I am looking forward to having a natural birth. A bunch of people think I'm crazy because it means no pain killers. In my family, natural birth has been a thing for several generations and I see no reason not to do it.
I understand birth is painful, but I think people have a very skewed idea of how painful it is because all you see on TV is women screaming in agony all the time. That's not to say it's not like that for a bunch of women, but it's not like that for all women. My sisters and mother told me it's painful, but it's more the fact that it's strong physical exertion that makes women grunty and screamy.
My wife was literally shaking with pain and getting chills/hot flashes from how bad it was before we had the epidural put in, even with painkillers. If she hadn't gotten the epidural, she would have needed a C-section as she would have been out of energy and nutrition (couldn't even keep water down) before she was even half-dilated. For some people it's no big deal, but don't assume all experiences are equivalent.
We're due to have our daughter arrive in the next two to three weeks. Wife's pretty committed to not getting an epidural, but the hospital offers a lot of other kinds of pain relief including Nitrous Oxide. She feels pretty confident she'll get through it okay.
I've got one more week of work, and then it's 2 weeks of vacation, and then 37 weeks of parental leave. I won't lie, right now I'm as excited about the time off as about the baby.
So jealous of that leave. Having to leave my wife and son at home after 2 weeks sucked.
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Quoththe RavenMiami, FL FOR REALRegistered Userregular
I am looking forward to having a natural birth. A bunch of people think I'm crazy because it means no pain killers. In my family, natural birth has been a thing for several generations and I see no reason not to do it.
I understand birth is painful, but I think people have a very skewed idea of how painful it is because all you see on TV is women screaming in agony all the time. That's not to say it's not like that for a bunch of women, but it's not like that for all women. My sisters and mother told me it's painful, but it's more the fact that it's strong physical exertion that makes women grunty and screamy.
My wife was literally shaking with pain and getting chills/hot flashes from how bad it was before we had the epidural put in, even with painkillers. If she hadn't gotten the epidural, she would have needed a C-section as she would have been out of energy and nutrition (couldn't even keep water down) before she was even half-dilated. For some people it's no big deal, but don't assume all experiences are equivalent.
I think the best attitude to have is a flexible one. Like Jezz said, it lets you relax a bit. If you're too fixated on a particular birthing experience, you may find yourself disappointed and cause yourself a lot of unnecessary stress, during and after. You won't know how it will go for you until you're there.
My wife was very committed to a natural birth for both of our kids, but each time that plan changed once things got too painful. I would agree that a flexible approach is a good way to look at things.
I am looking forward to having a natural birth. A bunch of people think I'm crazy because it means no pain killers. In my family, natural birth has been a thing for several generations and I see no reason not to do it.
I understand birth is painful, but I think people have a very skewed idea of how painful it is because all you see on TV is women screaming in agony all the time. That's not to say it's not like that for a bunch of women, but it's not like that for all women. My sisters and mother told me it's painful, but it's more the fact that it's strong physical exertion that makes women grunty and screamy.
My wife was literally shaking with pain and getting chills/hot flashes from how bad it was before we had the epidural put in, even with painkillers. If she hadn't gotten the epidural, she would have needed a C-section as she would have been out of energy and nutrition (couldn't even keep water down) before she was even half-dilated. For some people it's no big deal, but don't assume all experiences are equivalent.
I think the best attitude to have is a flexible one. Like Jezz said, it lets you relax a bit. If you're too fixated on a particular birthing experience, you may find yourself disappointed and cause yourself a lot of unnecessary stress, during and after. You won't know how it will go for you until you're there.
We had great fun with this:
"You must write a birth plan"
"Honestly we just want to wait til the day comes and take what is the best advice at the time."
"YOU MUST WRITE A BIRTH PLAN"
So we wrote a birth plan and then they proceeded to ignore it at the hospital.
I really wanted an epidural. But the baby was too quick for me to get any pain relief. Worked out OK. . The worst part was actually not pushing while I was still outside the birthing room. Of course, when it was time to push it was difficult for me to do.
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
My wife was very committed to a natural birth for both of our kids, but each time that plan changed once things got too painful. I would agree that a flexible approach is a good way to look at things.
Our first kid was an unexpected C-section due to "lack of progression leading to fetal distress"; we did VBAC classes, made birth plans, explained what we wanted to everyone -- and exactly the same thing happened with kid #2. So I guess it's a good thing for us that we're living in a time in history when you can have c-sections without it being fatal to mother/child..
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
Hospitals really don't give a shit about your birth plan. If you're starting off there you may as well not bother.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
That was pretty much the opposite of our experience, the hospital was all about our birth plan and we had a talk about it and everything.
