Birthing Classes

Last night we had our first birthing class. Shawn was kinda funny about the whole thing. After I finally finished reading the What to Expect book, he started reading the parts on labor and delivery and the chapter for dads. This is somewhat of a refresher for him because while in the military, he acted as a paramedic on base and helped several women deliver babies on the way to the hospital (apparently German women wait until the last minute to go to the hospital). As a result, he knew pretty much all of what we went over. While I had done lots of reading, I still learned a few new things (like what a baby's station is, and also that I am a terrible shallow breather - I will need to practice).

The worst thing about the class was that the decription never said how long it would be each night. I knew going in that we would meet 4 times, but we were there for two hours and fifteen minutes. Whoever thought that keeping a room ful of women that are pregnant, most into their third trimester, cooped up for that long on pretty dang uncomfortable chairs is not a smart man. I'm assuming it was a man, because any woman that had ever been pregnant knows that is not a smart move. Then, on top of that, we essentially came from work (the class was at 6:30). We left work early enough for Shawn to go home and take a shower (he works outside and it is summer, I don't blame him for wanting to take a shower before going into a room full of stangers). While at home I got a snack that I thought would tide me over for an hour or so. But no, the class went on forever. They had snacks and drinks, but I don't really want to eat a bunch of sugary snacks that will just make me gain even more weight than I already have gained (seriously, these people knew we were pregnant, right?). Thankfully, when we got home his parents had left us a message asking if we wanted to come eat. We, or course, accepted their invitation. So, we ended up not getting home for good until almost 10:00! Talk about two tired people. Shawn fell asleep while watching the one tv show that we had decided to watch before going to bed. Since I had not really had any down time to relax it took me forever to get to sleep. So, it looks like Tuesdays in August are just going to be annoying.

Back to the class though. The first thing they did was show a video clip of Bill Cosby doing one of his stand up routines talking about his wife's first delivery. Because he is old and loves stand up comics, Shawn had already seen this (this is not to say that Shawn is all old and decrepit, just older than me). But it was funny. I love Bill Cosby anyway, and he is one of the few people that have had tv shows that when you go back and watch their stand up acts he is pretty clean with his comedy. Next we learned terms (if you have made it to an age where you can have a baby, you should seriously already know where your uterus, vagiana, and cervix are located), learned what happens to your cervix during labor and learned a few breathing techniques. As I've already reported, I will have to practice the whole shallow breathing, Shawn made fun of me over that. We also watched one delivery video. The sad thing is, most people acted all shocked that we were actually seeing everything (nothing was blurred out). Seriously people, you need to know what it looks like because it will happen to you! Also, watch TLC and see it happen every single day (granted, on TLC's shows they blur out the main parts that no one really wants to see, but still, you see a brand new baby emerge all messy and stuff). The thing that surprised me the most was how purple the baby was, not that I could see all the intimate details of this woman's body. As the nurse givng the class pointed out, if this woman was willing to have her delivery filmed, she obviously had no problem with modesty. Also, this poor woman had an natural child birth and her contractions only ever got to be 7 minutes apart, which the nurse estimated as putting her labor and delivery at around the 24 hour mark. Crazy!

This has also started me thinking about my birth plan. When I first heard that term I was all, really, you have to come up with things to write down, not for me. Then I learned some of the things that I defintely don't want happening to me(forceps and vacum extration!) or the baby (eye drops that are only needed if the mother has possibly got and STD, no thanks, not needed). I know I will probably want an epidural, but not right away because you can't walk around once you get one. So, once I realized how much you can cover with a birth plan I was all on board for one. I also found a fill in the blank birth plan on thebump.com, so I will probably use that. I also has a space for who you want in the room during labor and who you want in the room during the actual delivery. Since I am the most modest person I know, that will be a limited number of people, possibly only Shawn. I told my mom she could come in, but she thinks we should have that time to bond and be a special moment with just the two of us. So, who knows. Now that we are getting so close to the actual event, these are the things I'm thinking about now, which is funny because I never thought about them before. Now a birth plan doesn't seem rediculous to me. I'm even kinda excited because I found out that Lexington keeps doulas on staff at all times. I had read about them and was interested, but not sure how that would work. I'm pretty sure my insurance won't cover it, but it would seem it would just be added to the hospital bill. This is something I will look into further.

So, for a post with no pictures, this ended up being really long. Stay tuned for more profile pictures, and soon, baby shower pictures.