Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The Hospital. Not so scary after all.


My sweet friend Claire was one of my favorite people to talk to while I was pregnant. Claire is a great writer, mom and cofounder of the awesome site Meet The Milk along with another dear friend and awesome-mom-slash-writer Lauren.

Anyway Claire had the best time being pregnant herself and is basically a cheerleader for gestation which is my kind of jam. For me there is nothing worse than someone looking at your stomach while having flashbacks akin to being at the front lines of war. Not cool.

I think it's safe to say every woman knows that giving birth will be a little more challenging than say, getting a pedicure. In fact I dare you to get through your pregnancy without some idiot bringing up the watermelon to lemon analogy (feel free to punch them in the face by the way.)

Also when you're pregnant and already anxious about exactly how this child will exit your body in a few months you'll inevitably come across an episode of Downton Abbey where the poor chick up and dies after giving birth. Thanks BBC! Anyway thankfully I had Claire. Claire told me something good all of the time. She was my go-to-good-time-girl.

But what I most appreciated was her description of her time in the hospital. Where some friends described things that had gone wrong or even emitted phrases about their lady parts I'd rather not repeat here, Claire described it as a blissfully great effing time. She pointed out that it's actually comforting to be there because everyone and their mother is paying attention to you and how you're doing. And hey I'm a sucker for any situation that's all about me, me, me so I really liked this description.

As it turned out I too had the best time delivering my little nugget. Not that there wasn't a little drama and pain along the way - you are squeezing a tiny person out after all - but on the whole I enjoyed every second of it and even wrote about it on my other blog here.

So the moral of the story is if you're scared of the unexpected or skittish about hospitals like I was, surround yourself with friends who had good experiences or at least who focus on the positive. Find yourself a Claire.

Still nervous? Well let me tell you this. I was so afraid of the hospital that weeks before I was due I had an elongated panic attack slash cry fest. I literally started crying and couldn't stop for two days. And here's the irony. You know what my ALL TIME favorite memory is? The hospital. All of it. Every single second. Pulling into the drive at 6 in the morning. Contractions in the hospital bed. All the way through. I even took home a pair of the granny panties they give you (clean ones - I'm not that cray cray) so I could have a memento!

Because there truly is nothing better than finally meeting that precious little slime-covered alien baby you've been carrying around all these months. It's a moment you will wish you could relive over and over.

So thank you Claire. I will try my best to share my good time story with other moms-to-be who are scared out of their wits like I was!

Coming up - my birth plan, what I packed for the hospital and more prepping tips!