What was better/easier about pregnancy/labor/newborns than you expected

JuliaH21

My SIL had her first yesterday (an adorable girl) and I think her plan was intervention-free but open to options as things changed. She did manage to avoid interventions and while she said there were times she didn't think she could do it, the pushing was not the bad part, which is what she expected. She also said the ring of fire wasn't as bad as she expected either. 

I also barely noticed the ring and pushing wasn't the feared thing I imagined. I had a pretty good tear and even though I was also med-free, didn't feel much pain when it happened. Tearing terrified me and in the end, it was not a big deal. I never took anything stronger than advil for any of the pain. 

After the "scary" thread yesterday about things you didn't know about beforehand, I thought today we could talk about things that ended up not being so bad. 

monkeybutt61612

This may not be the same for everyone else, but I was surprised by how much my newborn slept during the day.  There were times my husband and I were actually bored sitting on the couch watching tv while he slept.  I thought life instantly got chaotic after a baby, but we were bored a lot of the time in the beginning.  

Deblondie1

I got way more sleep than I had anticipated when E was a newborn. She was such a great sleeper and would sleep all the time! It wasn't until around 4 months that that all went to pot lol

Leaving the house with her really wasn't that difficult either. I kept an O2 tank in the car for convenience. Otherwise, I grabbed the diaper bag with some diapers and bottles and we went about our business. 

For all of her drama, E was an easy newborn!

Elvislass

I was chuffed to discover how long my baby slept in the day we used to go to the cinema (leaving Eddie with his nanny) and by the time we got back - he would still be napping!!! Loved that xxx

Arrgcr

Pregnancy: my first was a breeze. People would try to tell me how horrible it could be. Nope! This pregnancy? I know exactly what they are talking bout.

Labor: really wasn't that bad for me. Now when they have me pitocin after my labor slowed from them breaking my water, yeah I begged for an epidural two hours in.

Newborn: that breastfeeding was painful at first, but shortly after, I would fall asleep breastfeeding. Obviously the pain leaves after a bit and then its a breeze. I'm going to push myself this time for a glider instead of nurse in bed so I don't fall asleep. That was scary!

BuckeyeANG

I sure am jealous of all your sleepy newborns! Mine never napped more than 30 mins at a time til he was 8 months old. It's only fair that this one sleeps, right!?

I was terrified of the actual process of getting the epidural and that part was no big deal at all.  Also I was worried about tearing but in that moment with everything else going on I didn't even notice.  

MrsGraham06

I'm a mean mother bear when I don't get enough sleep. But with a newborn, they are so adorable, and so easy to love, and so sweet, and so...my everything...that I didn't mind getting up to feed at night. (That changed a little once they were older and STTN, and then would hit a growth spurt so up 2-3 times at night.)

juliasmama2010

Honestly (not bragging, this is the truth), I was surprised at how easy in general my daughter was.  Breastfeeding was the only true disappointment after she was born as I was in so much pain, didn't have much supply, and stopped after 10 days.  Other than that, she was sleeping in her crib by 2 weeks old (on her belly, gasp!), would wake up every 3-6 hours to eat then go RIGHT back to sleep, no colic, was generally easy going and treated me with undue kindness!!  She was also sleeping 6-8 hours every night by about 4 months old.  Since she was/is so incredibly easy for me, I fully anticipate this child being a spawn of satan and totally destroying my newborn high that I experienced with DD!

OSUWifey09

DS was also a pretty easy baby; it wasn't until he started getting sick at 7 months old [wound up with tubes after multiple ear infections] that things got tough.

I was surprised at how much he slept, too. And I was totally surprised at how my "mother's intuition" kicked in. I had never, ever handled babies before him, and I was terrified I'd be such a bad mother. But he was [and still is] so cute, and so loving, that my instincts just kicked in.

monkeybutt61612

juliasmama2010 said:

Honestly (not bragging, this is the truth), I was surprised at how easy in general my daughter was.  Breastfeeding was the only true disappointment after she was born as I was in so much pain, didn't have much supply, and stopped after 10 days.  Other than that, she was sleeping in her crib by 2 weeks old (on her belly, gasp!), would wake up every 3-6 hours to eat then go RIGHT back to sleep, no colic, was generally easy going and treated me with undue kindness!!  She was also sleeping 6-8 hours every night by about 4 months old.  Since she was/is so incredibly easy for me, I fully anticipate this child being a spawn of satan and totally destroying my newborn high that I experienced with DD!

