This month marks the start of non-stop weekend action for us (well, mostly me). Although looking back at the calendar we've pretty much had non-stop weekend action since February. So, please disregard that first sentence :) This weekend we had our childbirth classes. The first thing we did Saturday morning was introduce ourselves and say how many weeks along we were. There was one girl who I think was 25 weeks, one who was 29 weeks with twins and everyone else was in the 30's! One even at 37 weeks! Guess we were a little early, but all the Saturday/Sunday options were filled through September and October and it's hard to start planning as far out as November with James' ever changing on call schedule (they are hiring new people now so the schedule further out will depend on how many people they hire and when they start in the call rotation). Soooo, at 22 weeks we were the out of place kids, but that doesn't bother me. I'm glad to have it done. The "class" was held in the waiting area of a Duke Medical Center which was...unexpected. It wasn't that bad though and the lady who taught it was really great. Her name was Ho Yu Pan and (no lie) she has a brother named Peter. So, she said we should tell our kids that we know Peter Pan's sister.
Soaked up lots of good information in the 8 hours worth of class, although I must say that 8 hours of talk about labor and delivery is enough to send anyone over the edge. I wasn't really worried about delivery before now because honestly I wasn't thinking much about it. There is obviously no turning back. I have to do it. And, it's the only way to meet the little boy. But now that I've heard and seen *that* much detail about it, yikes. I don't know if I've talked any before about my ideas about a birth plan but they are very simple...labor until I can't take the pain and then request meds. I know it's all the rage these days to either go in planning to give birth naturally or avoid the hospital altogether. I have the utmost respect and regard for women who PLAN to do it that way, let alone go through with it. But I know myself. I know that the idea of going into something and having NO IDEA how painful and difficult it will actually be will give me intense anxiety. I don't know if I could delivery naturally or not. I do know that the stress and anxiety I'd feel (and the failure and let down I'd feel if I couldn't do it) would be tremendous and I guarantee they would interfere with the process. I was pleased to learn today that there is an option before the epidural that supposedly manages about 50% of the pain. I can try that option and worst case it won't work. It could get me dilated a bit more before moving to the epidural and getting chained to the bed which would be awesome. Best case it would be enough and I wouldn't have to get an epidural at all.
Enough about that. Busy week ahead before I fly to Columbus to visit (Dr.) Megan Liebesland. And hopefully this week will also include a breakfast date with Sam - we've been friends since the 8th grade (or so) which is quite impressive considering pretty much all my other friends are from college and beyond.
PS- I heart this maternity pillow.
James on the other hand could certainly live without it. It's also kind of like having an ocean in between us. A big fluffy ocean. The other night while attempting to keep it as far over on my side as possible I went to hug the side and it fell off the bed. I nearly rolled off the bed with it. It was quite traumatic but now every time I think about it I laugh. Probably wouldn't be laughing had I *actually* rolled off the bed...hopefully that isn't a part of my next update ... or any update to come. :-)
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