Almost Done With Childbirth Classes

This was originally written on Tuesday, March 04, 2008:

In last week's childbirth class we discussed "bringing home baby" and did evaluations. It was our instructor's last class so I'm not sure what's going on for the final one this Thursday. Overall, it was a good experience and I'm glad we did it, but I don't think it was as good as it could have been. Most of the stuff was the same info that we hear about and read everywhere, and the teacher was nice but tended to repeat her same personal stories over and over at each class, LOL! I was bummed that Joe didn't get to wear the "belly" like they do at the hospitals in Des Moines. It might have been because our class was so huge that they just couldn't do interactive stuff.

Last night was the rescheduled breastfeeding class (from when it was canceled due to bad weather) which was my favorite. There were only three other couples, and Joe & I learned more last night than in the five weeks of our regular childbirth class. I really liked our instructor and am not as worried about breastfeeding now. I'd heard it can be difficult and frustrating for some women, but they have lactation consultants at the hospital to help you during the time you are there and will come to your house afterwards if you want them to. It sounds like if you learn the tricks, it will work. I'll make that a blog topic in the future.

The only other appointment we have to make now is with Fire & Safety here to teach us how to install our carseat. Apparently, 85% of all car seats are installed improperly and so they won't let us take L.J. home from the hospital unless ours is installed correctly.

Saturday was my shower in Iowa and it was a blast! (Joe ended up coming, too, because I decided it didn't make sense for him to run off & hide somewhere, when he helped me register and is a part of the process, too!)

That evening I went over to my dad & stepmom's house where we watched a National Geographic movie called In the Womb which made it neat to see everything that I've been reading about the past seven months. I'd definitely recommend it to all pregnant mothers.

We returned home on Sunday, and then Monday I unpacked and took it easy, as I started to feel sick again (a slight sore throat)--but today am better. The latest with L.J. is that he's lodged himself under my ribs which is rather uncomfortable. It feels like a continuous cramp that you get if you run after eating or drinking. So I haven't been sleeping as well, as his kicks are now sometimes painful. He's also kicking my bladder which hurts and makes me pee every few minutes! Often times I feel jittery while trying to go to sleep, so there's just a lot of tossing and turning at night. Yes, these have been the longest months of my life. I'm ready to be done. :/

At least I haven't had any more pre-term labor scares, though. Joe was worried last week when I was nauseated and had spent the week cleaning the house (now you can't even tell, as it's a mess again). You might recall from my "signs of labor" blog that those can be cues. Also, until the week of my menstrual-like cramps, my dogs had given me no indication that they'd ever sensed I was pregnant. Although I'd talked about it with them a lot (yes, hehe) and Bella knows where "the baby's room" is, it never seemed that they understood that I was pregnant. But since then they've been smelling my belly and staring at it a lot. But I haven't even experienced Braxton Hicks during this pregnancy, so now I'm thinking maybe he won't be early after all.

I have my doctor's appt. this Friday so we will see what my results are from my blood glucose test!