First Pre-Natal Class

I'll start with answering Bob's question first. Yes, we did end up sitting on the floor just like you always see in movies. That was at the end of class.

We got there at 7pm with no real issues. It seems to take us each about 20 minutes to make the drive at that time of day. We went and got signed into the class. The first half of the first class was taken up with introductions, due dates, and finding out what everyone wanted to get out of the class. Being a control freak, I want to learn as much as possible ahead of time so that when things pop up unexpectedly I will feel a little bit more in control of the situation. I understand that I can't control everything, but I would like to at least feel like I know enough to make a reasonable decision. I think it will help that this is M's third child so he knows a bit more about what will actually be happening.

We looked at some photos of babies at various stages of development. They had one photo of 28 weeks and since I'm almost 30 weeks now it was good to see that. A little scary to see the 36 week picture since that baby was a whole lot bigger than the 28 week baby.

It was some good basic information. Nothing really new or amazing, but it was presented well and gave a good overview of what is coming up next.

At the end we did the relaxation exercise. M and I learned that we need to modify our position because I felt relaxed but he couldn't breathe. There has to be some middle ground where we can both breathe. :) We are going to try a couple of relaxation sessions at home to practice before the next class. I learned the deep cleansing breathe and a deep regular breathing pattern. Next week more breathing patterns will be added in.

It seems like this class is nice because in addition to giving a review of the basics, it covers labor, breastfeeding, and the transition to being at home with the baby. For M it was also a good overview of the ideals of my doctor's office. It is a collaborative practice between the doctors and the midwives, and since they work with Alexandria Hospital, they are also fairly flexible on birth plans. So I think that makes both of us feel pretty good.

As I said to M, taking the class is really interfering with my primary coping skill of denial. I've been pregnant for a long time (almost 7 months) and I have a couple of months to go. I know that the end result is a baby, but it is easier to just focus on the pregnancy and not really focus on the birth part. This class is making me face the reality of what it to come, but I think that will be good because it will also give us time to figure out what we want during the birth process. I have already been able to tell M that I do not want him to leave the room other than for potty breaks. And I don't want anyone else in the room other than medical professionals. We also need to work on our plan for what to do with N and J if we have custody of them when I go into labor. 10 weeks suddenly doesn't seem like any time at all....