Laine went natural labor but had to be induced because she was two weeks overdue. She lasted twenty hours on pitocin and not pain medication and had tremendous back labor, and when she finally got an epidural she delivered within an hour.
For our most recent kid the hospital was also super on board with whatever we wanted, but we labored at home without knowing she was in labor (because she broke her tailbone with first kid and has had painful back contractions for weeks), so when we got to the hospital we had the kid in literally eight minutes so it was like, well it's gonna be natural and it's gonna be now, nothing we can do about that.
The nurses in this last hospital were super awesome.
When we came in Laine was in so much pain that she couldn't even sit down in a wheelchair to get to the room, but it was a long walk so a nurse grabbed a cushy office chair and a group of nurses all wheeled her down while holding her in. She had to basically get a battlefield iv because she was busy pushing the baby out while they were trying to get her hooked up.
I don't remember a huge amount of the birth, its all rather hazy. I do remember it being very painful. The contractions for the most part were bearable, except when I could feel them going down my thighs, that felt a lot more painful for some reason. I think even though it is very painful, you do know that it is a means to an end and therefore its not scary. I think having sciatica was much worse as, even though it didn't hurt as much, I had no idea how long the pain would last. Does that make sense?
For the most part they just left me to get on with it and be in whatever position was the least uncomfortable. I managed fine with entonox and pethidine, but I wouldn't bother with pethidine next time as it did nothing for the pain. I think the entonox was mostly beneficial in that it actually made me keep breathing, and was therefore a bit calming. I really would like to have a water birth this time (as I had wanted the first time and they seemed to ignore).
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FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
We were diagnosed with obstetric cholestasis so early we hadn't even got up to thinking about a birth plan yet. At the point Jen's internal organs started failing and toxins building up in her bloodstream, the plan became 'get baby out before full-term, and do it in hospital'.
I'm not sure premature induction comes with a birth plan. Maybe that's the whole thing to begin with.
Yeah, our hospital was super-chill about options. Their only concern was around how long her water had been ruptured (she had a fever by the end of it) and the fact our son was tachycardia for basically half the duration (due to the cord around his neck). Other than that, they were content to let us chill in the room as long as we wanted without any pushing.
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
I'll take any extra happy thoughts tonight.
Since Wednesday, CC's been waking up and either a) sleepping in our bed which is not great but better than b) screaming for hours on end at 11pm, 2am, etc. for no reason whatsoever.
It's likely combination of starting school and the weather and having a little cold, but man, having your almost 3yr old yelling nonesense and thrashing around a condo is not so hot. Sort of like night terrors but seems to be awake.
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GrobianWhat's on sale?Pliers!Registered Userregular
Our hospital was also really great and my wife did have a natural childbirth, but mostly because it all happened so fast. She did get an epidural after the birth, because the placenta got stuck.
And MichaelLC, I feel you, our (4 month old) son has his first ever cold and he just doesn't like it. Running nose and an-and-off fever for a week now. Sleeping is hard when his nose clogs up, but that's thankfully gotten better after a couple of rough nights.
In other family style news, we met with a woman who has helped a lot of people we know get mortgages last week. She told us if we keep up what we're doing, keep using all our spare money to pay down stuff on our credit report and get our credit cards to a certain percentage, we will have a house Fall 2015. Unfortunately this summer of having my niece stay and no one helping us financially did delay things (we could have been shopping this Spring). Ultimately though, it's pretty exciting and my son is completely on board with having a stingy Christmas if it means he gets a better bedroom in the fall.
Found out this week that baby #2 is another little girl, due in February. I can only assume that since my 15 month old daughter has amplified all the joy in my life by 100 fold, this new one will just do more of the same. Everyone assumed I wanted a boy so we'd have one of each, but honestly, ever since we found out we were pregnant again I have been hoping for another girl.
We went out and got the boys their Halloween costumes over the weekend. I think I'm more excited than they are.
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
edited September 2014
Ugh, mixing Batman canon!
You might as well use Batman Beyond's Batman and TAS's Nightwing! Or JL's Batman and Dick Grayson Robin.
Kidding of course.
MichaelLC on
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Quoththe RavenMiami, FL FOR REALRegistered Userregular
I've noticed my desire to have more kids is inversely proportional to how much of a pain in the butt my kid is being at any given time, and directly proportional to how guilty I feel about him not having a sibling to play with.
Ugh, mixing Batman canon!
You might as well use Batman Beyond's Batman and TAS's Nightwing! Or JL's Batman and Dick Grayson Robin.
Kidding of course.
I know, it hurts me a little too. But the TT Robin was the only one we could find. I put my foot down on removing TDK Batman from consideration, though. I figured Batman TBatB atleast having a red/green Robin was a concession I could live with.
