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First is flashback time. I'm glad to not be pregnant anymore. It wasn't the worst thing of my life, but that final month sure did "exercise" my nerves. I'm assuming it was a necessary evil to prepare for being a parent and having my every nerve exercised by a child. That's cool. I was glad to not be physically assalted with strangers wanting to pet my belly. However, I was tired of hearing about the phantom pregnancy back pains, belly buttons, etc. that I did not really experience. The best advice I got was from mothers who finished telling me about their pregnancy experience with "but every pregnancy is different and who knows what you'll feel and go through." YUP! No matter what your mother or other women in your family experience, your pregnancy will be your own. My mom doesn't call much, but when she did call it was to assure me taht I'd have a c-section like her and would also not be able to breastfeed...like her. Wrong on both accounts. Don't get tied up in other people trying to take away what fun and joy you can have in your pregnancy experience. Like a bad workout, dust your shoulders off and press forward.
If you read my personal blog, you know I wasn't blessed with the naturally glowing skin. I had wisely invested in make up. Not the "I spent my babysitting money on glitter at Claire's" make up, but the adult stuff. I also got many questions about my workouts. It might have looked crazy to the new person, but those that have seen me workout prepregnancy know that I was scaling back. Where you start effects what you can do as your pregnancy progresses. Being in shape beforehand made it possible for me to continue Crossfitting throughout my pregnancy. I went in on Wednesday to do a workout, later that night my water broke, and the little one was welcomed into the world the next day. So yeah, I worked out to the end of the pregnancy. Srsly.
I'm glad I continued exercise because it also paid off in the delivery room. I ended up having an epi, so I couldn't use the squat bar like I wanted. That turned out to be just fine because we managed to still get me into a squat position. DEEP squat. None of that 90 degree or higher stuff. Think leg press machine. I squat well over 200lbs, well over. So you can imagine that squatting out a 7 lb baby went by pretty quickly. Judging by the responses, it went faster than the nurses and OB thought it would go. Having done Olympic weight lifting, squatting, and lunging like crazy gave me the core strength to push according to the OB's instructions. Is control all that necessary? YUP. Some pushes were hard, some were halted faster than others, and some were easy pushes. In all, it took me seven contractions to evacuate Cillian from my belly.
Someone mentioned that delivery was like a hard, deep squat workout - I couldn't agree more. At least, that was my experience. I think many ladies of an athletic/fitness background will have similar reactions. But hey, everyone's body is different.
2 comments:
Sunny! I was wondering how you are doing and I'm so glad this popped up on my google reader! It sounds like, as expected, you killed it with this baby birthing experience, just like you kill everything else you do! I can't wait to see pictures! This reaffirms that if you're in great shape, it's much easier for you to give birth! You're an inspiration and I'm proud of you!
~Andrea
I vicariously live through you, by the by, so I have been telling everyone about my BA friend who could clean-and-jerk more weight at five months pregnant than most men at their peak. I believe too many women try to push their pregnancy experience on you because they secretly feel bad about how it went and want to make themselves feel better by saying it happens to everyone. "Oh gaining 100 pounds is normal, you'll do it too" or "No one can birth without drugs, I'm sure you'll be begging for the epidural" or "everyone has trouble latching on, you will too" or whatever. And it always comes from feeling p-o'ed that something didn't work out the way you planned.
Hell, two pregnancies for the same person can be totally different. TJ nursed like a champ from day one, but his delivery was a crummy experience for me. Mera's birth was so great, but I ended up hand expressing and feeding her with a dropper for two weeks and then having to go on a crazy diet because of her dairy intolerance. Totally different, same uterus.
So when someone tries to tell you that you're pregnancy/birthing/nursing experience will be just like theirs, tell them to take a hike. :) Then blame it on the hormones if they take offense.
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