Childbirth Class

Today we had our one day childbirth class. It was a very long day and my brain has been overloaded with labor, delivery, and baby information! I am really glad we decided to take a childbirth class. Reagan and I learned so much, and I walked away feeling much more confident about what's going to happen! In the morning, an anesthesiologist came in to talk to us about pain management options...the epidural being one of them. I have already decided that I will absolutely want an epidural! I am a wuss when it comes to pain, and after watching those lovely "miracle of birth" videos from the '80s today, I know for a fact that I do not want to do this natural!! (Bring on the drugs!!) The anesthesiologist was very helpful and showed us exactly what would happen during an epidural. We were also able to speak to a pediatrician and ask him some questions, too. My favorite part of the whole day was when the husbands had to learn massage techniques!! Our instructor showed them exactly how to massage our backs and our feet during labor! I am going to make sure Reagan gets in a lot of "practice" on these techniques before I even go into labor! :) Massage time was very helpful to me during our class today in another way as well. All day long I had been having Braxton-Hicks contractions and was very uncomfortable. The massages really helped me to relax and the contractions went away for a while. I didn't mention this in the previous post, but I've had a LOT of B-H contractions. Dr. McDonald had told me I have to take it easy, so I did. Last week I barely had any contractions, but today was a different story. I think it probably had to do with not getting a lot of sleep last night and being really tired all day. I was put on "couch"rest when we got home by Dr. Reagan. :)

One thing that I was kind of shocked about (and thought it was poor planning on the hospital's part) was what they provided for lunch. First, they brought out sandwiches with lunch meat...and as most of you may know, deli meats are one of those "no, no's" during pregnancy. THEN, they brought out the drinks...every single drink had caffeine! I couldn't belive it! Guess the cafeteria didn't realize they were providing lunch for a room full of pregnant women.