The More You Know..

I love our baby class. I feel like the more we learn the less scared I feel about giving birth. We learned a TON this class.. we learned about  pain management including, narcotics, epidurals, C-Sections and all the different equipment they may or may not plug into me and the baby. Holding and seeing these items really helps. We saw what a monitor will look like, what an IV line will look like. We held the internal monitors and oxygen mask. She explained how many people would be in the room for a C-section. She literally had everyone play "a role" in the typical operating room. There will be about 10 people in a typical room and she said seeing that many people can be over whelming so its good to get the visual before it could happen. We watched a couple short videos on epidural births and C-Section births. I had a hard time watching the C-section one because it literally is surgery and you can't hold your baby right away.
Matthew and I had a long talk when we got home about the options of epidurals. We are going to try very hard to have a natural birth but we feel a lot more comfortable about the options of an epidural now that we understand it more. I wont consider myself a bad mother if I have to get one. After all no one gets a medal for not having a little help giving birth.
I do know for sure that I DO NOT want any of the analgesics or drugs that make you disoriented. Not only do they go into your blood stream but they can also go into the baby's blood and then your baby is born basically stoned and high. They can give the baby a shot after its born to take this away but then your baby has had TWO types of drugs in their system before they even breath.. heck no! I have also heard that even though these "dull" the pain they can also make you forget your labor and make you disoriented.. no thanks.
Epidurals are used for C-sections and keep the pain numbness in one area of your body and it does not affect the baby. It can slow down labor so you shouldn't get one till you have hit a certain amount of dilatation. There are a lot of complications to them (as with anything ) so I am still going to try my best to go "all natural". I just pray the baby gives me the oportunity to go natural and that I don't need a C-section.. honestly that scares me more then pushing.

We also learned and got down into pushing positions to practice the different ways you can labor. I have no idea which one I liked because I wasn't in pain. I think the idea of being on all fours sounded the best. I use to use that position for when I had bad menstrual cramps so maybe it would work for labor? Who knows. There are so many things I wont know till I am in the midst of it all that its hard to even guess.

During class I thought about how very thankful I am to have Matthew as my partner. I can't imagine going through this with anyone else. He asked really good questions in class and is a very patient and relaxing person so that will help. He also gives the best back and leg massages so I know he will be a big help in trying to get me through the pain. He also loves me so much and really makes me feel comfortable and safe. He is setting up day care tours for us over the next couple of weeks. We also learned we can go to the fire department to have them show us how to properly install our baby car seat so Matthew is calling around to find one that will do that for us. It makes me happy to see him take an active interest in getting everything ready :) <3 Not a lot of dads nowadays are even going to baby class. One girl in my class has come with her mom and one time by herself. Her baby daddy came this class but didn't seem to interested in asking anything intelligent. One father even had the balls to say "well so basically you are only in pain for a few seconds for a contraction and then its over for a few mins.".. his wife rebutted "ok so every time I have one I will kick you in the balls and see how long you can put up with that pain." lol.. I couldn't stop laughing.. poor guy.. he is never getting laid again. :)

Next week is our last class. Which makes me kinda sad. I love our class, our teacher and friends from class. We have learned so much and I feel so much better after each session. Next week we will learn about CPR (again) and basic baby care. Then the last class I have is breast feeding which they actually encourage the men to go to with their wives because there is so much information. Matthew has Daddy Boot Camp this weekend and I really hope he enjoys it! That is an all guys class so hopefully that should be fun. Then we just wait and see when little Elle wants to join us in the world...