Epidural

I have somewhat mixed feelings on the topic.

On the one hand, it almost seems ridiculous to NOT have pain relief if it is offered.  That's the beauty of modern western medicine - we no longer have to suffer through childbirth like in the good 'ol days.  My thoughts about it can be summed up in a quote I heard recently, "I don't get a root canal without novocaine, so why deliver without an epidural."

On the other hand, is the sadomasochist in me who is curious to see just how much pain I can handle.  I don't think I have ever had to endure terrible physical pain but judging by the fact that I scream in agony when I get a leg cramp, I doubt I will get too far without some drugs.  The other beauty of going natural is not having to worry about all the side effects of the epidural.  While they are likely minimal, people love sharing their epidural horror stories making it appear much worse than it is.

I asked my mom what the level of pain is (during childbirth) and she said, "first it's like really bad cramps and then towards the end it feels like someone is ripping off all your limbs one by one."  I don't think I've lost any limbs recently, but I would imagine that it's pretty painful.   A friend of mine wanted to comfort me recently so she compared giving birth to getting a bikini wax.  She said, "How bad can it be?  If we can handle waxing, we can definitely handle this!"  It's cute how she thinks that having a 7 or 8 pound person come out of you is equivalent to getting a few hairs pulled.

For those of you staying on top of my weight gain, I am now +28 lbs at 33 weeks.  Looks like I will end up at the high end of the recommended 25-35 lb weight gain but at this point I could care less and I am enjoying my cake - and eating it too!