- Baby comes out in like three pushes.
Yeah, so this guy did not want to come out.
I feel like he would've stayed in there
for like another two weeks if I had let him.
(baby babbles)
(upbeat music)
Today, I'm gonna be answering the same questions
before and after childbirth.
This is before, this is what baby looks like now.
And nine months out.
That's crazy.
I can't imagine it right now.
Take you outta your baby cage.
Purely decorative anyway, folks.
This guy hates his crib.
I'm tired.
I'm exhausted.
I don't get great sleep
because I'm waking up every hour to pee,
and then there's the kicks and everything that keep me up.
Sleep's been really hard, but I'm afraid to say that
because I'm gonna jinx myself for after pregnancy.
Maybe I don't wanna talk too much
about how hard sleep is right now.
Yeah, so how am I sleeping?
I have a nine month old infant.
I don't sleep.
I started keeping track on my watch.
I'm getting like maybe five hours and that's split up.
It was annoying when you were pregnant
to hear all the time like,
"Oh, get the sleep while you can,"
because it was hard to sleep when I was pregnant,
but it's different now.
You're not gonna be able to catch up on sleep ever
'cause the baby's awake.
(baby squeals)
Well I think right now in the pregnancy
it's just kind of like the inability to plan.
Like everything's tentative right now.
I keep telling people, yeah, maybe we can meet up
but you know, I also might be in labor and have a baby, so.
We're still in the pandemic,
but now people are vaccinated.
Things are starting to open up,
so people are starting to see each other again.
And I feel like I'm just gonna close right back up
because I'm having a baby
and we're gonna be stuck inside with a newborn.
That kind of sucks.
The hardest thing about having an infant, time management.
I don't have time to do anything.
It's also hard because I can't do anything at night.
He goes to bed so early.
I'm really excited to care
for another human and see them grow and change
and develop a little personality that's distinct from mine
and interact and play with them.
I'm excited for all those things.
I don't think I was wrong before.
It's so exciting to watch a little human
that you made grow up.
I didn't get it when I was pregnant or before I had a kid.
I just didn't get being a parent,
and now I look at things so differently.
Hm, maybe I don't know my water breaks.
So I'm like, okay, now it's time to go to the hospital.
There's no confusion.
I know that's when I go to the hospital,
'cause my water broke.
Baby comes out in like three pushes.
Baby's out real quick.
Baby is doing great, healthy, no issues.
What a lovely birth story.
That's not at all what happened?
No, my water never broke.
I never had contractions.
The baby, just, he wasn't coming out.
So I was induced, and I knew that could take a long time
and I was fully prepared for it to take a long time.
I was there for a day.
I got an epidural,
and that's when things kind of started to go sideways
because the baby's heart rate went down.
We couldn't get it back up.
It was horrifying.
It was scary.
Ended up needing to go into a C-section
in the middle of the night.
It's still hard to talk about, I think,
because it was traumatic for me.
It's hard to be that scared,
and to just lose all control over something like that.
Oh also like I have no vaginal tears,
and like afterwards my my vagina goes (whooshes)
right back to like how it was before, like really tight.
Same with my stomach.
My stomach just goes (whooshes) and it's really tight.
And it's like, damn, did you even have a kid?
Funny enough, my vagina did get very tight,
but like too tight.
Like I became a super virgin.
I did end up needing to see a pelvic floor therapist
to work on that, kind of retraining myself
to loosen those muscles because I was just so tight.
What's the best piece of advice I've been given?
Probably to like not listen to advice.
It can be overwhelming at firs,
and I'm like, yes, give it to me,
give it to me.
You just start getting a bunch of advice that conflicts,
and it's hard to know what's right.
I definitely got sucked up in that.
I definitely bought a lot of stuff I probably won't need.
Trust your gut.
Kids are so unique,
a lot of them require different responses.
It's hard to know who to trust, what's real.
Trust yourself.
Right now I've been getting a lot of advice
about how to get labor started.
Eat spicy foods.
Go on a hike.
Tweak your nipples.
I don't know, I think the worst piece of advice
is like whenever anybody tells a pregnant woman
you cannot do these things.
Like there's no ifs, ands or buts
like without any explanation.
There's so many rules placed on pregnant women,
and a lot of it's BS.
Worst piece of advice is hard because I've gotten
so much bad advice.
I feel like in general
if somebody says you have to do things this way,
run for the hills.
I really hate any sort of parenting tactic or lesson
that's like, if you don't do it this way,
you will F up your kid.
I've been eating a lot.
I've not been restricting myself.
I'm hungry all the time.
I wake up at like 5:00 AM
and then I eat a giant bowl of cereal.
And that's my first breakfast.
Guys I've gained like 50 pounds.
I have gained at least 50 pounds.
It wasn't 50 pounds.
It was 65.
I hadn't weighed myself in a while.
Food, wow, that's complicated.
Currently, I think it's good because a little bit,
well I'm on antidepressants, so that helps.
Also I'm busier.
When I was on leave, I was eating excessively,
partly 'cause I was so bored.
I binge eat when I'm bored,
so it was not good for me.
I was surprised at how different the trimesters felt.
The hardest part of pregnancy is the beginning
because it's often a secret.
So you're carrying that burden.
You feel so exhausted, and you can feel sick,
and you can have morning sickness
and be nauseous and throwing up.
It's not obvious to people that you're pregnant.
So people aren't nicer to you or anything like that.
My second trimester, I felt much better.
That's probably the best one.
When you start getting a little baby bump.
So it's you're pregnant,
but you're not like waddling, you feel fine
and you have a lot of energy.
That's a good part of pregnancy.
How it's made me reflect on my own childhood.
I just kind of have this thought
that like my parents did this for me.
That's insane.
It's hard to believe that someone can love you
as much as you love your baby.
It's hard to imagine that that was ever true
or could be true, but I know it is.
And it really gives me a newfound respect for my parents.
I can't imagine holding the baby
and the baby being a real human in my hands.
It's still like I intellectually understand it,
but I still can't fathom it.
I guess I wanna tell future Sarah
you might have less time to yourself,
but to be honest what were you doing with that time?
You were like shopping online.
You weren't doing anything useful with your time, Sarah,
let's be real.
Now you're raising a human.
That's much more fulfilling than looking for
the latest 50% off sale.
I wanna tell future Sarah
that we're hoping that you still feel creatively fulfilled,
that you still feel good in your career
in creating things.
Regain some of that independence
'cause now there's not a thing inside you,
but at the same time you'll have new priorities
and that's gonna be exciting.
I wanna tell past Sarah, go with your gut.
You can't really research your way out of this.
I know you want to.
I know you think if you read all the books
it'll all goes smoothly, but you're gonna forget things.
If you can't remember what food is okay
for baby at six months, you can Google it.
I wish I could tell past Sarah
that like it's not gonna go the way you plan.
Stop trying to plan.
Try to be more at peace with the fact
that you're about to go on a roller coaster ride.
You're not sure where it's gonna go,
but in the end it's gonna be really exciting and fun.
'Cause you're gonna have that baby
and the baby's gonna love you,
and you're gonna love that baby.
(upbeat music)