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Cincinnati Babies
Random, Totally Unscientific Poll
Just wondering if any patterns emerge.
I've heard people say that there's a correlation between how easy or hard your pregnancy is, and how easy or hard your L&D experience will be. Of course, heard it mostly when I was pg. Just curious to see what the results will be.
The categories are: pregnancy, L&D experience, and baby
Your options are: easy, medium, difficult, very difficult
*disclaimer* everyone's individual experience is different, so it's virtually impossible to do a real comparison. Also, everyone's perception is relative to what they know and have experienced.
I'd also like to say that "easy" is misleading because even the "easiest" pregnancy, L&D experience, or baby, is actually very difficult. It's just "easy" relative to other experiences.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Random, Totally Unscientific Poll
L&D experience: very difficult (30 hours of labor, including 4 hrs of pushing, ending in forceps delivery. Several complications during recovery).
Baby: easy (very easy going, STTN at 6 wks, rarely cries, etc)
Pregnancy: medium (wicked heartburn, massive swelling, 3 days overdue)
L&D experience: difficult (unexpected c-section)
Baby: easy (we had our hard days due to bf issues and reflux, but she was a good sleeper from the get-go)
pregnancy: medium (extreme exhaustion/lack of appetite for first 16 weeks, sciatica periodically... but nothing compared to what some of my friends experienced. and no cankles until 39w4d)
L&D: medium (just long)
Baby: relatively easy- a few blips here and there, but Brandon's a good sleeper and pretty happy.
DC #1
Pregnancy - medium (20 weeks of ms)
L&D - difficult ( unmedicated w/back labor, 3 hours of pushing, baby was sunny-side up)
Baby - medium (colic, good sleeper)
DC #2
Pregnancy - difficult (exhaustion, horrible acid reflux, m/s)
L&D - easy (two hours total, epidural, 10 min of pushing)
Baby - medium (didn't STTN until 11 months)
Pregnancy - easy for twins, medium for pregnancies in general (modified bedrest from 27 weeks on due to BH contractions)
L&D - difficult. I labored for less than 12 hours total, but I pushed for four hours and had a lot of pain despite an epidural. I didn't have strong enough contractions b/c my uterus - so I had to have vacuum extraction.
Baby - one very easy and one very difficult. Evelyn was very content, slept a lot, didn't cry much, was a good eater, was STTN by 2.5 months. Charlotte had colic, was a horrible sleeper, was extremely fussy and needed to be held all the time, plus she had health issues (GI and torticollis). Thankfully, they are both great toddlers, now.
DC#1 Pregnancy-extremely difficult. L&D-medium Baby-easy until age 3 then all hell broke loose. Got easy at 15 years old.
DC#2 Pregnancy-easy (aside from 19 weeks of puking constantly). L&D-difficult. Baby-extremely easy and I am always waiting for all hell to break loose...see DC#1 for explanation.
Pregnancy: Pretty easy, just very tired, and placenta previa....which resulted in hemhorraging at the end of my pregnancy
Delivery: very emergency C-section due to hemhorraging....DS was fine and healthy, I had a horrible recovery
Baby: Thinking back....I wouldn't say easy b/c DS had a lot of trouble BFing and he was an average sleeper. I'd say average
pregnancy: easy. I had one week of m/s, one week of severe migraines, and I was hurting pretty bad at the end but overall I felt good and it was very uneventful.
l&d: difficult. I pushed for over 3 hours, had a fever, a forceps delivery, and you didn't ask us to rate this but my recovery was pretty difficult as well.
baby: I guess I'll say medium. DS has always been a good, happy baby during the day, but a horrific sleeper. He didn't start STTN until 2 weeks ago.
PG # 1/Piper:
Pregnancy: extremely easy, I felt great and everything went perfectly (until the last two weeks when I was overdue and absolutely miserable - no complications though)
L&D: medium to difficult - induced, very long labor, almost had a c/s
Baby: very easy
PG # 2/Kady:
Pregnancy: easy to medium (I definitely had m/s this time) - she was breech, not sure if you'd consider that a complication
L&D: scheduled c/s...so, easy I guess? It wasn't bad.
Baby: Medium. Much fussier than Piper as a newborn (now she's an easy & fun baby though.) Piper also STTN consistently from 7 weeks, Kady still gets up once to nurse most nights.
Pregnancy - Medium - had pretty severe morning sickness consistnetly until 14 weeks and then scattered throughout the rest of the pregnancy. I also had a breech baby.
L&D - Nothing really to talk about here....scheduled c-section (see above)
Baby - Medium to Difficult - Poor sleeper until just after a year old. Refused bottles (even when I was at work) until after a year old. I wouldn't even say she is difficult but just headstrong. :-)
Pregnancy - Easy. No sickness, not uncomfortable
Delivery - Easy. I had a forceps delivery but had a fantastic epidural so it was no big deal. Recovery was great.
Baby - Medium - She is wonderful when she's awake! Smiley, happy and tons of fun. She used to sleep very well but let's just say sleeping is not her strong suit right now leading to a very frustrated Mommy.
