It has been one week since going into active labor. As my husband mentioned last night, time feels very warped. Checking into the hospital feels both like yesterday, and that I have already lived a thousand lives since then.
I am grateful to report that baby Ella arrived healthy and a lot more smoothly than her big brother three years prior (another birth story for a different day). An hour after scheduling my induction for Friday, September 20th, my water broke on the afternoon of the 18th. It actually started to break hours earlier that morning, but it is not like what you see in the movies, and I didn’t realize it at the time. Distracted by getting Mason ready for school, I went about my day – took a couple of walks, and finished up some postpartum food prep. A few minutes after my husband walked in the door for lunch, I knew that it was time to go to the hospital. At 40 weeks and 3 days, and less than twelve hours of active labor, she was here. I am somewhat surprised that she didn’t come early; I felt as if my body was showing signs a couple weeks in advance. After being in labor with Mason for 53 hours – due to being induced too early in my opinion – I was really wanting to avoid induction this time around. For those of you who are interested, here are some things I did to try to speed things along:
- Starting at week 38 (when I was 3cm dilated), I went to weekly acupuncture for a total of three sessions.
- A lot of walking (including curb walking)
- Two membrane sweeps
- I ate 8 1/2 eggplant parmesan twice, including the night before I went into labor. It’s a Richmond old wives tale that this dinner dish induces labor (the same dish can also be found at Edo’s Squid), so there could be something to it!
- While I never officially made the “labor cake,” I did eat these chocolate brownies with dates
- I would like to think the full moon the night before had some indirect effect
Having been through birth before, I knew what to expect to some extent. Of course every labor and delivery is different, so I am talking more about the general logistics and process of the subsequent hospital stay. I knew what I needed (and didn’t need) in my hospital bag, as well as what to plan and prepare for in the days following birth. The first time around, I remember worrying that I was going to have to eat hospital food for a few days, not knowing that you can order from Uber Eats. I also over-packed on snacks and supplements, so I was able to take more of a minimalist approach this time around. I only brought three items with me:
- Gratisfied Oat Bars
- Chomps Turkey Pepperoni sticks
- LMNT electrolyte packets (I love the Raspberry Salt flavor)
While I probably wish I brought a few more food items, these three were enough. The Oat Bar + Chomps combination saved me. Once you get an epidural (if that is something you decide to do), you can’t eat anything. With Mason, I had the epidural over 24 hours prior to his arrival, which added an extra challenge to his birth story. I was exhausted and inadequately fueled when it came time to push, so I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen again.
I had an Oat Bar immediately after getting to the hospital
Then another Oat Bar and Chomps stick right before getting the epidural that evening
Then this same snack combination an hour or so after giving birth. Turkey jerky might not be the most appetizing thing to eat at 2:00am after having a baby, but I knew I needed something satiating to get me through the rest of the night. We didn’t get to go to “sleep” until 5:30am, so I looked at this protein-packed option in a very functional way.
The next morning, I was craving a smoothie bowl from North End Juice Co. The juice bar is located a few blocks from my house, and since my husband was heading home to shower, he picked up breakfast on the way back. Ideally, postpartum meals are to be warm and nourishing to replenish the body of lost nutrients, and if I was at home, this first meal would have looked more like cooked protein porridge. But, I’m not going to lie – this acai bowl sure did hit the spot.
We ordered lunch from Roots, and I got a big salad topped with chicken, grape tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, feta, and roasted chickpeas. This might sound backwards to read on a healthy living blog, but I must of gotten out of the habit of eating salads while pregnant.? They just don’t really do it for me anymore. Cooked greens agree with me more than when eaten raw. There I said it.
So out with the salads and in with the sandwiches. I am so happy sandwiches have returned to my life. There was a good chunk of time when I was overly focused on blood sugar balance and decreasing my carb consumption as much as possible. Not only that, I refrained from eating gluten. There are people out there who need to eliminate these foods from their diets, but I am not one of them, and I am glad to have figured that out. Plus, it was so nice not being pregnant, and being able to eat a turkey sandwich from Taste Unlimited without abandon.
The next morning was another smoothie bowl, this time from Ginger Juice. It is located about six minutes from the hospital, so my husband was able to go pick it up.
Fortunately, we were able to go home a day early, so that was my fourth and final meal in the hospital. No cafeteria food required! Since returning home, most of my meals are the bare minimum made with one hand, yet it has been so nice to be back in my own kitchen. I will do a separate post on what I am eating postpartum, so in the meantime, I will end with some cute baby photos from the hospital.
