A Little Bit of Wisdom

I answered a question on Quora, “What is it like to have an epidural” and thought I’d share it here:

I am glad that it was available to me, but if I have another child I will try not to have an epidural. It was necessary in my situation so I don’t regret choosing it, but I do believe that it contributed to the fact that my labor ended in an emergency C-section. more…

I had started a post months back relating the things that I would not miss about being pregnant. I wasn’t able to finish the second half by the time Sidd was born and afterwards…well, for a while there I was lucky to find the time to eat and shower, not to mention sleep. Now that things have calmed down a bit (Sidd is two months old already!) I have bits of time here and there during which I can reflect on how great it is to be un-pregnant. more…

Our little dude at 35 weeks

Today is our “due date”! Woo! I put it in quotes because no one is really expected to take it seriously. Obviously, it’s just a suggested birth date, but since my body and my baby are colluding and leaving me out of their plans, I have no way of knowing when the birth will actually happen.

A few weeks ago I wrote a list of 10 Things I’ll Miss About Being Pregnant. Now that the end of the pregnancy is imminent I felt I should come up with a list of things I won’t miss in order to mentally prepare myself. more…

Now that we’re at 37 weeks we’re nearing the end of the pregnancy. Little Cupcake could come any time in the next month, but I’m expecting him to be on the later end. We’ll see if he starts out by living up to my expectations. I have mixed emotions about the end of this stage. Many people ask me if I’m ready for it to be over. At this point I’m not, but I’m also excited for the birth. Since I know the end of the pregnancy is inevitable, I made a list of things that I’ll miss about it. Maybe I can use this list to motivate me if I decide to do this again. more…

In preparation for the birth of our first baby sometime in the next few weeks I started reading HypnoBirthing: The Mongan Method by Marie F. Mongan. I’ve just started it, but already I’m impressed by the calming effect it is having on me. Funny thing is, I haven’t even begun to read much about the specifics of the technique.

In the first part of the book Mongan spends much of her time convincing the reader that childbirth does not have to be painful. more…

I’ve made it to the third trimester! After being inundated for weeks with articles about all the discomfort I’ll feel and how uncomfortable the third trimester is as compared to the second, I’ll admit I was a little concerned. more…

On Wednesday I wrote about some of the fears I have about being a parent, but I needed a whole separate post to address my biggest fear. more…

I’ve decided that if I can get through this pregnancy and the subsequent adjustment to a baby without too much freaking out, that will show that I have made an enormous amount of progress in the anxiety realm.

I feel I’m getting to the part of the pregnancy in which I’m having more anxious thoughts. more…

I’m feeling crappy today so this is an experiment in seeing if I can get a blog post out on a day when I am not feeling up to it, or doing anything for that matter.

I’m not sure why I’m feeling icky, sad, depressed, or whatever you call it, but I have a couple of ideas. One is that it’s so darn dreary today. It was warm and sunny the past few days so it’s surprising that one day like this can trigger such bad feelings, but it has happened before. Could just be that the crummy day is one ingredient in a cocktail of crappy mood. more…

Sometime in the past month I finally started showing enough that people take notice. Of course, I noticed before that, but who’s really gonna be tactless enough to approach a woman with a large belly and say “when are you due?”. more…