Labor

Now that I'm only about six weeks away from my due date, I've been thinking a lot about labor. Mostly how I'm going to do/survive it.

I am a huge sissy when it comes to pain. I once had period cramps so bad that I dramatically collapsed after I had yelled, "SWEET MOTHER OF GOD, LABOR CANNOT BE WORSE THAN THIS FIERY HELL I AM GOING THROUGH RIGHT NOW, SOMEONE KILL ME BEFORE THE PAIN DOES."

All my mom said to me after that little display was, "Well, thank god you're not pregnant."

Except now I am. And the baby has to come out somehow. Painfully, I would imagine.

I long ago decided that I was going to get an epidural. As many as they'll let me. 55? I'm down. I understand it's a big, scary needle jabbed into your spine, but everyone says you don't care because labor is THAT BAD. Lesser of two evils. Fine, I'll take it.

But because what happens before and after that is a mystery, I remain terrified. And sure, it could be okay... Though, for every "I had the epidural and pushed for a pleasant 15 min." story I hear, it seems like there are two "I pushed for 36 hours and, just before I passed out in excruciating pain, I had an emergency C-section that chopped me in half." Gah!

As of right now, I haven't had any Braxton-Hicks contractions (I assume I'd know it if I did), so the mystery remains. As does my fear.