6 Weeks...

I had my six-week post partum dr.'s appointment yesterday. Wow. What a cruel and unusual pregnancy milestone.
No but seriously... It actually wasn't as bad as I anticipated and it appears that all the horrific damage my beautiful baby boy inflicted upon me on his way out has pretty much healed. So my doctor gave me a clean bill of health and sent me on my way with some goodies (a.k.a. sample packs of birth control pills in a pretty pink bag) and the motherly advice that children spaced about three years apart are ideal. I wholeheartedly agree.

And since my six-week appointment is the conclusion to my first pregnancy, I thought I'd do a little review of the last ten months or so. I'm hoping it will help ease the worries of any of my readers who may be pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant someday... this is because I am a big fat pain wuss who hates all things related to doctors and hospitals. Not only did I get through the whole experience pretty much unscathed, I'm going to do it all again in a couple years.

So, without further adieu, here are my thoughts about the pregnancy experience. ;)

- I found out I was pregnant last July 15th. That was scary. And then it was exciting. And then it didn't feel real, until my clothes stopped fitting one by one.The first trimester flew by and was pretty painless and uneventful... and then the puking started. I used to be afraid of throwing up... a lot people probably are. When you do it everyday though, you sort o get used to it. hehehe... Also, at the beginning of the first trimester, I was petrified of the idea of labor, but I quickly decided that it was far enough away that I could go into denial for awhile. ;)

- The second trimester was way more fun. We ordered furniture for the nursery and found out what we were having. Tom and I even took a trip to Disney World in my fifth month. The second trimester was easy, despite the throwing up all the time. It's the most amazing thing to feel a baby move inside of you for the first time. Didn't think about labor at all...

-The third trimester was when things started to get difficult. I just kept getting bigger and bigger.When it was all said and done, I gained 35 pounds. It also felt about three times as long as the first two trimesters. At the time, it seemed completely unimaginable to me that the pregnancy could seriously go all the way to my due date. But it just about did. Oh, and I was reminded of the inevitable conclusion to my 9-month adventure when we took our childbirth class in my 7th month.

-My doctor decided to induce ONE day before my due date. At this point, I was no longer afraid of labor. I didn't care if the baby had to come out of my NOSE just as long as it got the heck out of me. That's what 32-weeks of throwing up, not being able to tie your shoes or roll over in bed, and having no clothes that fit will do to you.

-The induction got off to a quick start and I got the epidural after four hours or so. Wow. Whoever came up with that little invention should be knighted. I'm pretty sure that even if needles are your worst fear, you will practically want to kiss the person who comes in to stick this nine-foot long one in your back. Contractions (the ones I felt before I got the blessed epidural) felt like really bad menstrual cramps. Nothing too horrific. I hope I can get induced next time.

-I won't lie. Pushing sucked. A LOT. But my epidural fell out, so I felt more than I should have. I have heard from others that if the epidural stays put, pushing isn't bad either. These people are the reason I say I will do it all over again someday. After they got it working again, I just felt a TON of pressure. I remember thinking at some point during all of this, that maybe I didn't want a baby after all or that he could just stay where he was indefinitely. But Tom and the doctor told me it was too late for the first option and that Ben was coming out no matter how many times I claimed that he wasn't.

-Ben came out. That felt REALLY weird. Suddenly there was a wet, naked human ON my stomach instead of inside it. I didn't cry. I remember thinking that was weird because I cry through the baby shows on the Discovery Channel every single time. Oh, another interesting thing to note is that sometime during the whole pushing process, I lost all sense of modesty. The next three days, about a hundred different people saw me naked and not only did I NOT care, but I was always happy to see them because they were usually coming to clean me up and that always felt better. Weird. This was one of the parts of childbirth I always dreaded and it turned out to not matter to me in the least. The other part that I was scared of from day ONE was having to have a catheter. Again, I got over that quickly because not only did I not feel it at all, but I was ecstatic that I didn't have to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. It was actually kinda nice.
;)

Fast forward to six-weeks later and I feel completely normal. It's hard to remember what it was even like to be pregnant or that I was miserable during parts of it. That's why I'm glad I have this blog, since I documented all the icky daily details. I now realize that all those months, I shouldn't have been worried about labor and delivery at ALL. Instead, I should have been worried about adjusting to life with a newborn because frankly, that's been the hardest part of the whole experience. But slowly, that's getting easier too, and I'll probably forget about the bad parts soon enough.

And that forgetfulness, my friends, is why there are not more one-child families. That, and babies are REALLY cute when they're not screaming.