Birthing Class

Michael is on the phone to a friend right now. Here's what he replied when the person on the other end asked how birthing class was:

"If a girl who has not been pregnant yet attending a birthing class I'm pretty sure she'd never get pregnant. There were a few times during class when I was thinking glad that's not me."

Wonderful... thanks Michael, that's very supportive! ;)

We'll just refer to birthing class as the 'scare the pregnant lady when it's already too late' class.

A few examples...

The discussion about tearing. Let's be honest, there's no way you can possibly sugar coat this. My brother informed me of the tearing the day I told him I was pregnant, he'd waited until then to scare me. The nurse yesterday did a much better job painting a horror picture but I'll just let the others hear about that on their own terms and hope it isn't 4th degree tearing for me.

Then there's the result of the tearing... 6-8 weeks of bleeding. Holy $@&%!!! that is a long time! Trouble is, I also found out I'm not allowed to be swimming, water jogging, etc during that time. I knew I was not supposed to run for that long and assumed the idea of a bike saddle wouldn't be to inviting but I had not considered the risk of bacterial infection to the wound. Officially, I am not supposed to do any exercise until I am cleared at my 6 week OB visit. I'll find out a little more about this in a couple weeks, maybe yoga and walking will be fine.

Another memorable part of the day was the tour of the hospital and the trip past the nursery. As all the parents were looking in on the two babies currently in the nursery a collective, "Look at how small they are," came from their mouths. I turned to Michael in disbelief, "They look huge, how am I going to fit something that big out of me." Seriously people, those babies did not look small!

I know there are millions mothers who have given birth over centuries but that does not make it any less terrifying. After all, how many times have people said child birth is the hardest thing you will ever endure. Not knowing is a little daunting. I have an estimated 50 days too freak out about this ;)