Whizz

[radegund]

I'm freakishly tired this evening. This is unsurprising, as I've been on a manic streak for the past few days. On Monday, not content with preparing and giving a fairly crucial presentation to the canonical Load o' Men (the Executive Committee of the organisation I work for), I also rose early to help Niall haul bulky things out to the road for the special collection, then spent the evening clearing our main drain (Mankiest Task 2004 - hot favourite) and installing skirting board. Collapsed in a heap a few times, but had that burning energy thing going for most of the day. Then slept badly. Lurched through Tuesday and slept badly again. Zombied through today, but still managed to fulfill all three evening commitments. Hope I sleep well tonight.

The special collection was something about which I had mixed feelings, incidentally. Dublin City Council sent around a list of the sort of thing they would take away (furniture, carpets and so on), and I was iffy about it becuase I knew it would all most likely end up in landfill. But on the other hand, we were in point of fact drowning in a sea of beds and chairs and sofas, having acquired several large items of furniture in the last month. So I swallowed my principles and set the stuff out on the kerb. And lo and behold, not twenty minutes later, along came a Private Citizen and began loading our erstwhile belongings into an unmarked van! No landfill after all! (OK, so he was probably a junk dealer. But still. There's hope.)

I'm on the edge of my seat waiting for updates from ailbhe, whose inhabitant is being unconscionably lazy about emerging. While the subject was uppermost in my mind, I took a deep breath and finally started reading the bits about labour and delivery in my pregnancy books. Mostly I feel fine about it - in fact, I'm much more squeamish about pain relief than about the physical ordeal. (The epidural: they stick a needle into your spine.) The one bit that did stop me in my tracks was in a list of tips for the pushing stage (I paraphrase): "try to focus on the abdominal muscles when bearing down, and don't grimace too much or you may end up with bloodshot eyes and bruised cheeks". So. Quite a bit of effort, then? Yeah. (Eep!)

Meanwhile, Anna Kournikova has sent me e-mail offering me girls with big breasts. I never knew she cared.

Comments

[ailbhe]

My take on the epidural is this: If I think someone sticking a needle in my spine is a good idea, I probably need the pain relief. Until I think that, I can cope without.

My mother had dead easy labours. Some people do. And people who know stuff like "This is my diaphragm, and *this* is my neck" are less likely to use the wrong muscles pushing - how often have you seen someone trying to lift things with their shoulders instead of their legs, for example? I know I've been able to do stuff stronger people can't just by having a better idea of how my body is assembled.

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Aha - so you reckon all those singing lessons will probably help, then? (I do intend to see whether singing exercises will help with the breathing business.) I'm acutely aware of my body most of the time, but I don't know how I'll cope when all I want to do is run away from the pain...

My mother doesn't talk about her labours in detail. (Not nearly cerebral enough for our family's idiom.) I do know that my sister's was the longest of the three, but beyond that I'm in the dark. Her side of the family is robustly prolific, though, which must count for something!

[ex-siren-so.livejournal.com]

Epidurals sound *awful* :-/
Bog standard gas and air worked fine for me :-)

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Good enough for you to be game for a second go, at any rate! :-)

[dreamvirus.livejournal.com]

I was a forceps delivery because they gave my mother too much epidural and she was just lying there all "Giving birth is so fluffy and nice...what do you mean, push? Hahahaha..."

When are you due?

Don't listen to Anna, the little liar, she offered me wet and wild teens and when I clicked the link all I got was a load of smutty pictures.

[radegund.livejournal.com]

See, forceps I have no problem with. Mechanical stuff is just business as usual, as far as I'm concerned. It's the idea of a needle delivering chemicals straight into my CNS that makes me start to squirm. It's on the same axis as preferring massage to analgesics, I suppose. (That said, a forceps delivery requires a local anaesthetic, as far as I know, so there'd still be an injection. Just not into my spine.)

I'm due on either the 19th or the 20th of August, depending on which scan you believe. Personally, I believe neither.

[ainetl.livejournal.com]

of course every labor and delivery is different. my advice it to try not to worry about the epidural until the time comes. put it out of your mind! they'll ask you several times if you want one. you can say yes, but at the last moment always change your mind if you don't. they work fairly quickly so it's not like they give them to you far in advance. if you really need it, at that point you won't have hesitation and you'll just do it. i don't remember mine hurting very much, however, it didn't work very well.

my daughter was also a forceps baby i order to spend my delivery because of my heart problem. there were not any forceps marks or anything like that.

lol i had never heard about the bloodshot eyes thing but i suppose it could happen. the only thing i found very terrible was the episiotomy, very sore afterward. avoid it if you can. i kept trying to tell myself it wasn't as bad as having a c-section, and it did only hurt for a day or two. i suppose i'm not helping much...but honestly the whole thing wasn't nearly as bad as i had previously made it out in my mind to be. and it does help that by 9-months you are so ready to have your body back to yourself and to see the baby.

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the encouragement - it's great to get comments from people who have actually done this. I have to remember to be flexible and let myself change my mind if the pain turns out to be worse than I bargained for...

And yes, now you mention it, it's not just the epidural: I am also seriously squeamish at the thought of an episiotomy. I really hope I don't need one! C-section doesn't scare me nearly as much, oddly enough.

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

Many midwives now say you'll heal better if you let yourself tear as the knitting together is simpler than with a cut.

BTW, I still have a spare copy of Spirtual Midwifery if you want seriously crunchy midwife centred advice.

[radegund.livejournal.com]

BTW, I still have a spare copy of Spirtual Midwifery if you want seriously crunchy midwife centred advice.

Sounds interesting! Can we strike a deal? :-)

a deal

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

How about I send it to you and you've got a useful book and I've got one less book in my house :)

If you email me your adress I'll try to remember to post it this week.

Re: a deal

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Done.