Classes and Whatnot

A lot of people are ready for this baby.

It seems like everybody but me is ready. I feel like I have the hang of being pregnant and despite the woes and nerves I am quite enjoying it. I feel like I have company all of the time.I like the kicking. I like the happy looks i get from random folk. I like the research. I am not crazy about all the going to the doctor. The fear of the unknown gets to me a ton. Overall I feel good. I feel round and happy.

My general state of physicality is one of nearly constant self consciousness and now its more like self awareness.

I don't have any good idea of how I will do as a parent. It is easy to feel like I wont do well or like I wont enjoy it. I hear about sleeplessness and colic and the difficulty of going back to work. I am afraid of the unknown like everybody else is. There is the known stuff... labor doesn't sound fun. All the insurance paperwork and all the short term disability rigmarole and all the given problems with breastfeeding and diapers and the aforementioned sleeplessness seem like a lot of trouble.

I want to meet him. I want to see his expressions and know if he likes fruits like David or veggies like me. I want to be able to bend over with out losing my balance and I want to eat goat cheese!!!

I am as usual conflicted.

In the last few weeks we have moved into baby awareness mode.

We took a tour of the hospital. This was cool. We signed up a bit ago with mom (who used to work there and knows some of the ins and outs). They showed us the delivery rooms and the mother and baby suites. My favorite part was that they gave us a bit of a blow by blow re: order of operations. Things like when you arrive go to this desk and then go to that room and then expect this and that to happen. It alleviates a good bit of the in-the-dark feelings. The woman who gave the tour was a retired nurse from the maternity unit and we could tell that she recognized mom but couldn't quite place her. It was very funny. About 40% of the time she was staring at mom and giving the tour and staring at mom and all of the sudden she got it. It was the proverbial light bulb switching on after which point she seemed much happier.

We also attended a breastfeeding class.
I am glad we went but it was quite a strange experience.
The class was full with maybe 20 or so couples all around our age and in the same general state of gravidness (gravity?). The bathroom brakes were a stampede. lol
The teacher was a woman who works as a lactation consultant in this area. She was an x-hippy with lots of jewelry and a gray ponytail. She was not quite a breast Nazi. We watched a video of babies at a very young age (maybe 2 weeks or so) scooting themselves around using their heads and necks to find lunch on their own. It was remarkable. I don't usually give infants much credit. These kids were really doing quite a bit of intentioned action. That was my favorite part. I got this image stuck in my head of these tiny babies launching themselves about in search of food like a bunch of inch worms. Very cool.

We saw another video about holds and techniques and we had dolls to practice with. I found both the dolls and the video to be more than mildly unsettling. I am a prude. I am happy to admit it and it is true. I felt quite squirmy looking at that many breasts. The doll didn't help. It looked a bit like a CPR baby with gaping maw. Then the teacher opened the second part of the class with " OK everybody take off your shirts". In retrospect the clubbed look everyone gave her and the semi panicked buzz thereafter was hilarious but still. . . Alarm! A good joke.

I am so happy that David went too. He was very calm and not as giggly as many of the other guys. Plus he knows his left from his right and even better my left from my right which was indispensable when it came to the doll thing.

I have been reading baby books by the score (well by the dozen anyway) and I had a good idea about how the nursing holds should go. Somehow being in front of people and being faced with the gaping maw doll got me pretty flustered and then horror of horrors the teacher started using indecipherable phrases involving the terms left and right. . .
LOL
I was totally lost
Yay for David who saves the day!!!

Another good thing was that we got a discount code for and an invitation to a class about the pumps. (see registry at the side of this page)

We also this week got piles of free baby stuff on loan from our friend Mindy. Mindy had a baby boy last year and has/had some great age and gender appropriate stuff. Plus she feed us with heaps of Ethiopian food. It was fantastic to see her. It was also helpful to see a baby who was born last year at almost the exact time that we are expecting Kiernan for a gauge of size and general ability.

On the same note my co-worker and close friend George just last week had a new addition to his family.

We went to George's and got some practice with an infant.
This is the first time David has held an infant since his cousin (Chris, now adult and about to be married) was born. That was pretty funny too. Georgette (the mother) just sort of handed the baby off and left David on his own. No instruction and no sympathy for poor David. Who after a monetary panicked deer in headlights look did a great job of infant handling.

Bla Bla Bla
I had another Dr.'s visit. They are at every 2 weeks now. All is well. With the exception of my new anemia. I am keeping a kick chart which I will put up soon so everyone can see the abuse I am taking here. ( I love it)