Ed reminds me that one of the things we hated most with the birth of our first was the shift changes of nurses. Not that it would be better for one shift to stay on until you had the baby because then everybody would be tired and cranky (and some of the changes were for the better) but it was somewhat frustrating in the middle of all the pain and waiting to have to meet someone new and explain yet again how I was doing.
I remember being chided by the phlebotomist for my poor veins (which are really bad; the long line they put in also failed) and that before my epidural they gave me something they TOLD me would keep me from throwing up when they put in the epidural. In fact, it made me throw up immediately; I suspect I would have resisted it if they had said "this will make you puke now". I remember hating it when they broke my water to see if this would speed the labor; I felt as if I had peed the bed. I guess what I'm remembering with the first birth was feeling not very in control at any point in the process.
With the second, I stayed home working on my PowerPoint for classes that I'd be missing right up until contractions were about 1/2 hour apart and they said come in because we had a scheduled c-section (and were running a week early). And the day after M. was born, I gave three phone interviews for jobs while lying in bed in the hospital. Got call-backs on two of them, too. I may perform better in some situations when I am dosed to the gills...
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I remember being chided by the phlebotomist for my poor veins (which are really bad; the long line they put in also failed) and that before my epidural they gave me something they TOLD me would keep me from throwing up when they put in the epidural. In fact, it made me throw up immediately; I suspect I would have resisted it if they had said "this will make you puke now". I remember hating it when they broke my water to see if this would speed the labor; I felt as if I had peed the bed. I guess what I'm remembering with the first birth was feeling not very in control at any point in the process.
With the second, I stayed home working on my PowerPoint for classes that I'd be missing right up until contractions were about 1/2 hour apart and they said come in because we had a scheduled c-section (and were running a week early). And the day after M. was born, I gave three phone interviews for jobs while lying in bed in the hospital. Got call-backs on two of them, too. I may perform better in some situations when I am dosed to the gills...