Pregnancy Is Contagious

Now, I know that Pregnancy is not ACTUALLY contagious, but I understand where the phrase came from.

I'm not sure if this is just a stage in my postpartum life, but every time I see a new baby, or hear about someone giving birth, I go in to a I-want-another-baby-right-now mode. And in truth, I do not want another baby yet. I am 100% not ready. And I don't feel that it would be in Rosalie's best interests to have another child while she is still so young. I'm sure other parents could manage it, I don't believe I can. I also love the stages that she is developing right now. I couldn't imagine missing those things because there is a smaller, more dependent baby in the house. No siree. Not ready for another one yet...

But then I see the pictures! The itty-bitty babies, with their wrinkly skin and button noses made perfect for breastfeeding... Their weights in the single digits in pounds... their sleepy little faces...

I am getting to the point where I am going to start losing a lot of what I had when Rosalie was first born. I am closing in on the end of my Maternity Leave, which also means breastfeeding will be ending for Rose and I, I won't be home every day, all day with her... all of this also prompts the feeling of wanting to start it all over again with a new little one.

A birth that happened this morning prompted me to watch The Business of Being Born on Netflix, and made me remember my birth experience, and think about what (if anything) I would change for next time (right now all I can think of is not going to the hospital so soon, or hopefully being granted a midwife). Honestly I had a pretty awesome labour and birth. It didn't go perfectly according to plan, but the epidural and the birth position was all that was changed from my birth plan. As far as the position goes, they talked me into semi-reclined, I wish I would have just adapted my squat (there ya go, I guess that's another thing I would change). And maybe if I had asked for bililights earlier, or hung out by the window more she wouldn't have developed Jaundice as bad and we could have avoided the whole NICU experience... Really the first time you go into something like that you really have no idea what it's going to be like. What the pain is like, what the healing process is like, just how it differs in general from what you expect. But the second time around you'll know what to expect. It will still be different of course, just like every baby is different, and it probably won't be any easier, but there won't be as much of the unknown.

So I suppose if I nit-pick enough, there were a few things I would change, and next time I will be going in with a different perspective. And I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Compared to the women in this documentary, I had a perfect birth. And I came out with a perfect baby. And that is really all that matters.