Friday, March 04, 2005
I'm not mental....yet.
There's nothing like having a second baby to make me realize one thing: I was COMPLETELY nuts after I had the first one! Sure, I did a great job hiding it and all, but man, oh, man. I was seriously teetering on the edge after my daughter was born almost five years ago.
Oh, wait. Lemme back up. I had the baby on Monday! Let me run through the gory details, then I'll get back to my story. I went in on Sunday night for my hormone insert Cervadil. At 7 a.m. Monday, they started my Pitocin drip and broke my water (oh boy did THAT hurt!). I got my oh-so-painful epidural around 11 a.m. Then...I waited. And waited. And waited. I was dilated to around a 4-5 for hours on end. Plus, the epidural for some reason made me really tired, so the whole day was pretty uneventful. I was starting to fear the worst when I felt I wasn't progressing. I was seeing swirling c-section images dancing in my head. Oh, wait! Then the good news! I was at a 7! Yippee! Right after that, loads of well-wishers had piled in and were hanging out staring at me. It's like everyone was waiting for an alien to come shooting from the front of my hospital gown or something. So after a bit "the pressure" kicked in. "Um, honey...you might want to go get the nurse." Everyone filed out of the room and never got to come back. It was GO time! At first they told me my doctor's partner was going to deliver the baby since she was already at the hospital. I was ticked, because I hadn't seen my doctor at all that day, then he wasn't even going to show up for the event itself! (His office is across the parking lot from the hospital). At the last minute, he breezed in like a rock star stepping onto the stage. I was happy, because I really love my doctor and I wanted his familiar face there. I did, however, tell him that I would've killed him if he hadn't shown up. About five or six contractions later, out came the baby boy! Only about 5 minutes of pushing. Guess I stressed about his size for nothing. 7 lbs., 9 oz. Not too bad. One stitch "just for good measure".
We got home on Wednesday afternoon after a traumatic (for me AND the baby) circumcision. Boy, is THAT ever rough. Poor little pee-pee! Ouch!
ANYWAY....this experience shows me an extremely sharp contrast in my mental well-being. I don't know if it's just a "first vs. second" baby thing or what. Perhaps it's because I'm bottle feeding this time around. I just know that I feel SOOOO much more "normal" this time. I'm not weirded out, traumatized, extra-moody or even sleep deprived (yet). My husband has been good enough to sleep in the baby's room for the first week or two so I can sleep all night long. Wow! I am very sleep-dependent so that makes a very big difference. I went for my first walk this morning and am feeling ready to heal up and get back into my normal swing of things. I have seven more weeks off before I'll head back to work...and even then I have the luxury of "easing back into it".
Thus far, there's just sleeping and eating happening. This boy is a heavy sleeper! After a few more weeks, I anticipate we'll get a little more "eyeball time". Until then, I'll just be basking in the glow of motherhood, once again. (I almost make this sound appealing,
don't I!?!)
There's nothing like having a second baby to make me realize one thing: I was COMPLETELY nuts after I had the first one! Sure, I did a great job hiding it and all, but man, oh, man. I was seriously teetering on the edge after my daughter was born almost five years ago.
Oh, wait. Lemme back up. I had the baby on Monday! Let me run through the gory details, then I'll get back to my story. I went in on Sunday night for my hormone insert Cervadil. At 7 a.m. Monday, they started my Pitocin drip and broke my water (oh boy did THAT hurt!). I got my oh-so-painful epidural around 11 a.m. Then...I waited. And waited. And waited. I was dilated to around a 4-5 for hours on end. Plus, the epidural for some reason made me really tired, so the whole day was pretty uneventful. I was starting to fear the worst when I felt I wasn't progressing. I was seeing swirling c-section images dancing in my head. Oh, wait! Then the good news! I was at a 7! Yippee! Right after that, loads of well-wishers had piled in and were hanging out staring at me. It's like everyone was waiting for an alien to come shooting from the front of my hospital gown or something. So after a bit "the pressure" kicked in. "Um, honey...you might want to go get the nurse." Everyone filed out of the room and never got to come back. It was GO time! At first they told me my doctor's partner was going to deliver the baby since she was already at the hospital. I was ticked, because I hadn't seen my doctor at all that day, then he wasn't even going to show up for the event itself! (His office is across the parking lot from the hospital). At the last minute, he breezed in like a rock star stepping onto the stage. I was happy, because I really love my doctor and I wanted his familiar face there. I did, however, tell him that I would've killed him if he hadn't shown up. About five or six contractions later, out came the baby boy! Only about 5 minutes of pushing. Guess I stressed about his size for nothing. 7 lbs., 9 oz. Not too bad. One stitch "just for good measure".
We got home on Wednesday afternoon after a traumatic (for me AND the baby) circumcision. Boy, is THAT ever rough. Poor little pee-pee! Ouch!
ANYWAY....this experience shows me an extremely sharp contrast in my mental well-being. I don't know if it's just a "first vs. second" baby thing or what. Perhaps it's because I'm bottle feeding this time around. I just know that I feel SOOOO much more "normal" this time. I'm not weirded out, traumatized, extra-moody or even sleep deprived (yet). My husband has been good enough to sleep in the baby's room for the first week or two so I can sleep all night long. Wow! I am very sleep-dependent so that makes a very big difference. I went for my first walk this morning and am feeling ready to heal up and get back into my normal swing of things. I have seven more weeks off before I'll head back to work...and even then I have the luxury of "easing back into it".
Thus far, there's just sleeping and eating happening. This boy is a heavy sleeper! After a few more weeks, I anticipate we'll get a little more "eyeball time". Until then, I'll just be basking in the glow of motherhood, once again. (I almost make this sound appealing,
don't I!?!)
Comments:
Post a Comment
