[Fluffy Baby]

So, was pregnancy like anything you had imagined?

Labor?
Postpartum?


I was just wondering. My first time I had many b!tchslaps thru out the whole process.

[KimiB]

I expected to love pregnancy and feel beautiful, but I did neither. I had a textbook, healthy pregnancy, but I didn't feel like myself. I hated the physical limitations at a time in my life where I had finally come to love my body and fitness.

Labour and delivery....I expected to be superwoman with a natural birth, because my pregnancy went easily. In fact, had his cord not been around his neck I would have been fine to deliver naturally as my labour was going well. But i ended up with a c section because of heart rate decels.

Post-partum, I'm doing better than I expected. I thought I would find myself struggling with all the drastic changes, but I feel great and love my baby bird like crazy. Even breastfeeding is going much better than I imagined.

[kdrew88]

Pregnancy was pretty much what I expected except for the swelling in my female region. Was not prepared for that level of discomfort.

I didn't have a lot of expectations for labor/delivery. I had a weird feeling that I'd end up with a c-section since the beginning of my pregnancy. Then around 20 or so weeks they told me I have Placenta Previa. It didn't move until 36 weeks which was really annoying. I would have preferred to have a planned c-section then what I went through. I was induced due to super low amniotic fluid, labored for 16ish hours, baby was not getting past the pelvic bone, ended up with a c-section. Apparently she was turned sideways and was wedged in. She has 2 cuts on her head, a bruised ear, and bruised nose from being pushed so much. I felt so bad for her! I'm glad I stopped pushing after the 2 hours and went with the c-section.

Recovery from the section was harder than I thought and I also wasn't expecting the uncontrollable crying the first 2 weeks pp. I'm glad that is gone now for the most part!

I didn't expect to lose 30 lbs by my 2 week pp visit. That was super encouraging! Breast feeding is going pretty well and she seems to be a pretty easy baby. DH and I are so in love with her!

[MissLoki]

I didn't expect to love being pregnant so much. But I must admit that the first trimester was really much tougher than what I thought. It felt like slipping into a deep depression (for me anyways). The hunger was also quite surprising. But I loved my pregnant body and it's the first time in my life that I was at peace with it.

Labor was much tougher and much more messy than what I had expected. I didn't know about how I'd get kinda loopy during pushing and feel like I was losing bit and pieces of what was going on. The pushing part was much harder too. All in all, i hated that part; by the time they put him on me, I was so weak and exhausted that I had almost no reaction.

But the biggest surprise was the postpartum. How come no one told me I'd feel like death warmed over? The blood, the pain down there, the exhaustion (partially due to anemia)... I also didnt know about postpartum sweats and shivers. At least I had no hormonal mood swing so it made dealing with the pain easier.

[Thea Maria G]

It was definitely a unique experience. Was tired of ppl telling me what I WILL experience honestly. Now thy can shut it lol. I loved feeling the baby move though, and glad I never got morning sickness and labor wasn't bad for me just that epidural and the 30 times I got stuck