My First AND an Announcement!!

My First Blog Award: A few days ago, Musings of a Modern Mom gave me my first BLOG AWARD! Thank you!  She also influenced me to make a big change to this blog, but more about that later. I'm so excited!

The Cherry on Top Award’s rules are:.

• ANSWER: If you had the chance to go back and change one thing in your life, would you and what would it be?
• PICK 6 people and give them this award. You then have to inform the person that they have gotten this award
• THANK the person who gave you the award

Answer: Too often, people live there lives in "what ifs?" My Dad and I were having a conversation last month about how I can't just be regretting things I've done in my life (in this instance, we were talking about my going to law school and he was telling me not to regret that choice).  He said that if you live a life where you constantly do that, you'd be miserable, and he (as usual) was right.

Here are the 6 people to whom I've giving this award: 

29 and Holding: This lady has some of the funniest and well written blog posts.  I NEVER miss a post.
A Love Worth Waiting For: I just recently found this blog and after this gorgeous girl got a complete hysterectomy at 21, her and her husband just found out that they will be adopting a wonderful baby girl!
Addicted to Addison: This is Bailey's blog, the girl that redid my blog...and she's going to be redoing my title to my blog! (but as I said, you have to get to the bottom of this post to see more about that)
Avant Garde Parenting: This blog has great parenting ideas, plus the author helped me come up with possibilities for my new blog name!
From Single to Married: I just love the freshness of this blog and how much I can relate to how many things she says.
My Heart Shaped Life: This girl's boyfriend just made the roster of the Cincinnati Bengals!

So, in honor of this award, my blog post today will be all about some very important "firsts" in my life.

• My First Kiss: My first kiss was in 8th grade to K.E.  He was CUTE and wore Nautica cologne. Oh yeah, a recipe for an 8th grade crush. It was a good first kiss, thankfully.  It was, cliche I know, at the movies.  He asked permission to kiss me so I obliged since he was such a gentleman!  Imagine my surprise when I was looking through the newspaper in 10th grade and saw him as a model in the Target ads!  Not bad for your first kiss huh?
• My First Relationship:  I'm talking about the first boy I actually genuinely liked.  That was around 9th and 10th grade.  T.T. was SUCH a nice guy and he, to this day, was the only boy that ever broke off the relationship!  I cried like a BABY for weeks! 
• My First I Love You: That would be with Evan believe it or not!  After T.T. I dated this jerk of a guy (I mentioned him here) and we said stupid stuff like "I wuff you" (yeah I know gagging commencing now), but Evan was the first boy that said "I LOVE YOU" and I said it back.  He told me I love you for the first time on my birthday our senior year of high school.  He told me that he had one more gift to give me and it was his love.  Geez...my heart melted.  We said I love you over and over again to each other with kissing in between for the next 30 minutes.  Oh...l'amour!
• My First Time I Peed on a Stick:  For those of you that don't know, Liliana wasn't exactly what we would call planned.  Evan and I had planned on getting pregnant in 6 months though, so she was still a WONDERFUL surprise to us.  What made it an even BIGGER surprise is that we weren't scared about my getting pregnant sooner than when we planned because I wasn't ovulating so we couldn't get pregnant ...  right?  WRONG!  We went off the pill that month to try to prepare my body for the fertility treatments we thought I would have to use.  Apparently, Evan had something different in mind!  I can't really describe how I felt when it said pregnant.  The first thing I did was make sure I would graduate from law school on time because it was a close call.  After that, I just was incredibly nervous .  Evan on the other hand was THRILLED.  He didn't have any of the concerns I did, but then again, it's much easier for the guy.
• My First Time I Have to Change the Name of my Blog:  Well, Happily a Law Mama isn't really working any more with my recent decisions is it?  So, I've asked some blog friends for help and after some GREAT suggestions, I think we have a WINNER! 
• The new name of my blog is going to be: Is there a Doctor in the House? 
• Since Evan and I will both have doctorates and those won't EVER be taken away from us, this title is HERE TO STAY! So for the last time, I'll be signing off as Happily a Law Mama (well, actually, that'll be the name of it until Bailey can change the title for me), haha.  Hope you guys like the new title!

What to Expect When You're Done Expecting

Before I talk about my recovery, I just want to give a shout out to my sweet husband's blog!  Have you seen it??  It looks amazing.  Mine also looks really snazzy too huh? I'm so thankful to him because he gave our blogs makeovers last night instead of studying! haha.

I have been wanting to write for a few weeks now about my recovery after giving birth to Lilibear.  It's really upsetting that the books rarely talk about this stuff.  They talk plenty about the pregnancy and about giving birth, but stop after that! Are you kidding me? Why didn't you warn me that the worst was yet to come?  I should also warn that this post is a little more graphic than some would like...there are definite moments of TMI, so if you don't wanna read about it, then just click the X at the top right hand corner! : )

For me, personally, the worst was yet to come!  I had a really tough time with recovery.  It was painful and didn't seem like the end was in sight.  I thought giving birth was a joke compared to the recovery.  I should probably start by saying I was fortunate and didn't have any kind of tear (other than a labial tear).  I didn't have an episiotomy, but mainly because my epidural wasn't working so my OB decided against it.  Because I was so lucky in all these regards, I thought the recovery would be a breeze...I was wrong.

