by Bonnie Christiano

Created on: August 27, 2009   Last Updated: August 28, 2009

Before delivering my baby, I thought I had a good idea of what would happen. My husband and I chose not to attend any child birth classes but thought we would be ok because his mother was a labor and delivery nurse for many years. If we had any questions, she would be available as well as the nursing staff and doctors. However, there were many things that I wasn't prepared for

Constant attention. During the labor, delivery, and recovery, I was constantly being checked by some member of the hospital staff. Their advice was to rest, that this would be a long process. Well, that would be great but I was being poked and prodded and checked every five minutes. It was nearly impossible to relax or sleep.

Water breaking, More Like Niagara Falls. The doctor broke my water for me so I am not sure if this is the case for mothers whose water broke naturally. But once the bag was broken, it was a constant flow of fluid. It never stopped. I thought that once the fluid was out, that was it. Not true. The nurses layered the bed with puppy training pads to catch the fluid and had to replace them on a regular basis. I am not sure how women can even walk around once their water has broken without leaving a small river in their wake.

Everything is annoying. I wasn't prepared for being absolutely annoyed by everything that anyone was doing. My husband, my parents and my in-laws were with me in the delivery room as my labor progressed. When my father rubbed my feet in a loving gesture, I wanted to kick him in the face. I am not violent but I was so irritated by that kind act that I felt I could become violent at that moment. Just having them all talk around me was enough to make me want to scream. And the worst part, my mother decided it was picture time in between my contractions. My contractions were a minute apart and lasted a full minute. That meant that I had a mere sixty seconds to recover from one contraction to the next and she wanted me to smile for a camera. AHHHH!

Epidural delay. You can't get an epidural the minute you ask for one. I was seriously considering a drug free delivery. That is until my contractions reached a twelve on a scale of one to ten. I held off as long as I could and finally asked for relief, thinking they would send the doctor with the scary needle in immediately. Again, not true. They told me I needed a full bag of IV fluid before I could get the epidural. How long would that take? Only about fifteen to twenty minutes. Well in fifteen to twenty

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