Night and Day

I have been told by a number of women who have had scheduled C-sections that the difference between their first and second deliveries are as different as night and day.  It makes sense.  There is no 1.5 day-long failed induction without food or sleep preceeding it.  There is time to meet with a million and one physicians to make sure everything is in order, spanning several weeks of prep instead of 40 minutes.  Knowing what to expect for the surgery makes it a little easier, and at the same time a little harder.  But knowing the icky parts has allowed me to plan for that too.  Tomorrow my trifecta of coping in the operating room will include my iPod with favorite playlist cued, Ativan, and a specialist in complementary therapy who will be meeting me an hour beforehand to give me some massage or aromatherapy awesomeness.

This pregnancy has been physically harder than the last one, but again there are things I learned the last time around that helped me with this one.  For example:

1) Waking up with my arms and hands completely numb does not mean I have a brain tumor; it means I have hormone-induced carpal tunnel. 
2) I will not be able to breathe with clear nasal passages until after the baby is out.  The Netti Pot has been a very good friend to me.
3) A fit pregnancy is a nice idea, but stairs are never worth it.
4) I have no business eating my weight in Starburst and salt and vinegar almonds, but Oliver turned out okay after my overdosing in ice cream and dill pickle chips, so...
5) What they say about the second trimester being the "honeymoon" period in a pregnancy is a load of hooey.  It's all hard. 

I also knew this time around how to stop brushing my teeth before throwing up my breakfast in the sink, at least some of the time.  A startling difference with this pregnancy, though:  this time, when I'm retching over the sink, I pee my pants a little.

One lesson that is always hard for me to learn is letting go of what doesn't get done.  I ran frantically from room to room tonight, trying to clear a path for family that would be coming to help.  Michael gently asked me if this was how I wanted to spend the night before the C-section.  Of course not, was the response in my head.  But I have to.

But I don't.  And I did draw the line eventually, leaving piles of dirty Christmas Day dishes in the kitchen, guest bedroom sheets unwashed, and balls of wrapping paper littering the living room floor.  I could have done something about these things today, but we decided it better to have a Day-O-Fun with Oliver.  We went to the zoo, and I was plopped into a wheelchair so that we could have more than a half hour of perusing.  It should be noted that when I was pregnant with Oliver, I was also plopped into a wheelchair at the zoo in my ninth month.  Maybe there's some repressed feelings of being a human cage I need to deal with...

We played games, took long naps, ate ice cream before dinner, and watched the Winnie the Pooh movie.  Dishes shmishes: it was exactly how our last day as a family of 3 should be spent.