OMG.  This is my life right now too.  My son was and is such an easy going, laid back baby.  I have a fear that this LO will be a complete nightmare and my husband and son and I will look at each other and think "who is this little monster that screams and doesn't sleep?!"

cpm1223

monkeybutt61612 said:

juliasmama2010 said:

Honestly (not bragging, this is the truth), I was surprised at how easy in general my daughter was.  Breastfeeding was the only true disappointment after she was born as I was in so much pain, didn't have much supply, and stopped after 10 days.  Other than that, she was sleeping in her crib by 2 weeks old (on her belly, gasp!), would wake up every 3-6 hours to eat then go RIGHT back to sleep, no colic, was generally easy going and treated me with undue kindness!!  She was also sleeping 6-8 hours every night by about 4 months old.  Since she was/is so incredibly easy for me, I fully anticipate this child being a spawn of satan and totally destroying my newborn high that I experienced with DD!

OMG.  This is my life right now too.  My son was and is such an easy going, laid back baby.  I have a fear that this LO will be a complete nightmare and my husband and son and I will look at each other and think "who is this little monster that screams and doesn't sleep?!"

LOL, this was totally me for my parents. With my older brother, they had an easy time with everything, he was such a great baby....then I came along and was the complete opposite! They've joked that if I was their first born, I would have been an only child!

halfthetree

I was really surprised how quick labor goes, it always seemed like it would last forever, but it was over very quickly.
I was also surprised by how easy a newborn was. He slept, nursed, pooped, and that was about it lol I was amazed, I thought it would be way more chaotic and a lot more crying.

moosebaby2011

I was terrified of being induced. I read  far too many horror stories prior to the birth of my son and was so scared that my labor was going to be horrible and long and that I'd end up with a c-section anyway. My actual experience was completely different from what I expected. 12 hours from the start of pitocin to the time that my son was born, an hour of pushing, and out of the 12 hours I was uncomfortable (ok, in pain) for maybe 2 of them. One of the first things I said to my DH after my son was born was "I'd do this again in a heartbeat".

vstevens

My med-free birth (including both contractions and pushing) was nowhere near as painful as I prepared myself for, though I will admit the recovery was worse than I expected.

DS was an awesome baby who hardly cried, slept all the time, and took to the breast like a champ (we had latch issues, but those were my fault for not paying attention to my LC - he had to be pretty patient with me for the first couple of weeks as I learned how to stick him on there!).  Like PPs, I'm probably due for a nightmare child this time around

brideandbreve

My labor with DS. I had to be induced for very low amniotic fluid, so as I was being assigned a room in L&D, I kept thinking in the back of my mind, "Here comes the c-section." In the end, I had a very awesome induction, and after my water broke on its own at 1:45, I went from 4 to 10 very quickly, and pushed for only 15 minutes, at most. My son was born at 3:18 PM. Because I hadn't had time for an epidural, I went med-free for the intense part of things, and I felt awesome afterwards.

I used to read/hear some natural birth/med-free birth advocates talk about how they would have their babies and then be up, moving around, fixing something to eat right after giving birth. I used to think those women were full of shit, but after I did skin-to-skin with DS, I was up and walking around the room and pissing off the nurses. They were constantly fussing at me for not taking it easy, not waiting for someone to help me up out of the bed, and so forth. (To those advocates mentioned above, I apologize for rolling my eyes.)

While I don't think all of my good fortune after having DS was because I didn't get an epidural (because, seriously? that would be BS), I was very surprised by the fact that I felt so good. I fully expected to be exhausted, spent, horribly mangled down there, and a little out of it. The fact that it was possible to have a baby and an hour later, get up and walk around the room, take pictures of him, and laugh and joke like nothing life changing had just happened.. that was pretty eye-opening.

quidditchcapn1120

I was very surprised by how easy the newborn phase was. He spent a lot of time sleeping so I got a lot done during the day. He was a good sleeper at night too, so I ended up just getting up 2-3 times per night to feed him and I still felt fine. It wasn't until he turned 1 year that thugs started to get hard since he was way more mobile.