One thing I wasn't prepared for was the bleeding!  I knew I would bleed, but I didn't know gallons of the stuff would come out!  It was disgusting and frustrating.  The hospital provides you with these huge underwear and I loved them, haha.  In fact, I asked for some extra ones before we headed home.  They also give you these huge pads.  Again, loved them.  One thing I wish the books would have said: the bleeding doesn't go away for a while.  I thought I would be done bleeding after just a week.  Nope.  And just when you think it starts getting better, you bleed heavily again.  As I said, very frustrating and very disgusting.

Another thing you might not expect: contractions.  Yep, that's right, you're not done with those.  Now, these I can't complain about too much because I didn't think contractions were that horrible when I was in labor.  And before you start saying "yeah but she had an epidural," I made it to 6 without complaining.  Really, I didn't think they were that bad, just weird feeling.  If you're breastfeeding, you'll get contractions more by the way.  A good way to help with this is to force yourself to walk around the hospital floor.  This makes you have contractions and makes you bleed more.  It's a way to speed up that recovery.  I wish I could have done more of it the first day but since we hadn't slept in over 24 hours, I was naturally pretty sleepy.

But the hardest thing, by far, for me was the pain in that area.  Every time I peed, it hurt like crazy...I cried and nearly screamed in pain.  That's how bad it was.  As I've said before, my epidural didn't work for the vaginal area, so I know pain...and yes, those last 3 pushes hurt like hell.  But, I didn't cry!  Yeah, that's how bad this stinging was when I peed.  To make matters worse, it lasted for about a week.  That was horrible.  I never wanted to pee and every time I did, I was in pain for at least 30 minutes after.

Now, I must admit, I'm lucky because I neither got hemorrhoids during or after pregnancy, so I can't give advice there.  But, let me tell you...I've heard they're the worst!   The one thing I can talk about is to also get ready for your booty to be sore!  I mean, you just pushed a baby out quite closely from that area.  Also, the hospital will give you stool softener and send you home with a prescription for it...take it.  That helps.

My last symptom was teaching my boobs that I wasn't going to breast feed.  First off, your boobs get huge and hard.  It wasn't super painful (for me at least) but it was uncomfortable.  I just wore two sports bras for three or four days full time.  Then, once I thought I was in the clear, the leaking started.  Just beware.  Don't wear anything without a bra for at least a month after giving birth.  In fact, just wear those pads just in case...I didn't...I should have.  Ewwwwww....I know.  I learned the hard, and embarrassing way.  Also, in case you don't know...you leak when your baby cries.  It's pretty fascinating and gross all at the same time.

Here's my advice for women recovering:  

(1) Walk. around as much as you can (obviously don't over do it.  I did that once and regretted it because then I didn't want to walk around for quite a few hours after).

(2) ICE PACK ICE PACK ICE PACK.  The stupid nurse didn't give me an ice pack the first day and I really wish she would have.  Evan went out and bought ice packs when we got home and I did that a couple times a day to help with the pain.  It really helped.

(3) Numbing Spray.  Oh yeah, this stuff ROCKS.  I used it 4 times a day for nearly two weeks.  While it sounds disgusting, I found it easier for Evan to spray it on there for me because he could get a better angle.  I'll do another post some day about how essential spousal support is through the recovery process.

(4)  Medication Regiment.  When you're at the hospital, they come and give you your medication every 4 to 6 hours (depending on what you're taking).  I wanted as much as possible to be medication free so I only took Ibuprofen.  But, when I got home I did some stupid things: I only took the medications when I started having pain.  Evan quickly changed this and even asked me if I wanted the Lortab.  I caved in...I took it for a week and also took the Ibuprofen.  Every four hours, like clock work, I took some sort of medication.  This was amazing.

OOOK, I think I'm done with recovery updates.  Was that some effective birth control or what? ; )

Wow, That Took a While

I have so many topics I could blog about:

(1) top 20 things I want to teach my daughter
(2) start the first of a few "before we're parents" book/series so that I can be held accountable when our children are grown and can say "I said I would never do that"
(3) discuss my decision to be a working mom instead of being a stay-at-home mom
(4) the debate between breast feeding and formula feeding
(5) my complete hatred already of the bar exam for not even giving me a week of maternity leave etc. etc. etc...

However, today I thought I would write about my blog makeover. I realized yesterday that I needed to make this blog look cuter. I searched different people's blogs and kept noticing a website called, "cutest blog on the block." I finally found a template I liked, uploaded that with a few problems, and then on to the banner. Ugh, what a pain in the ass. I couldn't get the stupid banner to match up to the size I wanted, I finally figured out how to do that, and now...tada...what do you guys think of the new look? I'm aware it's actually nothing that special, but it's baby steps people. I had to download a program called paint, do layers and type the name of the blog, and somehow, this took time!

SO, after I worked on this for about 40 minutes during my Crim Pro class (yes, I realize my grade in this class will probably reflect my lack of attention), I showed Evan when I got home. His response? "Oh, cool." It wasn't an "OOOOOH COOL" it was more a "does that even look different?" cool. After I was so proud of doing all that work, Mr. Fancy Pants not only "oh cool"ed me, but then he did this to his blog. Now, his looks cooler than mine! Grrr...oh it's on...haha, j/k.

Next time I feel like a makeover, I'll do a more fancy lookin banner with pictures, but for now, this will suffice. It's all I had time for, and it's all the patience I had without going insane too. So for now, I like this makeover...and I'll be proud. Darn proud.