re: 'I WISH I WOULD HAVE KNOWN'...Advice for pregnancy & birth

watching this topic, great stuff!

I wish someone would have told me that when you need to push, not pushing is the worst feeling in the world.

If you are unfortunate enough to get the on-call Dr. for some reason, he will be your new mortal enemy.

If breastfeeding doesn't work out for you, you are NOT a failure! You should be commended for trying, because it is hard. Your baby will beperfectly healthy if you have to formula feed.

Hold off as long as possible before you get an epidural.You may not need it at all, and the back pain for weeks after may not be worth it if you really didn't need it.

You will be amazed at your appetite for the first few weeks post partum. You will feel like you are starving!!!!

About peeing after labor...My friend just had her baby and she told me to do "the frog"...Lean forward and put my hands on the floor while I pee so that it goes forward, not over the ouch-hole...She had stitches :O

I wish I would have known to NOT push like you're trying to poop as hard as you can....you get hemmrhoids that way. Breastfeeding is not as easy as it looks and there are some tricks to it. Sleep as much as you can before the baby comes because it will be a LONG time before you get a decent amount of rest. 3 weeks of maternity leave is not enough. Some IV pain meds may cause you to NOT remember a lot of details of labor and delivery. Epidurals that work make a very positive birthing experience...you can pay more attention to your baby arriving than the pain you're in. I took 2 years tofeel back to normal down belowfrom the delivery of my first baby and with the second it only took 2 weeks.

Things I wish I'd known:

1. You won't be the first or last person to pee on your OB.

2. Nothing brings out the phobia in a husband quite like seeing an epidural needle.

3. Anethesiologists are used to marriage proposals. Even the women.

4. It's perfectly natural during pregnancy to fart yourself out of a room.

5. It's okay to be afraid to go home with a newborn- you'll figure it out.

6. Some people will never quite figure out how to use a Boppy pillow for its intended use but it does make for great neck support while lying on the floor watching TV.

7. Getting back in shape can be hard but it's no harder than someone asking when you're due after you've been up all night with a four month old.

8. Humor in the labor/delivery room is a good thing, even when a nurse is digging for cervix with her short, stumpy fingers and you shock your in-laws by telling her to go easy because that's how you got in this mess in the first place.

9. Hoo-hoo stitches SUCK.

10. It's okay to ask for help and just as okay to refuse it.

I wish that I knew before I had gotten pregnant the first time, that my husband was a 9lb baby and his sister was 9lbs 6oz baby...lol My first son was delivered naturally and he was 9lbs 6oz and I hemorraged afterwards. I'm currently pregnant with my second boy and the doctor has to induce me a couple weeks early because they already estimate him at over 5lbs and I have 7 1/2 weeks to go. Fun fun!! At least I don't have to have a C-section.

I also would've liked to be told that your body will go back to normal eventually!! I had terrible body image issues after my first pregnancy. Realistically, not many women are gonna come away from having a baby without some kind of stretchmarks, especially if you have a 9lbs 6 oz baby. And yes STRETCHMARKS WILL FADE TO A LIGHT SILVERY COLOR...you won't notice them as much and you will survive this terrible ordeal. Love your body no matter what because you can't change it unless you go have surgery and that costs a lot of money.

Quoting Baby Love:“ Isn't that the strangest thing watching your belly move? Still freaks me out, but definitely worth having on video. That's a good one -You are really pregnant for 10 months. Men have no idea!”

youre not really pregnant for 10 mos. its 9 calendar mos. it accounts for the fact that some mos have 5 wks.

Quoting vel2n:“ youre not really pregnant for 10 mos. its 9 calendar mos. it accounts for the fact that some mos have 5 wks.”

im glad im not the onlyone that notices this

Great topic, i wanna bump it back up!

I wish that I'd known that no matter how cool you think you may be w/ getting a few stretch marks ...that when it happens it's such a sad feeling that leaves you wondering ..damn ..will I ever be remotely sexy again??

Quoting SRQShannon:“ ...Hold off as long as possible before you get an epidural.You may not need it at all, and the back pain for weeks after may not be worth it if you really didn't need it... "

My friend just had her baby and she told me upfront that I want to get an epidural ASAP because if I don't, it won't work as well as it could. She said she got hers too late and it barely worked at all. She's a one time mother so I don't know if this is true or if that was all the epidural was meant to do. Ideaz?

I wish my sister DIDN'T tell me that the RhoGAM shot was going to be a huge needle right into my butt muscle and that it would hurt like hell. I admit, it stung (far less than i had imagined after her description), but it wasn't in my butt muscle, rather my hip (and it was too quick to matter).
I DO wish, however, that I had bought that shirt I seen that says "Yes I'm pregnant, no you can't touch my belly." Everybody feels the need to touch it, even if you don't know, or get along well with, them.
I also wish somebody would have told me how much I am going to miss laying on my stomach... and my back.. and no matter how good it is to lay on your side, it is never comfortable.
IAM glad that my sister told me that the first 4 months after labor is when you are most fertile again. I REALLY don't want to have one baby after the other, so this was good to know.
I also would have loved to have known that, if you have cervical dysplasia (aka precancerous cells), they are most likely going to develop into SEVERE dysplasia!! I freaked out for WEEKS about this one! I wondered what caused it, why it was happening to me, why it was getting worse when every website said it would go away on its own, and if I could REALLY get cervical cancer!! Luckily my doctor assured me that it wasn't cancer and it only got worse because my immune system is weakened because of Baby.

Quoting Taidyn's Mommy:“ My friend just had her baby and she told me upfront that I want to get an epidural ASAP because if I ... [snip!] ... worked at all. She's a one time mother so I don't know if this is true or if that was all the epidural was meant to do. Ideaz?”

How well it works depends on how much medicine they give you, and what your pain threshhold and tolerance to pain meds is. Your epidural will be working at full strength within 10 minutes of getting it regardless of how far into labor you are. With my first baby, the epidural was a godsend. I was 13 hours into labor after no sleep for over 24 hours, and I was just too tired to continue breathing through the contractions anymore. I got the epi, and took a nap, and was refreshed when it came time to push an hour later. With my second, I figured why wait, but I wish I would have, because she came much quicker, and I know I could have handled it for those two more hours. The anesthesiologist must have grazed the spine because I had horrible back pain and migraines for weeks after, and the back pain didn't totally go away for months. My Dr. said it was from the epi, and there really wasn't much that could be done about it. My plan with this baby is to try and go without it. As long as I don't have a super long labor, I shouldn't need it. Lamaze breathing actually works if you do it. My suggestion to you is try to get through without the epi, but if you are in too much pain or are too tired, then by all means get it. And don't worry about "when". They will still give it to you until you are about 8 cm, and at that point you are near the end anyway. Good luck!

I wish I would've known how painful contractions can be after they break your water [LAMAZE BREATHING REALLY DID HELP THOUGH!!].

I wish I would've known how swollen your va jay jay is after the birth & how bad it stings to go pee when you have stitches in [the water bottle they give you to squirt & clean the stitches after peeing works miracles at relief].

I wish I would've known that after the baby gets here, no matter how much he/she sleeps at night & throughout the day, you're STILL ALWAYS TIRED!! [Ben is a week old & will sleep all day, then only wake up TWICE at night for about 15mins & i still feel like i've been up for 48hrs straight].

Thanks a lot ladies I love all your input and I'm writing everything down. Just wanted to bump this thread.