whatever happened to the stork?

Drew and I had our first childbirth education class last night!



There are 7 other mothers in the class and one of them is also due on December 19th. What a funny coincidence! It would be great if we end up seeing each other on the Labor and Delivery floor at some point in December.

It turns out that my (subtle) competitive nature came out a little last night.

I know I should just be focused on the bean and myself, but really, listen to this. First of all, this other 12/19 mom-to-be doesn't know the gender of her child. That was my plan originally and I totally gave into my curiosity and found out.

Strike one for Emily.

Then she leads off her introduction by saying that she wants to have a completely natural childbirth.

Dang her. Now I feel compelled even more than I did before class to give that a shot (and not be a wimp like I was in the ultrasound room).

I'm sure she's a perfectly nice person -- hopefully we can be friends. :o)

Ok, onto the good stuff.

Last night we spent the class going over the stages of labor. I thought that this was a really good overview. There are a lot of terms I hear all the time, but didn't really understand. Now Drew and I have a sheet that tells us the signs of early labor and when to pack it up and head to the hospital.

Honestly, that was one of my top concerns. I really don't want to be one of those overreacting people who show up at 1 cm dialated and get sent back home.

With this attitude I'll probably end up giving birth on Interstate 480 because we waited too long.

Oh well.

The other big thing was....the birth movie. Oh my. This is one thing I would have done differently in the class. If you're going to show a graphic (but realistic) film about childbirth to a bunch of pregnant women you really should follow it up with a trip to the nursery.

Can't we have some encouragement that says, "sure, you're going to have that happen to you...but then you get one of these!"

I had actually seen a birth video before, so it wasn't too shocking to me (do you ever really get used to it?), but it was Drew's first time. He seemed a little traumatized and asked if he could just "not look."

That was going to be my exact recommendation.

When we were paying for the class on the way out I tried to add on a little something to reserve a stork for our big day. After seeing that video and hearing about the hours of labor I was all about having an alternative plan.

But it turns out they're all booked up.

I just know that natural birthing blonde with the genderless baby got the last one.