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
Ugh, mixing Batman canon!
You might as well use Batman Beyond's Batman and TAS's Nightwing! Or JL's Batman and Dick Grayson Robin.
Kidding of course.
I know, it hurts me a little too. But the TT Robin was the only one we could find. I put my foot down on removing TDK Batman from consideration, though. I figured Batman TBatB atleast having a red/green Robin was a concession I could live with.
Good call. Are you guys dressing up too? So far the consensus is that she will be "Mickey Mouse Club House" and I will be a ballerina. While two minutes of being an actual dancer would kill me, it's not really my thing. Maybe a hobo ballerina?
MichaelLC on
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FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
I wish IVF was publicly funded here. Or even, more realistically, better covered by insurance.
Well, there are limitations here; it's publicly funded, but only for 2 cycles.
And there's prioritisation at work, too. Age is a big factor, so if you join the waitlist in your early 20's, you might hover near the bottom of the queue for years. But it leads to this weird quirk of family planning, as well, because there's a couple years wait, you end up in this situation where people sign up in droves before they know if they actually need it.
Like, if you're of a certain age (basically, in your 30's) and certain financial status (wealthy enough to plan a family and make doctor's visits, but not so wealthy you can't just go straight to private practice), you basically just see your doctor and get yourself put on the waitlist more or less as soon as you come off birth control. Then, by the time you work through the assessment and get to the point where you're funded (roughly 1-2 years), you'll actually know whether you'll need IVF or not.
Like, technically, the IVF waitlist is something like 5+ years. But it's full of middle-class 30-somethings just trying to start a family for the first time without actually knowing if there's anything actually preventing natural conception. And mostly, they don't, so they keep getting pregnant (as we did the first time) and removing themselves from the list. So the actual wait is much, much less than the numbers of people in the queue would suggest.
Ugh, mixing Batman canon!
You might as well use Batman Beyond's Batman and TAS's Nightwing! Or JL's Batman and Dick Grayson Robin.
Kidding of course.
I know, it hurts me a little too. But the TT Robin was the only one we could find. I put my foot down on removing TDK Batman from consideration, though. I figured Batman TBatB atleast having a red/green Robin was a concession I could live with.
Good call. Are you guys dressing up too? So far the consensus is that she will be "Mickey Mouse Club House" and I will be a ballerina. While two minutes of being an actual dancer would kill me, it's not really my thing. Maybe a hobo ballerina?
A Mark Wahlberg from The Other Guys sarcastic dancer
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Quoththe RavenMiami, FL FOR REALRegistered Userregular
Do you guys think it would be a terrible idea to get a backless booster seat for my husband's car for use in a pinch? We don't really have room to store a full size seat in the house, and he can't keep it in his car because of his work. But my kid is only like 35 pounds and 37 inches, which are not ideal for safety, though there are seats for which this is within acceptable parameters.
Asking because I just had to leave work and drive all the way back to his school to pick him up, which is problematic. It's not a super long walk, and my husband has gone to get him with the umbrella stroller before, but in hot weather with the sun beating down, it's also not the most pleasant thing. And in the rain, forget it.
Main thing is to make sure the shoulder-strap goes over the shoulder and not the neck. Most booster seats come with clips and straps to help pull the seatbelt lower if it's not low enough. You should be fine.
"Simple, real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time." -Mustrum Ridcully in Terry Pratchett's Hogfather p. 142 (HarperPrism 1996)
My baby is so sick right now. Some sort of stomach bug and an ear infection. Combined with crying fits that leave her shaking. When I can get the medicine in her mouth, there's a good chance it won't stay down.
Just got her sleeping through the night. I miss sleep.
If that's all there is my friends, then let's keep dancing
Posts
My wife was literally shaking with pain and getting chills/hot flashes from how bad it was before we had the epidural put in, even with painkillers. If she hadn't gotten the epidural, she would have needed a C-section as she would have been out of energy and nutrition (couldn't even keep water down) before she was even half-dilated. For some people it's no big deal, but don't assume all experiences are equivalent.
So jealous of that leave. Having to leave my wife and son at home after 2 weeks sucked.
I think the best attitude to have is a flexible one. Like Jezz said, it lets you relax a bit. If you're too fixated on a particular birthing experience, you may find yourself disappointed and cause yourself a lot of unnecessary stress, during and after. You won't know how it will go for you until you're there.
We had great fun with this:
"You must write a birth plan"
"Honestly we just want to wait til the day comes and take what is the best advice at the time."
"YOU MUST WRITE A BIRTH PLAN"
So we wrote a birth plan and then they proceeded to ignore it at the hospital.