Breastfeeding was really hard the first two weeks, but after that was a breeze. It was a very good experience and I did it for 15 months.

monkeybutt61612

quidditchcapn1120 said:

I was very surprised by how easy the newborn phase was. He spent a lot of time sleeping so I got a lot done during the day. He was a good sleeper at night too, so I ended up just getting up 2-3 times per night to feed him and I still felt fine. It wasn't until he turned 1 year that thugs started to get hard since he was way more mobile. Breastfeeding was really hard the first two weeks, but after that was a breeze. It was a very good experience and I did it for 15 months.

Absolutely.  I would take the newborn stage over the 12-15 month stage any day.  Yeah, they are adorable as can be now, but I miss the days when I could just sit on the couch and read a magazine while he peacefully laid in the swing for hours.    

FSUNole31

monkeybutt61612 said:

This may not be the same for everyone else, but I was surprised by how much my newborn slept during the day.  There were times my husband and I were actually bored sitting on the couch watching tv while he slept.  I thought life instantly got chaotic after a baby, but we were bored a lot of the time in the beginning.  

I agree with this 100%.  We had the same type of feelings and right when he started to get "fun" and interact I had to go back to work. 

litzo27

I was up taking a shower hours after DS2 was born.
I was happy stretch marks never reared their ugly heads.
I had a tear with one and an episiotomy with the other and neither was a big deal in terms of healing.
It was amazing to see that nursing is a fail-proof method to quiet down a baby screaming bloody murder. Any time. Any place.

FSUNole31

I was scared to death of having a catheter.  When I decided to get the epi after the pitocin I was almost in tears not because I was about to get a big needle in my back but because of the cath.  It really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be at all.  I even had to have it placed back in after delivery because I was so swollen I couldn't pee and it wasn't near as terrible as I had imagined.

LexGator

Breastfeeding was easy for me. I feel lucky in that regard. She latched on immediately and other than a couple of clogged ducts down the road, I had no real issues for the 18 months I nursed her.

Pretty much nothing about the newborn stage (except the nursing) was easy for us, though. I will spare FTMs the sleepless details.

Piach

I'm another one where breastfeeding was a breeze. Or maybe I just perceived it was a breeze because everyone told me how are it was, so I expected the worse. I fully understand that it is a struggle for many. I just lucked out and we both apparently knew what we were doing.

MrsGraham06

litzo27 said:

I was up taking a shower hours after DS2 was born.
I was happy stretch marks never reared their ugly heads.
I had a tear with one and an episiotomy with the other and neither was a big deal in terms of healing.
It was amazing to see that nursing is a fail-proof method to quiet down a baby screaming bloody murder. Any time. Any place.

So true! Too bad it doesn't work on toddlers!

MrsGraham06

monkeybutt61612 said:

quidditchcapn1120 said:

I was very surprised by how easy the newborn phase was. He spent a lot of time sleeping so I got a lot done during the day. He was a good sleeper at night too, so I ended up just getting up 2-3 times per night to feed him and I still felt fine. It wasn't until he turned 1 year that thugs started to get hard since he was way more mobile. Breastfeeding was really hard the first two weeks, but after that was a breeze. It was a very good experience and I did it for 15 months.

Absolutely.  I would take the newborn stage over the 12-15 month stage any day.  Yeah, they are adorable as can be now, but I miss the days when I could just sit on the couch and read a magazine while he peacefully laid in the swing for hours.    

I would just hold my baby. I think one reason I was always tired is that, even when my babies were sleeping, I'd hold them. Just to feel that they were real! And admire their precious faces (they change so fast!). I had a hard time putting the baby down. DH would have to remind me to sleep some days

MrsGraham06

And another one from me...

The feel of a newborn's breath on your face is priceless! I can hardly wait! It was also about the only thing that made DH giggle, and be silly (oh, the look on DH's face when they would just breathe while he held them!)

laurasue0513

monkeybutt61612 said:

This may not be the same for everyone else, but I was surprised by how much my newborn slept during the day.  There were times my husband and I were actually bored sitting on the couch watching tv while he slept.  I thought life instantly got chaotic after a baby, but we were bored a lot of the time in the beginning.  

My sisters said the same thing, and one of them had twins!  She put them on a schedule right away and their naps were right in line with the other's so she was surprisingly bored a lot of the time.  She would take the baby monitor and run laps around the house as exercise while they slept!