So I thought I'd post a little something on Pregnancy and other Baby related advice that others told me and some advice that no one told me. I hope this helps out someone :) I am no expert since I've only had one baby, so I know that all this does not happen to everyone...It happened to me, so I thought I'd share! I had an unmedicated natural childbirth thanks to the Bradley Method Classes we took.
1. You may tinkle your pants before you have the baby and after! When I was in my last two weeks of pregnancy, if I laughed too hard I tinkled myself. I'm not just talking a little bit and then running to the bathroom to relieve the rest... I'm talking Oh, Gosh, I can't stop this!!! I did kegles and everything, there was just so much presser on my bladder, nothing could stop the flow! After I had M, I was so concerned about her needs being met, I would forget to go myself and then when I REALLY needed to go, it was sometimes too late. Just thinking, Oh, MY I need to go NOW would open the flood gate! I had to tell my DH not to make me laugh too hard. It was especially hard to stop laughing when M would fart a lot :) DH and I would crack up every time she would let it go! After we got used to it, we stopped laughing so much, but at first it would just make us laugh so hard!! Now, three months later, my bladder control in back to normal :)
2. I got hemorrhoids and a lot of people do because of the pressure down there. We found a great remedy for them that helped shrink them quick! Buy Vitamin E capsules, pop one open with a straight pin and apply the oil on the hemorrhoids. I was skeptical, but it worked so I thought I'd share :)
3. Take your sits bath home with you from the hospital. It is very nice to use in those first few weeks when you are still healing down there.
4. You will be really swollen down there for a few weeks. I don't know why no one told me this or why I didn't think about it before. After the fact I was like...Duh! why wouldn't you be swollen down there :)
5. Some things to bring with you to the hospital.....
- Snacks - you will want them!!
- Over the counter meds...DH had a bad headache after M was born and had to go to a 24hr CVS to get something since the hospital gift store was closed (it was 12am).
- Nail clippers for baby, the hospital didn't have any and M had really long thumb nails :)
- Extra Underwear!
- Your own jammies, the day after M was born I was ready to wear my own clothes. I bought a cute two piece jammie set that had a button down top, convenient for breastfeeding.
6. If you don't want visitors at the hospital, it's OK! We didn't want anyone coming because we wanted to have M all to ourselves for those first few hours. M's Godparents came and gave us communion the day after since it was Sunday and my sister ended up coming for a few hours because of a text message misunderstanding, but it was nice not having a whole lot of people coming and going.
7. If you want to have an all natural childbirth, do it. I just suggest you take some Bradley Birthing Classes so you know what to expect. My MIL would tell me almost every time I saw her that it was ok if I can't do it, many people take the drugs and if you can't do it, your not a failure, etc......This got really frustrating for me because she had 6 natural unmedicated childbirths and I just wish she would have been more encouraging instead of telling me that it was ok if I couldn't do it.
8. If you want to keep your baby in the room with you the whole time at the hospital, ask for it. We did and I'm so happy we did. Some people told us that we would not get any sleep if we did, but guess what? You don't really sleep at the hospital after delivery anyway. There are nurses that come and check on you like every two hours and you are so excited that you just had your baby, you are not going to get much sleep anyway :)
9. It's ok not to use a pacifier. We didn't want M to use one so we didn't and she is a happy sweet baby. People may try to tell you they'll sleep better and that you may just want to try it, but do what YOU want and don't give in just because people won't give up telling you what to do.
10. Think about having a white noise machine. When we got home from the hospital M slept so sweetly with a bunch of racket going on. We were cleaning the house since our lab is an inside dog and she was inside the two days we were gone so her hair was everywhere. When night time came, we put M in her cradle, turned all lights off and there was not a noise in the house and M started crying :( DH and I got our trusty iPhones and downloaded a white noise app and she was able to fall asleep.
11. Do what YOU want, this is your baby and if you have a desire to try something new, just do it! DH and I are the only people in our family that decided to.....cloth diaper, delay vaxes, have no visitors at the hospital, not travel with baby for first year, breastfeed with out pumping, baptizing within a month of 'birthday', have a natural childbirth, and there maybe more I'm missing....I think you get my point though :) This is your family and your baby so don't give into what others tell you, unless of course you WANT their advice :)
There is more I'd like to share, but I'll save them for another post, this one is long enough!! If you've made it through..Thanks for Reading!
