Hey Dawn and Hope!
I've had the exact same thing happen to me, where I had to push a little, and I was sore afterwards. But for me, unfortunately this is often a precursor to a retear. I will usually tear the next day if I have another difficult BM. However, it's not all bad, because like you said things will turn around and get better again in a matter of days, which would not have been the case prior to surgery.
And the tears that I get now are nowhere near as painful as they were, and there are no spasms to deal with either. I think it's just freaky because I try not to ever push nowadays, and I get really nervous when I do have to push. In the old pre-fissure days, I would have just cranked that sucker out without a second thought.
My butt can't take that kind of abuse now. I often wonder what my body would be like if I hadn't had that third child...of course she's so precious to me and I would never trade her in even for a perfect butt...but I marvel at the people who have child after child, like that crazy family that's having their twentieth child right now. And even my own grandma--she had five kids all vaginal deliveries and the first weighed over twelve pounds! How in the heck did she not have problems?