I Can See Why Those Epidurals are So Popular

So labor is rubbish, huh?  I've never been a big fan of the birth story, but here are a few notes about what I was doing this time last week.

1. I was in labor for 19 hours and around hour 7, I believed I had discovered the secret to pain-free birth.  I was sitting in the bathtub singing songs.  The singing forced me to breathe out for long periods of time, and I was planning to write a book and make millions with my new birthing technique, but then we hit hour 10 and if someone had suggested singing to me as a coping strategy at that point, I would have punched him/her in the face.
2. Steve discovered a better strategy--blowing into a straw, which I actually found more effective than using gas and air to manage labor.
3. Steve is an exceptional birth partner.
4. The baby's birth was natural, but then I had to have surgery to remove the placenta, so I ended up in the hospital for two days with a spinal block and drips and all that rubbish anyway.
5. Spinal blocks are awesome.
6. Hospital food is rubbish the world over.  Especially anything that claims to be fricasse.