Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Birthing Class #3

Tonight we had another class...this one was about epidurals, breathing correctly, and birthing positions. She made us get into various positions, with our legs in pretend stirrups and all! It was quite funny seeing all these women with their "flood gates open" and their daddies counting to 10! haha...

Friday, July 27, 2007

hi

I hope every thing goes great!!! Thanks for having me shack up at your house this week...thx
JARED

Birthing Class #2

July 24, 2007

Well, last night's class was a breeze compared to the first week! I think the utter shock of seeing a birth for the first time prepared us for seeing yet another this week. This week's class focused on pain and pain management. We had to share with the class how our "partners" dealt with pain (without asking them first!) The nurse also had this neat demo to simulate pain - she passed out ice cubes to everyone, and said for the next minute we were to squeeze the ice cube in our hands as hard as possible. That probably was the longest minute of my life! Everyone was moaning, twitching, shaking their legs, etc. to try to overcome the pain in their hands. Then she went on to teach relaxation techniques. We all had to get on the floor, with our daddies back against the wall, and all the mommies sitting against them. She went over deep relaxation breathing, cleansing breaths, massage, etc. all with the lights dimmed and music playing. That part was a little weird, especially with a group of strange people, but it was nice. (I think John was wishing he had brought HIS pillow for that exercise...he was too embarrassed to bring his!) Then she said that for the next THREE minutes the mommies needed to squeeze the ice again (daddies don't squeeze ice!) and the daddies were to help the moms get through the pain of holding the ice. Let me tell you - with the breathing we learned, the focus, and John doing his massaging, etc. those three minutes were a breeze! (My hand was still aching after the class, but that goes with the territory.) We all couldn't believe that the 3 minutes seemed shorter than the 1 minute. We were all like, yeah, we can give birth with no pain meds! Then the nurse said "Yup! Only the pain will NOT be in your hands, and you will have thousands more minutes like those!" OK...back to reality! We also watched another video on the stages of labor, but neither of us was queasy with it. It's a good thing we're taking this class! Preparation Preparation! That's about it... :-)