Graduates from Birthing Class that is. For those of you laughing, you can just stop. right. there. Because completing birthing class is a milestone in and of its self for a few reasons:
1) Husband no longer has to hide his anxious disgust of going to the class by calling it the “Hospital Tour” rather than “Birthing Class”…
2) I’ve seen more pictures and videos of womanly parts than I need to for a while. Check again, how about forever? Women, a little maintenance down south would help greatly for the moms-to-be watching…
3) We learned all kinds of interesting facts that I can add to my repertoire for mingling at cocktail parties. Case in point: Did you know the amniotic fluid is completely replaced every 8 hours…
4) The teacher had us practice our breathing techniques while holding an ice cube. I learned, once again, how competitive I am when I almost asked for double the amount of ice cubes in my hand. Good thing I didn’t because right after I had this thought, the teacher gave us all (including husbands) accolades for handling the exercise so well and not having one of the “macho husbands” make it seem like it was easy peasy and ask for more ice cubes, which she said usually happens in her classes. So, moral to the story, I guess I fit right into the meat-head, “macho husband” category. Good thing I kept my mouth shut for once in my life…
5) I left feeling more empowered as a woman and excited to see what my birthing (I really don’t care for that word I’ve decided) experience will bring
and…
6) Being able to take the hospital tour with Husband made it totally worth the time, money and effort of dragging him to the class. Although, I must say, he was quite the sport throughout it all, even if he did close his eyes for part of the video and pass some of the posters along without a glimpse. Truth be told, I even shed a few tears while on the tour and seeing the precious Little Ones in the nursery. I am so excited to meet our Baby Boy!
2 responses so far ↓
1 Katie Rod // Aug 22, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Hey Elizabeth!
Congrats on graduating from birthing class or, as I like to say, the “let’s try to scare the pants off new moms and dads” class. I love the pain charts they show. I laughed when I first saw them because it looked so cartoonish and unrealistic. But I later realized they were pretty spot on as how labor progresses (and feels!). But, millions of women have done it before, so you’re going to be just fine. And some crazy people like me decide to do it all over again because it’s worth it.
And I am sure most of the husbands have a hard time attending those classes. Tom couldn’t watch the birthing videos (for some reason…), but when it was go time for us, he thought it was the coolest thing in the world.
Oh, and I see you are reading Baby Wise…good choice (some of it’s pretty biased, but the main jist of info is pretty good). If you are looking for other helpful reads, I found Secrets of the Baby Whisperer to be extremely helpful as far as “putting baby on a schedule.” It made for a more happy baby and especially a happy mom. Good luck!
2 Shannon // Aug 23, 2009 at 12:12 pm
That is so exciting!! We start ours in a couple weeks, and I secretly think Mitch is nervous, lol.
And isn’t it weird how excited you feel for the baby? I told my sister the other day and she said, “Just wait until the last week! You won’t be able to contain yourself and you’ll be like, Baby, just get here!” Lol.
I’m so excited for you. We’ll have to swap notes from birthing class
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