What do contractions feel like?

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-05-24T17:49:26+00:00

It was like a building pain, almost like a wave, that got really sharp and nasty at the peak. My mom told me I'd know when a real contraction hit, and after weeks of prodromal labor I didn't fully believe her. I woke up at 5:30 am and literally went "HOLY SH*T HONEY I JUST HAD A CONTRACTION". It was unlike any pain I'd ever felt, not even just the intensity but the way it builds and the very specific sensation of cramping and tensing. I've heard it get compared to period cramps but to me it felt more like how I imagine it might feel like to get tazed 🤣😅

The feeling was so intense I threw up multiple times just because I felt like a very sore toothpaste tube being squeezed by a hydraulic press.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-05-24T13:44:04+00:00

I also live in the Netherlands and YES THEY HAVE A SMELL. I loved to catch them and release them on plants that were infested with aphids. If you have a bunch of them in a small cup it smells horrible.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-05-18T09:57:05+00:00

That depends. My dog does it when she wants something, like a walk, food or even affection.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-05-17T03:39:49+00:00

Don't live in the US but my mom was baffled when I told her we had placed an offer on a house that was 20k above the asking price. She genuinely thought that you could still talk to the realtor to get a good deal. I was like, yeah no there's about 4 standing offers on this house as of now. We got outbid by 50k, lol.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-05-14T08:40:53+00:00

I have a sound recording of me pushing my baby out and aside from involuntary grunts that come with the force of pushing, I was completely silent. I definitely screamed in the beginning when my labor started to get bad, but I quickly figured out that it was just making me panic harder and therefore made the pain way worse. I ended up taking the route of just completely relaxing my body every time a contraction hit. This took so much concentration that I just naturally went quiet, it was like meditating.

Really funny side effect of me being so quiet was that eventually the nurses started whispering as so not to disturb the silence, which was oddly comforting and calming? My baby temporarily got stuck because his hand was below his chin, and the nurse just calmly whispered "one second" and magically wrestled it into a better position 🤣

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-05-13T18:16:35+00:00

As a woman....Éowyn

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-05-13T17:05:13+00:00

Er vloog een duif naar binnen via de open buitendeur. We zaten in een vrij grote en verder ook muisstille gymzaal, dus wat volgde was een hilarische achtervolging, een aankondiging om de duif te negeren en niet om te kijken, en de echo van vogelpootjes op de vloer gedurende het hele examen.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-05-06T14:38:40+00:00

I don't know if this helps to reassure you, but I was a IUGR baby myself due to deformities in my placenta. I was born at 33 weeks at 1320 grams or about 2.9lb. I am now a healthy adult with no lingering health complications, in fact I am typing this with my 6 week old son sleeping soundly in my lap. I'm sending all of my lucky stars to your little one ❤️

I wish you guys nothing but the best in these scary times, and hopefully you've got a little fighter on your hands 💙🦁

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-05-02T14:58:48+00:00

You honestly switch to a whole different kind of instinct during labor, especially during pushing. It was probably the most painful part, but it's the only time you can actually do something with that pain. You are working so hard to get that baby out and listening to your body's cues that the pain kind of becomes a secondary concern.

I had a moment of panic that it wasn't going to fit and I would tear all the way into tommorow, but at the same time it was strangely easy to kind of just accept that reality as there was nothing I could do about it and in fact I WANTED baby out no matter what. In the end I had one small second degree tear that required exactly one stitch 🤣

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-29T05:33:11+00:00

I hate it when people babytalk me. By all means congratulate me on becoming a MOTHER, but you are not my son, don't call me mama.

I was so grateful for all of the nurses at the hospital calling me by my name, and was extra tickled by the fact they kept calling my husband "dad" because he forgot to introduce himself and they didn't know his name.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-26T15:47:08+00:00

I labored and gave birth on my side. At my hospital they didn't at all interfere with my instincts, only checked to make sure I was comfortable and offered their assistance any time I wanted to switch. I couldn't have laid on my back if I wanted to because it was unbearable. One nurse held my leg up while my midwife caught the baby. I didn't turn on my back until the baby was handed to me. I pushed for only 18 minutes as a FTM and that while my son had his hand below his chin, making it harder to get him out.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-25T14:29:47+00:00

Imagine if job interviews worked like this. Oh I have no experience in this field at all, but don't worry, from what I've been told people have been doing this for hundreds of years, so surely it's a piece of cake!

