Postpartum thoughts

I was talking to my sister in law today and it has inspired some thoughts about childbirth and doing it the "natural" way. :)

She asked me if I had this feeling after giving birth... I don't want to sound negative or anything like that, but I was surprised that she felt this way too because she has had three natural childbirths (all VBACs which has been an inspiration to me!).

She didn't know how to word it but she said after she had this most recent one (which happened to be a week ago today) she thought, "That's it, we're done, we don't need any more." She asked me if I had a similar feeling. I remember thinking even a few days after I had Aria that I would never do that again. I thought I was the only one, maybe that's why I was so glad that she asked me that... it made me feel less guilty I guess. Right after I had her I just could not picture myself going through it again, it was just that hard.

The beautiful thing however, and I guess this is just God's mercy, is that I don't remember the pain. Seriously, even though it took three days and those last 12-18 hours were pretty rough, I look back on it thinking, "It wasn't that bad... I could do it again." I have the head knowledge that it was difficult, but really, now that I have my sweet baby in my arms and no incision on my belly I am totally glad I did it just the way I did it.

It was hard, but it was holy as well. There is something so miraculous about giving birth and this little person coming out of your body, and you did the work, you pushed them out, it took all of your strength and effort and it was the hardest, most painful thing you have ever done... but there is something SO beautiful and miraculous about it... I would do it ten more times if God so blesses me. Seriously, I would. I'm not even joking or saying that I do or don't want a lot of kids, we are kind of leaving that whole birth control thing up to the Lord right now.

I just wanted to post those thoughts out there. If you are about to have a baby and are wanting to go natural I just want to encourage you that it is amazing. It is not easy but it's beautiful.