chest. Cause you know, that hurt!!!

[Squishy622]

Dec 4, 2015 7:27:57 GMT -5 snowbird said:

Dec 4, 2015 4:01:09 GMT -5 @usernamesarehard said:

@moonandback141 , it may be because I'm reading this at 4am, but your post made me tear up. We also had pretty similar pregnancies and labors in a lot of ways, so I can relate to all of that so much. I guess I'm really picking up what you're putting down tonight. Have you posted anywhere else? I need to go find it and agree with it

Me too! Total tears. What a beautiful description of labor, @moonandback141 . Makes me want to do it all over again! (.... almost ...)

+1 except for the almost do it again part! Beautiful, @moonandback141.

[starry]

I'm happy with my RCS now that everything turned out great. The risks were what worried me and fortunately none of them were realized.

My pregnancy was blah but better than my first. I'm so happy to not be pregnant any more. I threw up on and off from six weeks pregnant until the day before I delivered at 40w3d. Plus I was way more tired than now. Plus I gained 40 pounds. Nope. Don't miss it.

[vshumway]

Pregnancy- worse than last time. My back, hips, and pelvic bones were in so much pain this time.

Labor- considering I birthed a 12 lb baby, much better than expected. It was only 13 hours (compared to the 28 of DD) and only had to push for 2 contractions (compared to the hour and a half of DD, that included an asthma attack and an oxygen tank). But the pinched nerve in my back caused the epi to only work in half of my body. So I still had back labor and could feel everything, but was stuck in bed.

Recovery- at first it was much better, but it has taken a lot longer. I'm still very sore and stiff in my hips and pelvic bones.