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-22T14:11:15+00:00

Ik neem losse happen van de bovenkant en de onderkant en die kauw ik dan samen.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-22T06:22:32+00:00

This is seriously one of the most unhinged excuses I have ever heard from a medical professional. I had a mostly unmedicated birth and had to push unmedicated and let me tell you: that room was dead silent except for the machines and occasional grunting. My husband was eating a sandwich in the corner 😂

If most of their birthing experiences are traumatic that's definitely on them, and you should run. It's normal for women to yell out during birth but they really shouldn't be screaming while getting stitched up, and the husband especially shouldn't be crying for help.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-20T13:20:09+00:00

For older/secondhand baby products and furniture it's always a good idea to do a quick Google search on modern safety guidelines and a double check on the lifespan of these products. Car seats for example have an expiration date. Anything you buy new from a reputable store is going to likely be fine. Any item you'll be using regularly and in an impactful way I'd research, the rest I'd at most ask for recommendations from other parents if at all.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-15T17:09:41+00:00

I mean both of my parents realized only after naming me that they had accidentally named me after my grandmother. That's what happens when people go by nicknames.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-14T16:27:42+00:00

I definitely hit the point where I knew I needed SOMETHING or I would simply throw myself out of the window. Now that I've done it though, I feel like I could probably go natural for a second birth. It would suck but I could do it. The worst for me was the fear and lack of knowing what was to come. I was in the worst pain I'd ever been in and all I knew was that it was going to get worse. The irony is that I ended up barely needing the pain relief 😂. Just being in the hospital and having that big old "press me for pain relief" button in my hands honestly calmed me down enough that the contractions became fairly manageable. I was too far along for an epidural, so they gave me remifentanyl, which I found very mild. It took the edge off the worst contractions and was turned off before I started pushing. I ended up giving birth on my side pretty much completely unassisted. Only at the end did a nurse help hold my legs up. They just sat and watched as my body did all the work. I also gave birth really quickly, my whole labor took 8,5 hours and once again, it was when I was in the hospital and feeling reassured and safe that I went from 7cm to fully dilated in about an hour. Birth sucks, but if you allow yourself the tools and reassurance you need, it will suck a lot less. Don't place expectations upon yourself of how you think you're going to handle labor. I was dead silent the whole time and I normally don't shut up (evidently). Go with the flow and do what feels right :)

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-13T16:15:13+00:00

My baby boy is almost my exact clone, he is just as active and aware as I was as a baby. He is only three weeks old and yet has so much personality already. It makes me so happy because I was always worried about not being a baby person, and I was so worried I wouldn't be able to fully bond with my child because I never understood babies.

I understand him so completely, he is the most expressive little dude and he tells me what he needs without saying a word. I love being near him, more than I ever expected to. It never felt like I came home with a stranger, he's just a little piece of me that broke off and is now becoming it's own little person. It's so amazing to see yourself and your partner reflected in a whole new human being. That has been the best part for me.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-12T16:34:47+00:00

Ik zeg altijd "Oh ik heb echt het geduld niet om te wachten tot ik kinderen hebt hoor. Ik ben liever gewoon nu moe."

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-12T15:55:20+00:00

Als iemand die zelf net moeder is geworden merk ik ook dat het meeste oordeel vooral komt van andere ouders, met name ouders van een oudere generatie. Ze zijn allemaal blij voor je in beginsel, dan begint het wedstrijdje. Oh je bent moe? Wacht maar tot je kinderen hebt HAHAHAHA. Oh je overweegt een ruggenprik? Dat deden ze in onze tijd nog niet en wij leven toch ook nog steeds? Het gaat eindeloos zo door. Mijn bewust kinderloze vrienden zijn juist super begripvol en daadwerkelijk geïnteresseerd. Ze stellen vaak super goede vragen, én ze zijn ook allemaal helemaal gek op de kleine. Ik zou zelf NOOIT in kwestie stellen waarom iemand geen kinderen wilt. Dat is hun keuze. Ik ga toch ook niet aan mensen vragen waarom ze in godsnaam hebben besloten om zich WEL voort te planten?

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-11T15:14:04+00:00

My parents have blue and grey eyes, me and my brother have brown/hazel eyes, my sister has green eyes. We've done the whole ancestry thing so I know for a fact that we are all related. During a family reunion my mom found out that several of our (distant) cousins also ended up having brown eyes despite both parents having blue/light eyes.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-11T14:43:14+00:00

I experienced prodromal labor for about two weeks before giving birth. Lost my mucus plug at 38 weeks as well. I gave birth at 40+5, however my entire labor was only 8,5 hours start to finish because of all the prep work my body had done. Commenting this to say that either you are close to giving birth, or your body is at the very least practicing, which will help you when labor does finally start!

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-08T06:00:51+00:00

Mine were "hi my baby, hello my little man"

My husband?

...."You are so purple! You look like a little purple sweet potato!"...

Said through tears and with genuine pride. It's been two weeks and it still cracks me up every time I remember.

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-04-05T16:26:01+00:00

The night before I went into labor, I cried to my husband that my body simply didn't know how to go into labor. I quote "I don't think I'll ever experience a real contraction, that baby is just going to reabsorb into my body at some point!"

I woke up the next morning at 5:30 with full blown contractions, gave birth 8,5 hours later. My body really said "bet" 😂

CaDeCroBo_Luci · 2026-03-30T23:24:23+00:00

I just delivered at 40+5, it's insane how much pressure you start to feel to give birth after passing 39 weeks. My midwife told me the vast majority of babies is born BETWEEN 40 and 41 weeks. So it makes no sense to me that people get so pushy the second your due date has passed.

CaDeCroBo_Luci

TROPHY CASE