Listen to Your Body!!

It is so important to listen to your body when you are pregnant, it will let you know if you are overdoing it.  Last week I went to two births, one of which was very long (I was at the long birth for 40 hours), and ended up sleeping only one night out of four nights.  Needless to say my body was screaming loudly.  I had a very crampy uterus and would have been more concerned if I didn't know that lots of rest should fix everything.  I put everything on hold except taking care of the kids and slept twelve hours at night with an hour to two hour nap during the day. It took me almost four days to fully regain my energy but I did!  That long birth was a good reminder for me in many ways.  One it reminded me that you can do EVERYTHING right and still get a doozy of a labor.  I think that sometimes I think that the natural birth world suggests that if you do the right things, you will have an easy (maybe even pain-free) birth.  NOT TRUE.  It also reminded me that you have to take excellent care of yourself as a midwife (student midwife) if you are going to be inflicting that kind of abuse (regular mostly sleepless nights) on your body.  And finally, it reminded me that I am NOT willing to be away from a little one for a long birth until he/she is at least 18 months.  That means I need to be ready to take it slow when the baby comes and leave a birth if necessary to go home and take care of my family.  One day at a time, that is my current mantra...