My ob/gyn had a very nice policy when it came to sex and pregnancy. She said "you tell him whatever you want, and I'll back it up. You want sex, fine, I said it's okay. You don't want sex, fine, slacking off or none is okay by me, too." I don't remember feeling very sexy either time.

I slept through most of the early labor with my first child, and woke in the morning with the water breaking. Three hours of hard labor and she was born. My son was just 1 1/2 hours of hard labor, after a morning in easy labor while working at the neighborhood recycling program. I was carrying around bags of cans and bottles. ;-) Both were born a week or two early, so I don't have any practical experience to add to the castor oil/pizza/orgasm suggestions. (I vote for number three, if you plan to try any of them!)

I didn't use an epidural or any fancy anesthesia, either. We used a pudendal block that is very local and wears off after just a couple of hours. So no headaches or anything from the painkillers. Since my son ended up in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for two weeks (premature lungs, though he was 38 weeks), I was up and following him the next morning. I wasn't in the hospital more than about 18 hours. Friends called to find out how I was and I was already out of there, following Dylan to the children's hospital. It's amazing how fast you can recover from childbirth when you need to! After about three days of people giving me rides back and forth, I just started driving myself. Waiting two weeks to drive was for the birds.

SRS