Comments on: The Things I Didn’t Expect When I Was Expecting

By: Prepare for Pregnancy, Birth, and Parenting Blog Carnival – 2010 | Attachment Parenting International Blog

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:05:24 +0000

[...] The Things I Didn’t Expect When I Was Expecting When I first got pregnant six years ago, the first thing I wanted to buy was What To Expect When You’re Expecting. It was the only book about pregnancy I’d ever heard of. As far as I was concerned, it was a woman’s pregnancy bible. And then, about half way through my pregnancy I heard about Dr. Sears’s The Baby Book and everything changed: I entered the world of attachment parenting. Except that I was already there and just never knew my values had a name. [...]

By: Baby Slings

Baby Slings — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 10:59:25 +0000

The power of positive thinking doesn’t always work! That, and be responsible and research all aspects of birth beforehand because you never know what nature might have in store for you!

By: nadine

nadine — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:24:21 +0000

great blog entry! i have a 10 month old (my first) and totally experienced so much of what you did! ended up having a c-section (never ever expected it), adore breast feeding and look forward to cuddling up with my little girl and her daddy every night in bed! took a while to ignore what others say and just know that what I am doing is great for my baby and for me, but once I could do that all was perfect. Motherhood is the most amazing experience imagineable and it’s great to know that we really come equipped with so much of the knowledge without knowing we have it at all! trust your instincts and enjoy the ride, i just wish it wasn’t going so quickly!

By: Melodie

Melodie — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 01:34:03 +0000

@Pam – It’s so terrific to hear the stories of moms who didn’t want to breastfeed and then did and loved it. Thanks for sharing!

@Amber @Jessie @Jenny @Jackie Lee – It appears there’s a common thread among your comments that shows that it is important to learn about the interventions that may arise. And of course this is so true. However I find it is rare for any new moms to cover all this stuff. I know it gets covered to some extent in pre-natal classes, although I pretty much didn’t pay attention to any of it myself (nothing like the la-la-la song going through your head to distract you from things you don’t want to hear!). So how can we get moms to pay attention? How can this be changed?

By: Jackie Lee

Jackie Lee — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:48:08 +0000

My first (only) I did all the research, attended Bradley classes and planned for the perfect birth. Unfortunately, my strong willed child was just as strong willed then as she is now. Labor was long and complicated. My midwife was little to no help and was very unsupportive unfortunately, as I’d gone with a midwife just to get that extra support. With some medical interventions ~ short of a C section I gave birth to her. The doctor’s overreacted and took her to the nicu ~ where without my permission or consent they started her on IV anibiotics (three different kinds). Dealing with the NICU was very hard, and the nurses were NOT very supportive of breastfeeding, which I fought very hard to do. I would not allow them to supplement with formula ~ no matter how hard they tried to my face and behind my back.

I too felt I would have a perfect birth and did little to no research on complications, other than to write no forceps in my birth plan. Which I was glad about because it did come up.

It’s really hard to look at the things that can go wrong, but I think it’s a good idea for people to at least know a little bit about how the NICU works, and how to advocate for yourself if you end up there. It was very very hard ~ but we did it.
.-= Jackie Lee´s last blog ..Tips for Fun Cooking with Kids =-.

By: pharmacy tech

pharmacy tech — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:09:45 +0000

nice post. thanks.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 08:11:58 +0000

What to Expect When You’re Expecting is the number one book being passed around among pregnant friends and relatives here. But I must agree that Dr. Sears’ Baby Book is much much better. I also didn’t think I would be breastfeeding for long.. my mindset then was that – I would breastfeed if I have milk. My top regret was probably not reading more about natural childbirth. I assumed that I would need an epidural plus my OB didn’t ask my permission but just snipped me down there for an episiotomy. now i know better!
.-= Jenny´s last blog ..Yay! I’m on someone’s list =-.