The Plan

From the moment you find out you are pregnant, you start to think about all things that come with being pregnant, and after your baby arrives. You spend hours researching from all the foods you can and cannot eat, to nursery decor and baby proofing the house. One of the most important things that you start to think about is your birth plan.

I remember being asked so many times, “What’s your birth plan?” Or “You have a birth plan, right?”, of course, I would always say “Yes!”, even when I knew I never thought about it. I knew automatically what I didn’t want, but a birth plan? Why would I need a plan for my birth? I thought I would show up at the hospital and the plan would be that the baby would come out. That’s the plan, right?

After my husband and I attended our six-week prenatal class, there were discussions about birth plans, what it all meant, and what it included. This became so much clearer. We planned so much, from the nitty-gritty details of our ideal delivery and arrival of our baby, what items we wanted to have in our room,  who was going to cut the umbilical cord and an in-depth music play list that I would have playing in my hospital room - Yes, this was important!

When the time came, Thursday January 25 at 6:14 AM, our baby girl arrived. Did we follow our “birth plan?” No! In fact, it was far from our plan, and that was OK!  My delivery ended up with a scheduled induction, an epidural, and 2.5 hours of pushing, with no sign of baby’s arrival. This led to a last-minute c-section for delivery.  I decided that pumping versus nursing was the best way for me to feed our baby, along with having to supplement with formula. All of these things, were far from what I had planned and originally wanted to have, but this needed to be done for the safety and happiness of my baby girl and myself. The one thing that stayed true to our plan and what was the most important to us, our baby would arrive safely and healthy.  We knew everything else would fall into place, and it did.

After the delivery, I learned very quickly that a plan is just a plan. When it came time for me to make a plan and discuss what I wanted, and didn't want, I never thought that our birth plan would change. So, for all the mom's to be,  expect changes, especially “think on the spot” last minute changes. Don't beat yourself up over your plan not working out or think for a second you have let yourself down, or your baby down, because a plan, is just a plan, and only that.