With all my pregnant friends and mommy friends, birth stories and birth plans come up in conversation a lot. I often think about my birth story. Of course, I also think about what I’d do the same, and what I’d do differently if I have the chance.
What happened vs. what I want for next time:
Didn’t bring a brush.
Will definitely bring one next time, still can’t believe I forgot it, even the conditioner had a hard time getting out the tangles.
Didn’t take maternity photos.
An absolute must, I have very few images of myself during the pregnancy, and I loved my body during pregnancy, so there was really no reason not to do it.
Didn’t try to move my progress after setting induction date (didn’t try to progress at home).
Next time I will try primrose oil, acupuncture and more walking.
Didn’t get any sleep at all.
I will tell them to try to hold off on the monitoring while in the middle of the night, that blood pressure thing kept me awake all night. If I need to, I will ask them to give me something to sleep, since I was so anxious.
Was hooked up to machines my whole stay.
Next time I will ask if I can be monitored wirelessly.
Got the epi at 4cm.
Will wait until the pain is too excruciating, and then weigh my options. I really think I could have tolerated more.
Got a c-section.
Hopefully I can again try to have a vaginal birth, even though I know VBACs aren’t all that usual, but my OB said I could totally try for one next time. Which I definitely plan to do!
Didn’t have any pictures of Piper other than the ones we took, and the ones our friend Tina took of her at 3.5 weeks.
I’ll definitely have some pro photos taken early!
Exclusively nursed- no bottles at all.
I think next time I’ll try the baby out on pumped breastmilk a few times in the beginning. I wonder if it would help with the “I need Mommy in my view all the time” issues we’re dealing with.
So far that’s all I can think of, other than all this, I’m not regretting anything. Well, actually, I regret nothing as it stands, but I have faith that I can do MORE and tolerate MORE in the future.
July 19, 2010 at 4:21 pm
It’s cool to write this down in the blog. Great idea. I have a feeling that with my next one (a crazy idea at this point in time) I will forget about all of the things that are so relevant now, you know?
My biggie is the bottle thing too. I didn’t try out the bottle (of breastmilk) until the week before I went back to work, and she refused! I was soooo anxious about leaving her at daycare, thinking that she’d starve.