A Spring Birth

I'm having spring fever, and will be posting pictures that remind me of spring until this fever passes (or spring actually comes!). Streams of sunshine always make me happy - I love mornings that start out with them!

I've been reading a couple of books about birth and pregnancy that I found in the library. One is Birthing From Within (which is what I'm reading now), and also Guide to Childbirth. I had a pretty decent birth with E, had a great experience with the hospital we birthed in. Though my intention was go to all natural (isn't that the general desire?), about an hour before pushing, I decided to take stadol, which I would not recommend to anyone. I felt very disoriented, and never felt the desire to push, which made the process take even longer.

They gave me the option of an IV, which would have been stronger, but IVs scare me (and so do epidurals, no matter what people tell me). I do find it strange that birthing a child doesn't scare me as much as needles do. In any case, they gave me a shot in the leg, and it only took the edge off of the pain (I still felt a ton a ton). So, in my opinion, it didn't really do much other make me feel drugged.

Personally, I feel like my mind hindered me from doing the birth naturally. It's hard to explain, and everyone's birth experience is so different, but for me, that's how I've processed my delivery of E. I went into the birth, freaking myself out in a lot of ways. I'm hoping that this birth will be a little different, as I do know what to expect a bit more.

Also, my birthing class did very little in preparing me for the mental aspect of childbirth. In fact, it might have aided in scaring me just that much more... but it probably didn't take much to do that. :)

Still in the end, I had a beautiful healthy little girl, and a complication-free birth, which is more than what some others experienced. I'm very very thankful for that.