Wednesday, March 28, 2007

She's a Rule Breaker

So, here were my "rules" for how my body does birth:

1. I labor on Saturday or Sunday night.


Nope. Started Saturday AM and Sunday AM

2. Labor begins at suppertime


See above

3. The baby drops three days before the birth


Nope. She didn't really drop I don't think until labor began.

4. If I wake up still pregnant on Monday morning, it'll be another week

Nope. She was born that night, just 15 minutes before Tuesday.

5. My 40 week babies are "overcooked"


Nope again. She looked maybe a week "early" if anything...

6. I never go past my due date (first baby was 3 days past -- not again since)


Well, she was born 2 days past the "conception date" although I did start laboring on that day.

Lessons I learned (remember, I didn't WANT to learn any lessons? I just wanted to have my baby?)

1. Expect the unexpected in birth. There are no rules. Not even for the 7th baby.
2. Sometimes birth hurts like hell. It is still doable, but sometimes just barely, and only then by someone who is absolutely and totally 100% committed to a vaginal birth.
3. Sometimes even if you want people there, your baby or body doesn't
4. Birth works. Babies come out.
5. Hypnobabies works (even though I did not have a pain free birth, I believe the hypnobabies helped with my reaction to the contractions, and TOTALLY allowed me to have a pain free second stage)
6. No matter how horrid the labor, the sweet baby is worth every minute

3 comments:

Emily said...

Love that list.... each birth can teach us so much. I'm glad you said that about the hypnobabies b/c I think even though hypnosis doesn't always result in zero pain, but it helps you on so many other levels and you can't imagine handling the birth without it. That was my experience, anyway. Wonder how it'll go next time....

Louisa said...

Hey Mama?
could you post some small words to tell me you and babe are well?
Thinking of you...
Xx L

Ferret said...

We did hypnobabies as well.

Um..I love your blog, it rocks!