5 Things You Don't Learn From Pregnancy Books

Contractions - it does not always happen like how the books or even experienced mothers have described it - that contractions are intermittent. Mine started like a pinch at the belly button and I didn't sense that as contractions. Not even when I was woken at 3.30am by the continuous, acute pain at the tummy.

I parked myself in the toilet and scared myself a bit as imageries of people labour in the toilet flashed to mind... refrained from "pushing" too hard as I scared my son may smash into the toilet bowl.

Reaching at the hospital, nurses and midwives asked if I were having contractions as if I know exactly how contractions are like... "I don't know-lah nurse!" . Contraction monitor showed it actually happened by minute - wow, that's the frequency of official labour. But my cervix hadn't dilate, so I had some time to decide if I want to go for C-section or wait for the nature's call.

Caesarean hurts - all the old mummies will tell you that it hurts - you couldn't get down the bed, it is painful when you cough or laugh, the wound heals very slow. But there are at least 3 mothers (including me) to testify that the wound doesn't hurt, AT ALL. Maybe our gyneas are very skillful, the wound was stitched up so perfectly nice that it doesn't hurt at all, from day one till it heals. I should have bet on this and earn some money for milk powder :-)

Delivery thru C-section - all this while I thot baby will be pulled and scooped out from the tummy thru the incision. That's what I learn from YouTube. Apparently, the gynea will press hard on your stomach and ooze the baby out thru the incision. And that was extremely painful on the stomach!! - I guess because epidural numbs your bottom half but not the upper half! Or maybe mine is a special case - anyway, it is not peculiar that people do SCREAM during C-section. I did :p

Brief your husband properly! - I really regret I didn't brief my husband properly on what to do in the operating theater. He should have snapped some precious photos while the baby is lifted from my tummy or while he is naked and layered with traces of blood. He did nothing except turning his head away! He said he was scared!

Engorged breasts - for those who are blessed with abundant of breast milk, unfortunately, it doesn't happen once and go away. As long as you continue to breastfeed, your breasts will engorge as they fill itself with milk. They swell like hell! They don't feel like yours, they are just 2 hard rocks sticking on your chest and they hurt like hell! The stinging pain endures and you couldn't even sleep. They also look so fake that as if you have had a boob job! :-(