Firstly, congratulations in advance!
My advise to fellow FTM is, don’t think, don’t read, don’t listen. Everyone’s experience is different, so don’t scare yourself.
I was so afraid I was crying so badly before I admitted to the hospital, I’m super afraid of needles, scared of what if it hurts etc etc. I was still crying when I’m on the hospital bed and the nurse was shocked.
Anyways, I didn’t know about the 3 pills induce fail need to ecsect thing (I was induced) so one less thing to be scared back then. For someone with a low threshold for pain, my birth experience was painless (my dad says I’m crazy 😤). Once the first contraction hits me, I requested for laughing gas and I didn’t let it go anymore. I was high on it and floating, so when they inserted the IV and epidural, I didn’t feel a single thing. I was so high to the extend the nurse told me epi is done and she wanted the laughing gas back but I didn’t want to give lol. My entire birth process from admitting till labour was 6 hours.
Anyways the side effects from epi was pretty bad, I was vomiting and vibrating away while being sewed up, I didn’t even want to see my baby. I only felt alive after 7 hours later.
I did have tears, according to my husband, the tear seems pretty near my anus (dk what degree is that). Apart from having slight pain on the first night (20+ hours after birth), subsequenly was just sore but no pain and I can still walk and function properly.