About Us

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The purpose of our blog is to share our journey through life with family and friends while we leave our mark on this world. Our 20's have been very kind to us and as we enter the 30's we are hoping to continue to enjoy our time in this thing we call life. I should have called this blog "Traveling through Life".

Friday, February 21, 2014

Post Delivery Thoughts

Wow it has taken 9 weeks for me to have the time to write another blog post. Life is crazy with a newborn but it is starting to settle down.

Every time someone has asked me if I would have another baby here are my answers.

Pregnancy - Easy and I would do it over.

Labor and Delivery - Easy enough for me that I would do it over again.

Bringing home a newborn - ......this was super tough and my answer was no. One was enough for me. Now that things are getting better I could change my answer down the road but we'll see.

My labor and delivery couldn't have gone better. Granted there were some things we had to modify from my birth plan but they were necessary and I was 100 % ok with the changes.

They say there are women who have pain free labors. I'd say I was pretty close to that. My contractions were not painful. It just felt like a lot of pressure.

I still laugh about how prepared we were with our bag of "Bradley Tricks" and I didn't need a single thing. Matt kept offering things to me but all I could do was focus in the moment and not think about anything we had brought with us. The hospital did a great job of already having my room dark when we arrived with music playing that the hours I downloaded on the iPod were not needed.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I could not have done it drug free without Matt and I strongly feel that he did as well as he did because of the training we went through. Although the pressure I felt was not painful it was very intense and he was the only way I got through it. He massaged my lower back for hours. HOURS! I knew he was exhausted but I didn't care.

I regret only two things that I learned from the Bradley classes.

1. "Standing and pushing is more efficient." While this is true it did not work for me and I did it for hours. This only exhausted me and delayed my recovery a bit. If only I would have known how well I pushed while laying down.

2. "Pitocin is routinely given post delivery to help the uterus contract and it is not needed."
I discussed this with the doctor and told him I didn't want it. Right before it was time to push I got scared and told him I changed my mind and would leave that up to his professional opinion. He said he would see how things were going. My uterus had a hard time contracting back and they did have to give it to me. He tried for several minutes to get it to back and this was the most painful part for me. I think I lost more blood than I needed to and without the Pitocin I might have been in trouble.

I really really wanted my doctor to be there to deliver but I got the other doctor in the practice and he was amazing. He never tried to force anything on me and let us have our privacy.

I only saw the doctor for little brief moments so I have to say that labor and delivery nurses are AWESOME. Matt says they are just doing their job but I think it's a tough one. My labor nurses really had it easy with me because I asked them to leave us alone. The postpartum nurses were fantastic and I was sad that I had to leave their care and go home.

I completely underestimated how difficult breastfeeding can be for some women and I was one of them. I don't want to ponder on those first 6 weeks so I will just say it is better but still not perfect. I understand why women give up on it. I thought about it a lot but talked myself out if it each time. While I am still in discomfort 11 weeks later I understand why and will live with it. I figure if I can have a drug free labor I can manage this. I am producing milk, Jackson is gaining weight, this is a free and perfect food for him so I will carry on as long as I can.

I had no idea a condition existed called "mommy thumb" but I have it. It started as soon as I brought him home and my doctor says it will last until he is about 6 months old. It is from excessive use of my thumb and wrist from picking him up and nursing positions. It is very painful but there is not much that can be done so another thing I will manage.

Sleep deprivation. This is something I expected but I didn't realize how badly it can mess with you. I love my sleep a lot. The first ten weeks, I had a little boy that didn't know how to sleep on his own. So we were constantly needing to help him to sleep for it only to last 30 minutes and then we start over again. Finally we are making progress. He will put himself to sleep and I can count on 4 naps a day that are at least 90 minutes. We are still suffering through the nights and I thought better day napping would help the nights. NOPE!

All of this is worth it every time I get to snuggle on this sweet little boy.