1) I will NEVER have an induction unless I'm 42+ weeks late and/or there is a legit medical reason
- LOL. I ended up requesting an induction at 40 weeks and 3 days, simply because Rob was scheduled to leave for Army training just a week away and I wanted him there. Shit happens.
2) I will NEVER get an epidural or a c-section
- I never actually said I would never get an epidural, but I did strongly want to avoid one at all costs and I truly believed I could labor and delivery without one. I like to still believe that I was right; I did make it to the pushing stage with no pain meds (after laboring for TWO DAYS on the maximum dosage of pitocin) and then the epidural I did get only worked for 45 minutes and I pushed for 4 hours. But holy crap contractions hurt! Why doesn't anyone tell you that! (Oh yeah, they DO tell you that...). Want to try and labor without one? Want an epidural? Go for it. Those 45 minutes that mine worked for were pure glory. Oh, and then I had an emergency c-section.
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| Pre-Pitocin, still holding on to my hippy "I can do this!" ideas |
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| And...a little later. Maybe 5 hours in? 35ish more to go... |
3) I will NEVER give my baby formula. Breast is Best!
- I actually did alright on this one. However, Ethan was born with a tongue tie and wasn't able to latch correctly. So for the first week (until we could get the tongue tie taken care of), I pumped while we fed him with a syringe and supplemented with formula. And low and behold, it didn't kill him! And all that time everyone was leading me to believe that formula was poison...We did get back to exclusively breastfeeding, which I continued for 6 weeks. It was hard. REALLY hard, and I would even say at times it was more painful/difficult than contractions on the max dose of pitocin. At 6 weeks I started pumping and giving him a bottle a day. And then some of those bottles turned into bottles of formula. For a long time, we were really happy with doing a bottle of formula a day! Around 3 months, Ethan got really sick and started losing weight even after he was all better so he now gets around 3 bottles of formula a day and I nurse him for the rest of his feedings. And I like it that way! As long as you're feeding your kid age-appropriate foods, go you!
4) I will NEVER let my baby "cry it out"
- For the most part, I still feel that way. But there have been times where it was either stick him in the crib for a few minutes or run myself into traffic. I always choose the less messy option. And when he decided at 3 months that he no longer wanted me to rock him to sleep and started kicking and screaming at me instead, but preferred me to just lay him in his crib and let him cry for a minute then suck his thumb and then fall asleep, I was okay with that. If he ends up killing me in my sleep 15 years from now, go ahead and blame it on that if you'd like because I honestly don't believe I'm doing him any harm.
5) I will NEVER feed my baby solids before 6 months
- Tell that to Ethan when he started trying to grab my cheeseburgers out of my hand at 3.5 months old. In all seriousness, I know that isn't a "ready" sign. But he did show the actual signs of being biologically ready, and coupled with his recent weight struggle and the advice of his pediatrician, we introduced veggie/fruit purees at 4 months old. And he did awesome, and loves them. So there.
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| mmmm, solid food. |
What were some things you said you would NEVER do, but changed once your little bundle of joy/pain/noise/happiness arrived?
You sound a lot like me! Haha! I also said I would never be induced unless I hit 41 weeks (doc wouldn't let me go longer bc of medical conditions), but I ended up being induced at 40 weeks 2 days. I said I would never get an epidural, but got one after 51 hours of labor and he was born 3 hours later. I said I would never formula feed, but this has actually (fortunately) worked out for us! I also said I would never start solids before 6 months, but we started at 5.5. Next we want to avoid dairy, sugars, and preservatives until well past a year, but who knows what will actually happen!? Lol
ReplyDeleteAshley H
Oh! I also said I'd never do "cry it our". But we changed our minds, used the method correctly (which people seem to misinterpret in my opinion), and Connor goes right down for bed.
ReplyDeleteI'm in denial. I say I don't do CIO, but in reality, sometimes I do.
DeleteI didn't want to be induced or have an epidural. Failed on both those (induced at 38.5 weeks for medical reasons) and ligament issues caused me to be in so much pain I had an epidural that worked wonders for about 3 hours (wore off just in time to be stitched up from a 2nd degree tear). I said I would never let her sleep in our bed but for the first 2 months she slept in our bed. I said I was going to breastfeed and that never worked. Abby wouldn't latch and when she did she would pull off screaming after about 30 seconds and eventually she just stopped latching completely. I didn't want to start her on purees until she started grabbing at our food at 3 months. I didn't want to give her too many meds, but she gets meds 3x a day for reflux. We do CIO as well and aside from when she is teething, Abby does really well going to bed. She'll play for a few minutes and maybe whimper but then she's asleep.
ReplyDeleteMy actual experiences as a mom definitely turned my expectations on their head. I was determined to go natural during labor with my first, but knew after the first hour of "real" contractions that I couldn't do it, so I got an epidural about halfway through. I had also planned to breastfeed her exclusively, but she refused to latch for the first three weeks, so we had to start with formula, then supplement with it, and I never managed to break myself of relying on it. I was proud of myself for never having to CIO until about six months in, when she started nap-striking, and I just couldn't find any other solution. And I hated it so much I vowed never to do it again, but found myself doing just that with my son (once we finally got his reflux under control), who woke me hourly at night and refused to nap for the first six months of his life. I also planned to make all of my kids' baby food and made most of my eldest's but haven't even attempted it for the second two. That's how it goes, I suppose- all part of "relaxing" into parenthood. Even things I stuck to my guns about with my first child I've found myself compromising on as I engage in my daily struggle to simply keep all three babies alive and relatively happy. ;)
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