Six Week Postpartum Check Up

Even though I had a nine pound baby come out of me, the thought of going to my six week post-partum check up freaked me out. I had asked a friend about it and she said, “Oh yeah, it’s a full pelvic exam. It’s not pleasant.” Maybe it was the thought of having that area prodded and poked again that made it uneasy. Maybe it was the thought that it would be painful and I wouldn’t have pain killers. I don’t know exactly, but it freaked. Me. Out.

First the nurse took my weight and although I knew I hadn’t lost all the baby weight, it was still depressing to see how much more weight I needed to lose. As a person who has never dieted, this is a new concept to me and I’m really not sure how I’m going to go back to my pre-baby weight. In another one of my delusions, I thought all the weight would be gone by now. After all, freakin’ 10 pounds of it was the baby!

The nurse asked me my baby’s name, birth date, gender, and his weight. “Oh, nine pounds four ounces,” she said when I told her. “Did you have a c-section?” “NO,” I replied. “Ooooh, wow, you go girl,” she said. She asked if I was having intercourse and I said, “Hell no.” Then she asked about birth control and I said, “Yeah, having a baby.”

I Got Beat

Thomas Beatie, the pregnant man, gave birth a few weeks ago to a girl who weighed 9 lbs 5 oz and he didn’t have a c-section! He labored for 40 hours — and now I think that mine wasn’t so bad after all. (From time of inducement, mine was only 12 hours.)

Congrats to the Maddy! Uh, Dommy? Uh, new parent!