Recovery...

Everything about this baby and my experience was completely opposite of my experience with my 2 year old. With my 2 year old, I loved being pregnant. The labor went quickly and the recovery was terrible and painful. With this one, I hated being pregnant. I was uncomfortable very early on and it continued through the very end. The labor went quickly (just about 6 hours) but it was much more difficult. I could only hope that the recovery followed the same pattern of opposites and I would get off easy with this one. Well, I was right.

From the moment my epidural wore off, I was able to get up and move around with little pain. I took a shower and they gave me pain medication, though I didn't need it. That was the last time I took anything for pain, not even aspirin.

My only problem now was this stupid rash that I had over my entire body, except for my face and neck. It was in behind my knees, under my arms, in between my toes. And now it was raging more than ever. Maybe I was so focused on the itchiness that I couldn't even feel the pain. I was told that it would go away within 2 weeks and that wasn't fast enough.

I remember being in the hospital bed, with visitors in the room, just scratching and scratching - trying to be subtle because it was really not the most attractive thing to be doing. My head was telling me not to scratch. But it was like my fingers had a mind of their own and I literally had no control. I felt like a drug addict or what I imagine a drug addict would feel like. The compulsion was so intense that I had no choice.

The problem was that it felt amazing while I was scratching and for maybe 5 minutes after I was able to get my fingers to stop. But then it would flare back up and I would be back in the same boat. I had to get a shot of something or other (I probably should know this) and the nurse couldn't find any useable skin. She said she had never seen it so bad. That made me feel much better. NOT!

It felt like it was the worst possible thing I could go through at the time. Looking back, if that was the worst thing I had to deal with while recovering from childbirth, I guess that's not so bad.