The Big Birthing Class

So we went to our birthing class. Mark was wonderful about it. I’ve heard of many husbands who aren’t interested in going to the class or would rather avoid it. But, if you think about it, it’s almost MORE for the dad than us moms. At least in our house, I’ve been doing far more reading on the whole process than Mark - and I think it’s good for all of us to actually SEE what’s coming up and some possible variations of said task-at-hand.

At any rate, we practiced some breathing, we were taught some pressure points for the dads to use on us during contractions, and we got a tour of the hospital. During the breathing phase, one of the couples actually went into labor!! She suddenly seemed to be taking this whole practicing thing VERY seriously and we realized a little while later than she was actually having contractions. Yikes! I guess that’s a pretty good place to start all that though.

All in all, I would recommend a birthing class to any first-time parents. I know a lot of people would argue that ignorance is bliss and the less you know about it the better – but I think it’s nice for both parents to have some idea of what they’re in for.

I’ll tell you what – it doesn’t look fun. Doesn’t look fun at all! But every single time we got to the end of another video and I saw those parents look at their sweet baby for the first time; I darned-near started bawling right along with them. Every time. What an amazing moment to experience! THAT part, I’m looking forward to (plus the other stuff is all over at that point!)

In other news, I’m worried my belly button is going to pop out (this is NOT a picture of my belly, by the way). It sounds quite silly I know. But I always thought my belly button was pretty deep, and cavernous and seemed to have quite a bit of room for the expansion – I was happy that it would remain an ‘innie.’ Turns out, that may not be the case. The right side of my belly button is starting to move outward! I stand in the front of the mirror and practice different postures and stances to see which minimizes and maximizes it. Mark is right, it doesn’t matter and no one cares. I’ve certainly seen many women walk around with their navel pressing against their shirt and I’ve thought nothing of it. I guess I’m just resisting the change.

So, I’m back on the baby blogging bandwagon and I hope you’ll keep checking back. I’m also going to make sure that Mark gets it into gear to and keeps writing down his thoughts.

Thank you so much for your well-wishes. Please feel free to e-mail any time (I LOVE getting e-mails) at showtune.erica@hotmail.com