Recovery, this time, has been harder because of a somewhat stingy medication policy (I was on literally the same drug I took for an ear infection this spring). Whereas last time I was up and walking around in 24 hours, this time I was in tears and unable to get up at 48. Five days on, I can do everything my baby needs, while my boyfriend is at work, and I just moved fast enough to kill a mosquito buzzing around. I don’t need help getting up from a chair and can pick things up off the floor, though carefully. I’m admittedly nervous of my toddler jumping on top of me and am still more comfortable in bed half propped up with pillows than laying flat. But I’m no longer following a medication timetable and those earache tablets are now enough to do the job when I feel I need them. This all, still, is something I’d qualify as a relatively easy childbirth experience, not least because it’s pretty much exactly what I had expected and planned for.