Delivery Experience

Finally posting an entry after itching to blog for so long now. I’m happy and proud to announce that I am a new mommy.  *Sound the blow horn, the trumpet, cue the feel good background music, and release the confetti* I gave birth to a healthy and almost 8lb baby boy in July.  I have to say, giving birth wasn’t what I expected it to be.  Movies always portrayed delivery as this painful experience where the mother screams her heart out in pain, or her water breaks while in the middle of a huge crowd during a life changing event and she rushes to the hospital then cut scenes to the agonizing facial expressions of pushing, then the beautiful perfect baby pops out and into the mother’s arms. I’ve been told that when you meet your baby, you automatically have amnesia and forget about the pain.  My experience wasn’t quite like that.  I didn’t really have a difficult pregnancy nor delivery.  I didn’t develop amnesia either like I was lead to believe. I remember everything. Maybe because it’s all still so fresh. It’s only been 4 weeks.

I had so many expectations. Maybe not expectations, more on hopes.  I hoped to give birth in June.  Every single day that passed by in the month of June .. I hoped would be D-day (delivery day).  That didn’t happen.  I gave birth exactly on my due date.  I read on wikipedia that the statistics on women giving birth on their due date is low (less than 5%) and I belong to that percentage now.  Pretty cool, huh?

I also hoped to go on labor naturally. I was induced instead.  Not that induction was an issue. I was actually quite relieved to know that I was getting induced. At 40 weeks, I was ready to get that baby out even though he wasn’t.  I didn’t realize that I would get tired of being pregnant. But I did.  I was tired of the doctor appointments... tired of two 24 hour urine collection and blood work... tired of waiting, of the discomforts, and of carrying so much weight around.

My water didn’t break in the middle of a life changing event.  Heck, I don’t even remember when my water broke. The only life changing event I was expecting at that point was the birth of my little man. It all happened quite fast though.  One moment I was waiting for a confirmation call from my doctor for the induction schedule, and then the next day I gave birth.  It was quite an experience, I have to say. One that I’m blessed to have gone through.  It gave me a new found respect for my mom and for all mothers out there.  The most difficult part about my delivery was pushing.  It took me almost 2 hours to push him out. It was exhausting.  I dozed off at the end of every pushing cycle. I’ve reached a point where I wanted to give up and just get a c-section.  But because we prayed for a normal delivery, God answered us.  When Matty finally came out and I heard his first cry, it was then when I felt solace.  He was worth it.  For a split second, I forgot about the discomforts that came along with 9 months of pregnancy, the contraction pain, and the exhaustion... I was in euphoria.  I think my husband was in the same euphoric state I was in because he almost forgot to take pictures of the baby. I snapped back to reality when all the nursery nurses came to check on the baby.  He’s beautiful. He’s perfect. He’s our baby.

Anyway, there was no amnesia. Just euphoria. Oh, don’t mind the hideous hospital gown.  Looking pretty and nice wasn’t on top of my list at the time.