Photos courtesy of Jen Rose Photography
Pregnancy: Easy to Moderately difficult
L &
Very difficult
Baby: Easy?
pregnancy - easy - no morning sickness, worked & exercised the whole time, some reflux and swelling, but nothing too horrible
L&D - very difficult - nothing went "as planned," induction, baby's heartrate kept dropping bc of pitocin, long labor, almost cs several times, finally delivered in OR with forceps
Baby - easy/medium - breastfeeding was pretty easy to get the hang of for me & DD, she has many fussy times, but she's overall a good baby
Pregnancy - Easy. It was a dream. I loved being pregnant and was never very uncomfortable except for a few hormonal headaches in first trimester which were easily forgotten.
L&D - I'd say medium. My water broke around 10 PM at night but I didn't realize what it was till 12 hours later. By that time, I was at risk for infection. Still not bad but had to have pitocin to speed up labor due to the risk of infection. Ended up being in labor for 36 hours before being fully dilated. Pushed for 3 hours and ended up with a c/s due to failure to progress. But, healthy baby and easy recovery for me.
Baby - medium. BFing was difficult for the first week and I was beyond depressed about it. He had weight gain issues for the first month. After the first 8 weeks, he was much easier to manage but there were several times in those first couple months I thought I was losing my mind.
Not ready to rate this pregnancy yet.......but it's been harder this first 11 weeks than the first time around. I think that's because I have a toddler to chase and not because the pregnancy itself is difficult.
Tyler Anthony arrived on 9.21.09
The Chronicles of Justin and Tyler
Pregnancy- Medium- I was sick throughout the pregnancy, bedrest last 6 weeks due to mild pre-E and Ben had a skipped heart beat
L&D and recovery- Medium- 4th degree tear, very long and painful recovery but manageable with the right meds ;P
Baby- EASY! Sometimes I wonder how I was so lucky to have such an easy going baby... we did have BFing issues (mastitis twice and multiple clogged ducts which slowed production down severely...BF'ed for 1 month) but other than that Hes been STTN since 6 weeks, eats perfectly, behaves perfectly and is happy and giddy 24/7
Pregnancy: Medium. I threw up most days until about 26 weeks, had some BP issues and the end of course was difficult, and I was overdue. But it could have been worse.
L&D: Medium. It went pretty well for the most part until the very end. But it was an induction and at one point I was hyperstimulated on pitocin. I'm hard-pressed to say it was easy.
Baby: In the beginning, I probably would have said very difficult. We had BFing issues; she had colic and screamed for hours every night; for a period she just screamed most of the day and refused to nap; she hated the carseat and screamed anytime she was in it, so I could rarely go anywhere; and she refused bottles. Now, though, she's pretty happy and very fun. But she's still a terrible sleeper and has never STTN or napped well. So I guess I'd say medium now, probably difficult overall.
Photo by Melissa Nicole Photography
Preg - Easy (very little nausea, but I did swell up like the stay puff marshmellow man at the end due to high BP)
L&D - Easy overall, although the last 10 minutes and the first 10 minutes of his life were VERY Difficult (induced a week early, they didn't soften my cervix which caused a day delay, the only bad thing was he got stuck and he stopped breathing b/c the cord got pinched and he went into shock - very scary to think your baby isn't breathing, you know?)
Baby - E wasn't too bad, probably medium. He had to be held about 20 hours a day. But once we put him in bed with us, we were fine.
Elijah Matthew - 5/3/07 ~ Adalyn Rosemary - 3/23/11
*Photos by Kacy Cierley*
Pregnancy: Medium- I had PUPPPs (the most maddening rash ever) but other than wanting to rip my skin off for several weeks my pregnancy was pretty easy.
L&D: Easy- compared to what I've heard from others, mine wasn't bad
Baby- 75%-easy 25%-medium (at night) She is normally a great baby but a few nights a week the demon comes out.
Pregnancy: easy (I had some morning sickness and heartburn, but I felt great right up until the very end)
L&D experience: easy (13 hours start to finish, my water broke to kick things off, I got an epidural and never needed pitocin to augment labor)
Baby: medium (she's only 3 weeks old, so this could change sleeps a lot during the day but is unpredictable at night. She's a good nurser and hardly fussy, but the sleepless nights are hard).
Pregnancy: Easy overall
Labor & Delivery: I wouldn't choose any of these words to describe labor & delivery. My MW was great at helping me through labor, it was fairly quick (about 6 hours) and I had no complications that interfered with my labor & delivery wishes. Didn't even need stitches! That being said, labor is HARD!
Baby: Easy overall
Can I add a fouth category called toddler? LOL!
Pregnancy: Easy. Never had m/s, and actually loved being pregnant. One bump in the road was that we received a false positive on the quad screen, which lead to level 2 u/s and weeks of unnecessary worry. Needless to say, we won't do a quad screen ever again.
L&D experience: Can I add a new word? disappointing.. Rushed to hospital at 36w2d with excruciating pains that turned out to be HELLP syndrome. I was basically enduring pregnancy-induced liver failure. Had to have emergency-c because docs were more worried about me than DD. (Sudden pre-e due to liver failure, and risk of seizures/toxemia.) I know it was the only solution for delivery, but it's not what I envisioned my first birth to be.
Baby: Medium to difficult due to issues surrounding DD's prematurity. DD was in NICU for 12 days due to low birth weight and feeding issues. BF didn't work b/c she was too small to latch on, so I pumped for 3 months and ended up FF because suppy went away. DD has never been a hearty eater, and at almost 1 yr. old only weighs maybe 14 lbs. (check-up next week at Children's). Besides worrying about her developmentally, she has always been a content, happy baby! Loves socializing and being active. She is a great sleeper, but a horrible napper.
I'll take that!