Childbirth Class 1

We started learning how to give birth last night. M thinks this is ridiculous. I think it is necessary. So I win and we’re going every Monday in April to the community room in the hospital.

The class last night was a little intense. The instructor is a small woman with an intimidating personality and sometimes it felt like we were in trouble. Like she was lecturing us. “Gentlemen! You must get her to change positions!” M was a little afraid. We were expecting something a little more soothing. Oh well. You get what you get.

Things we learned:
The hospital tour (the thing we want most) isn’t until the last class. M is going to miss this class because of training. We’re going to schedule a separate tour.
You are supposed to pee every hour during labor to reduce pain.
TACO if your water breaks (Time, Amount, Colorless, Odorless).
Only 10% of women start labor with their water breaking (or 75% of my friends).
You can use a rolling pin as a back massager.
I am the furthest along in the class.
M is in charge of keeping track of the contractions, making sure I am comfortable and making me change positions.

So last night was laboring at home. Next week is labor in the hospital. Week 3 is medical interventions (C-sections, epidurals… all that). The last week is a pediatrician and the tour.

In our regular life:

M’s training (the last week of April) is for a new job! I am so happy for him. The timing is a little tricky. I’ll be in my 37th week, so labor could start while he is away. But it might not. And he’ll only be in DC, so a little over an hour away if things get going at non-rush hour times. If it starts between 6 and 10 am or 2 and 7 pm, I’ll probably have to wait a few hours for him to get to me. That’s going to have to be ok. And, no, I won’t call my MIL to come labor with me. Our neighbors have already agreed to come over and sit with me if needed. My mom is going to come down to attend the last class with me.

And, since we don’t want to make these last few weeks of pregnancy easy, we are also getting our windows and all exterior trim on our house replaced right now. M called me and said 6 windows on our front bump-out are already gone. I really can’t wait for this to be done. We can’t open most of our windows because they were painted shut or had no screens. And I couldn’t see out of the back windows because the seals were all broken. This is going to be so nice!