Caution...
this post contains info that just might make you a little squeamish. I will be sayin' it how it is so readers beware!!
this post contains info that just might make you a little squeamish. I will be sayin' it how it is so readers beware!!
I remember vividly how excited I was to be pregnant with my first baby! My husband was going to college and we were living in married student housing. Our little cinder block walled apartment was small and cozy and I had so much fun getting the nursery ready for his arrival! We even enrolled in the recommended birthing class taught by the hospital so that we would both be ready and prepared for how to handle things like breathing, the epidural, and what kind of support I needed from my husband during the delivery.
The day before my due date I started having regular painful contractions. We grabbed our bags and headed to the maternity floor of our hospital. They monitored me for about an hour and decided that I was indeed in labor. To make a LONG 48 HOUR delivery story short...my body doesn't dilate with out help... we started filling out c-section paper work (although we ended up not needing it)... and I was so exhausted that I barely have any memory of the birth. All I do remember is that after the excitement of his arrival and being able to hold him for a while they took the baby up to the nursery (my husband went too) and I was left in a room alone thinking, "Hey! I just had a baby and here I sit all alone!" Now I know that this is totally a hormonal reality, but hey...it was reality to me!
Now to the fun...{ahem}...part that NO ONE tells you about!
Shortly after my epidural started to wear off the nurses came in and tried to help me get up and walk to the bathroom. Once in the bathroom they cleaned up my "girl" parts and proceeded to help me step into the funniest most embarrassing get up I had ever seen. It consisted of a pair of strange mesh panties on which they placed the hugest maxi pad I had ever seen. (To be honest it looked more like a diaper... ) On top of the pad they placed a rubber glove full of crushed ice, then a few Tucks pads and a nice healthy squirt of hemorrhoid cream to top it all off! They lifted it all up and got it all in place and then helped me walk back to the hospital bed and sit down. Have you ever tried to sit down with all of that business stuck between your legs...not the easiest thing in the world. Of course all of these things helped control things like swelling, itchy stitches, and bleeding, but I was shocked that NO ONE warned me about this!
The day before my due date I started having regular painful contractions. We grabbed our bags and headed to the maternity floor of our hospital. They monitored me for about an hour and decided that I was indeed in labor. To make a LONG 48 HOUR delivery story short...my body doesn't dilate with out help... we started filling out c-section paper work (although we ended up not needing it)... and I was so exhausted that I barely have any memory of the birth. All I do remember is that after the excitement of his arrival and being able to hold him for a while they took the baby up to the nursery (my husband went too) and I was left in a room alone thinking, "Hey! I just had a baby and here I sit all alone!" Now I know that this is totally a hormonal reality, but hey...it was reality to me!
Now to the fun...{ahem}...part that NO ONE tells you about!
Shortly after my epidural started to wear off the nurses came in and tried to help me get up and walk to the bathroom. Once in the bathroom they cleaned up my "girl" parts and proceeded to help me step into the funniest most embarrassing get up I had ever seen. It consisted of a pair of strange mesh panties on which they placed the hugest maxi pad I had ever seen. (To be honest it looked more like a diaper... ) On top of the pad they placed a rubber glove full of crushed ice, then a few Tucks pads and a nice healthy squirt of hemorrhoid cream to top it all off! They lifted it all up and got it all in place and then helped me walk back to the hospital bed and sit down. Have you ever tried to sit down with all of that business stuck between your legs...not the easiest thing in the world. Of course all of these things helped control things like swelling, itchy stitches, and bleeding, but I was shocked that NO ONE warned me about this!
Also, no one ever told me that at some point a lady called a Lactation specialist would come in and insist on helping me learn how to breastfeed. (Okay...I know she is important...trust me...knowing how to breast feed doesn't come naturally like I thought it would...) but I had no idea that someone would start grabbing my breasts with out asking and begin talking to me about cracked and bleeding nipples and things like that! Had I been warned I think I might have been less shocked! Knowledge is power...
So ladies consider yourself warned!
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