My goodness, I was only gone for one afternoon, and there are 2 archives to read through already! You ladies are FAST!
ILs:
I feel super fortunate. My ILs don't live in Sin, so I see them maybe once every 1.5-2 years. When they visit, they stay in our house, but they don't visit for more than 2 weeks at a time so far. When staying in our house, they are super respectful of our privacy and space, very polite, and very careful not to overstep their boundaries. So when we visit them, I try to give them back the same courtesy they extend to us. I really like my ILs a lot, but I'm sure living thousands of miles apart eliminates any form of possible friction.
Supplements:
My doc gives me Pramilet multivit, ProLacta DHA, and CaVit calcium (or some name like that). I like my diary products, but I still take the calcium supplements in case I didn't take enough cheese or milk for the day. My routine is multivit+DHA in morning or afternoon after meal, and calcium at night. This is the procedure my doc advised me to follow.
Yes, if your multivit contains iron, don't take milk with it, or your calcium pill with it, as calcium inhibits iron absorption (any form of iron, pill or from food). My mum's doctor once told her that taking calcium at night helps with sleep, so I happily go along with my doc's instructions to also take the calcium at night, hopefully that helps me sleep better (hey, I can always hope). My blood count is also low, but my doc doesn't want to prescribe me additional iron supplements, saying that food sources of any vit/mineral is the most readily absorbed by the body, so told me to increase my intake of red meat, spinach etc. So now, I try to eat red meat everyday, at least at one meal.
Epidural:
All my natural birth friends say DEFINITELY go for it. Just because you suffer through the labour pains all the way doesn't make you more brave, more mother-like, more woman-like than others, so no point putting yourself through the suffering. My spine doc told me that epidural has nothing to do with spine damage etc, and on his handheld spine dummy, he showed me specifically where the epidural will be administered, so even people like me with slipped disc can take epidural, no problem. The epidural is not injected into the area where a prolapsed disc would be. So if I confirm going for c-sec, I will be using epi too, cos I won't want to use general anaesthesia. I was on GA before, and for the whole 24hrs after surgery, I was completely woozy, weak, and generally feeling only semi-human. I don't want to be like that after giving birth, I wanna hold my baby and feed her!