Random Thoughts from Labor & Delivery

We came home 9 days ago and everything is going great. The little guys are happy babies and eating more and more. I will post more soon. Just wanted to capture some random thoughts from labor and delivery....

• I was shocked at how fast things move. One minute I thought I was going home, 5 min. later my water was broken!


• Epidurals are amazing! Seriously, contraction pain totally went away. BUT – while the epidural helped with contraction pain in belly, I felt EVERYTHING down low. I didn’t think that was how it was supposed to be. According to my doctor, that is a "good" epidural so you can push effectively.


• Pushing a baby out is the hardest thing I have ever done. It was like running a marathon times 10 (except that I've never run a marathon)! PS – it is not a good idea to push using your face because you end up looking like you got stung by 1000 bees and you get broken blood vessels in your eyes. Not pretty!


• The mesh underwear in the hospital….best underwear ever!


• Pads in the hospital – yuck! Let’s just say you feel like you are wearing a diaper.


• Lansinoh nipple cream is my best friend.


• Getting a catheter without an epidural – not so pleasant.


• The swelling in feet (or in my case, ankles, calves, knees and thighs)…that gets worse before it gets better.


• Take the stool softener the hospital gives you. It makes SUCH a difference!


• Along that line, hemorrhoids suck : (


• My boobs are EN.OR.MOUS!


• Holy night sweats! In the few hours that I do sleep, I wake up drenched! I guess that is my body’s way of getting rid of the extra fluid.


• At one week, I have lost half of my pregnancy weight (27 lbs). I am so fortunate to not have any stretch marks. My belly is still very strange looking. I expected to have loose skin. Instead it looks like I still have a little baby bump and my outtie belly button is still there. Just not what I expected.


• The fluid that is in my legs is leaving the way it came. It started in my feet, then my ankles, then my calves, then my knees and finally my thighs. Now, the fluid is gone from my thighs and knees, but still in my calves, ankles and feet.


• Breastfeeding is challenging – seems like it is one step forward and two steps back. I was planning to tandem feed from the beginning. Just getting one to latch is hard enough. I can't imagine trying to do both at the same time yet.


• My milk supply seems to be doing well. I am making (pumping) more than double what the little guys are drinking (they drink about 40 cc’s per feeding) and I am making between 140 – 200 cc’s now that my milk is in.


• I thought your milk coming in would be a big event. I heard things about waking up to monster boobs. That kind of happened, but for me it was more of a gradual process. I kept making more and more each day, so it was kind of a gradual process.


• It is amazing what adrenaline can do and how little sleep you can function on when you are totally in love.