Oh my!

We had our childbirth class yesterday. It was a great class - the instructor was hilarious and the other couples were really nice. Since it was only an 8-hour class, we didn't get to talk about things in much detail, but it gave us an idea of what we want to learn more about and what decisions we need to make.

I was a bit freaked out by the birth videos she showed. It wasn't so much the actual births as all of the moaning and groaning before-hand. We learned some great coping techniques, but it made me realize that it's going to be more work than I thought. I had this idea that you go to the hospital, sit in the bed for however many hours, and then the hard work happens when you push. I didn't realize how exhausting and painful the actual contractions would be. I had trouble falling asleep last night just thinking about it, but I feel better today. Adam was really into the class and learning all of the coaching techniques, and I'm going to read through the book they gave us and practice the coping techniques.

It was also good to learn more about pain control. I'm going to do my best to stick it out through the contractions until we're pretty far along, then go for the epidural when/if it gets unbearable. We learned that it will minimize our risk of a c-section or of slowing the labor if we wait until a certain point. I didn't have strong feelings about a regular birth versus c-section until the class, when they talked about the recovery period for a c-section. I'm ready to take it easy for a couple of weeks once he's here, but I'll lose my mind if I'm that limited for 6 weeks.

We saw the doctor today, and Little Guy is doing great. My belly measurement is right on and my blood pressure is good. AND I only gained 2 pounds since my last visit. If I keep the pound a week rate, I'll gain a total of 40. A little on the high side, but not too bad. The doctor was able to feel Little Guy's position, and he's head down, right where he should be! He's turned facing my right side, which explains why I feel all of his kicks on that side. He has had hiccups at least twice a day for the past week, and his hearing seems to be more sensitive. He jumped earlier today when someone honked one of those air horns outside, and he did another little jump when the microwave dinged while I was making dinner.