Our first kid was an unexpected C-section due to "lack of progression leading to fetal distress"; we did VBAC classes, made birth plans, explained what we wanted to everyone -- and exactly the same thing happened with kid #2. So I guess it's a good thing for us that we're living in a time in history when you can have c-sections without it being fatal to mother/child..
Laine went natural labor but had to be induced because she was two weeks overdue. She lasted twenty hours on pitocin and not pain medication and had tremendous back labor, and when she finally got an epidural she delivered within an hour.
For our most recent kid the hospital was also super on board with whatever we wanted, but we labored at home without knowing she was in labor (because she broke her tailbone with first kid and has had painful back contractions for weeks), so when we got to the hospital we had the kid in literally eight minutes so it was like, well it's gonna be natural and it's gonna be now, nothing we can do about that.
Almost had that one in the car.
When we came in Laine was in so much pain that she couldn't even sit down in a wheelchair to get to the room, but it was a long walk so a nurse grabbed a cushy office chair and a group of nurses all wheeled her down while holding her in. She had to basically get a battlefield iv because she was busy pushing the baby out while they were trying to get her hooked up.
It really depends on the hospital. They asked my wife like 8 times when she wavered from her birth plan.
Steam ID: Obos Vent: Obos
For the most part they just left me to get on with it and be in whatever position was the least uncomfortable. I managed fine with entonox and pethidine, but I wouldn't bother with pethidine next time as it did nothing for the pain. I think the entonox was mostly beneficial in that it actually made me keep breathing, and was therefore a bit calming. I really would like to have a water birth this time (as I had wanted the first time and they seemed to ignore).
I'm not sure premature induction comes with a birth plan. Maybe that's the whole thing to begin with.
Since Wednesday, CC's been waking up and either a) sleepping in our bed which is not great but better than b) screaming for hours on end at 11pm, 2am, etc. for no reason whatsoever.
It's likely combination of starting school and the weather and having a little cold, but man, having your almost 3yr old yelling nonesense and thrashing around a condo is not so hot. Sort of like night terrors but seems to be awake.
And MichaelLC, I feel you, our (4 month old) son has his first ever cold and he just doesn't like it. Running nose and an-and-off fever for a week now. Sleeping is hard when his nose clogs up, but that's thankfully gotten better after a couple of rough nights.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
You might as well use Batman Beyond's Batman and TAS's Nightwing! Or JL's Batman and Dick Grayson Robin.
I know, it hurts me a little too. But the TT Robin was the only one we could find. I put my foot down on removing TDK Batman from consideration, though. I figured Batman TBatB atleast having a red/green Robin was a concession I could live with.
Good call. Are you guys dressing up too? So far the consensus is that she will be "Mickey Mouse Club House" and I will be a ballerina. While two minutes of being an actual dancer would kill me, it's not really my thing. Maybe a hobo ballerina?
Well, there are limitations here; it's publicly funded, but only for 2 cycles.
And there's prioritisation at work, too. Age is a big factor, so if you join the waitlist in your early 20's, you might hover near the bottom of the queue for years. But it leads to this weird quirk of family planning, as well, because there's a couple years wait, you end up in this situation where people sign up in droves before they know if they actually need it.
Like, if you're of a certain age (basically, in your 30's) and certain financial status (wealthy enough to plan a family and make doctor's visits, but not so wealthy you can't just go straight to private practice), you basically just see your doctor and get yourself put on the waitlist more or less as soon as you come off birth control. Then, by the time you work through the assessment and get to the point where you're funded (roughly 1-2 years), you'll actually know whether you'll need IVF or not.
Like, technically, the IVF waitlist is something like 5+ years. But it's full of middle-class 30-somethings just trying to start a family for the first time without actually knowing if there's anything actually preventing natural conception. And mostly, they don't, so they keep getting pregnant (as we did the first time) and removing themselves from the list. So the actual wait is much, much less than the numbers of people in the queue would suggest.
It's just kinda strange.
Same sex couple also still can't adopt together, although there's a complicated way to basically get to the same result.
A Mark Wahlberg from The Other Guys sarcastic dancer
Asking because I just had to leave work and drive all the way back to his school to pick him up, which is problematic. It's not a super long walk, and my husband has gone to get him with the umbrella stroller before, but in hot weather with the sun beating down, it's also not the most pleasant thing. And in the rain, forget it.
Me: " .... That's a Corvette"
Isaac: "oh"
6lb 10oz Paige born at 3:47 am today. 2.5 weeks early. One day after the baby shower
Her and mom are doing awesome.
I wouldn't know a thing about that.
Also: Big wrestling fan, eh?
This popped up in the snug thread. Thought it could go here.
Just got her sleeping through the night. I miss sleep.