So Excited!

We had our Prepared Childbirth Class on Saturday, and it was great. A lot of my anxiety about this baby has been alleviated and now I just can’t wait! More about that in a minute, though.

One of the main reasons we attended the class was to familiarize Dave with the birthing process because he has not been obsessively reading everything he can find like me. I think he now feels nervous and excited and a lot more educated. He’s been studying the book they gave us and asking me questions, so I know that he is fully engaged. Also, he is now 100% supportive of my natural birth plans! Until now, he’s been skeptical. At any rate, this is the quiet conversation I overheard Sunday morning while I was getting ready for church.

“Do you remember when you were born?”
Silence from what I imagine was a big, brown-eyed, inquisitive face.
“Probably not. Your eyes were still closed.” Pause, then in a louder voice, “Right, Amanda?”
Me: “That’s right. Puppies’ eyes don’t open until they are two weeks old.”

This is funny in two parts: 1. He is excited and curious enough about the birth to discuss it with the dog and 2. At one fairly recent point in his life, he did not know that human babies open their eyes at birth. He actually asked me when babies’ eyes open. : ) God, I love that man.

Back to the class – We did the all day one on Saturday because that’s just easier to fit into our lives than five weeks of evening classes. First, I’ll just say that I LOVE Brookwood and I’m so glad we are having the baby there. I have been worried and anxious about how my natural birth plans will be received in L&D because so many women don’t even consider natural childbirth these days. There were two other women in the class that are planning on natural birth, so the instructors made sure to address that along with the pain relief options. I learned that when I get to L&D, they will try to pair me with a nurse that has experience or interest in natural birth. This is so exciting for me, and it’s something that I have been praying about. The hospital is very open to natural birth and they even have birthing balls and a squat bar on the unit!! I will be able to labor and push in positions of my choosing – two of the most important things in my plan. They also encourage “kangaroo care” – which is skin-to-skin contact immediately after birth, and if you are nursing they try to get you started in the first hour – two more extremely important things in my plan. I have now been told by three separate people that the nurses really try to help you have the birth experience you are seeking. I am so excited.

The class also talked a lot about relaxation during labor and the tension-pain-fear cycle. We learned some massage and breathing techniques (some of which I had to ignore because they directly contradict Hypnobabies). Basically, most of what we learned corresponded with what Dave and I have been studying and practicing in our Hypnobabies course. This is part of the reason he feels so much better about it now. Also, I learned that there is a nurse at Brookwood who just recently got certified in hypno-birthing! It just makes me so excited to learn that Brookwood is so open to natural birth, breastfeeding, and attachment parenting. They strongly encourage breastfeeding, and have a great Lactation center if you need help while you are there or after you go home. They encourage rooming-in with the baby and responding to her cues for hunger, sleep, etc. rather than rigid scheduling. Over all, I felt really good about the class and the hospital in general.

We took a tour of the L&D rooms and the postpartum rooms. This was nice, because now when I visualize my ideal birth I can actually see what the hospital looks like. There was some baby care instruction – things like diaper changing, swaddling, bathing, etc. Dave learned how to change a diaper and swaddle a baby. He was amazed that I already knew how to swaddle, but I informed him that I used to swaddle my dolls in the exact same way. Someone must have taught me to do that at some point.

We had our first baby shower on Sunday. The generosity was amazing. We can barely walk into the baby’s room right now because there are packages completely covering the floor. I will be sorting through them this week in an attempt to figure out where to put everything. I really wanted to look at everything again last night, but the nap won. I was SO tired.

I think the animals are realizing that things are about to change in our house. They keep going into the baby’s room and sniffing all the bags and boxes – over and over again. I keep seeing Georgia randomly coming out of there; I know she’s in there thinking, “What can this mean?” Of course, there was a present for her in one of those packages, so she might just be looking for another. She LOVES the bone that she received at the baby shower. She stayed busy with that all afternoon and evening yesterday. Last night, I heard a rustling in there, and I turned on the light to find Jewel deep in the middle of a sea of bags. Somehow she waded through them, sniffing each one, as is her nature. She is the nosiest of all my beasts – not afraid to sniff and stick her little paws in the purse of a guest, should the opportunity arise.

It was a busy weekend. This week will be busy too since one of my brothers is graduating from high school, and we have another shower Saturday evening. Then there is supposed to be a pool party for Memorial Day, and I am REALLY looking forward to that. I can’t think of anything better right now than floating in the pool.