I’ve been sitting here for quite awhile trying to put all of my thoughts into words, and I can honestly say I have no idea where to even begin. HA! Sean and I went to our childbirthing class today, and I guess I’m feeling like a deer in headlights with all of the information we were trying to process in such a short amount of time. It was an all-day class that lasted a little over 8 hours. It’s really hard to be this big and pregnant and sit in a chair for 8 hours, but we managed to get through it! So, what was it like? What did we learn?

It was very informative and a little overwhelming, especially the live videos (HELLO!). I’m not much for pain, and I don’t handle stress as well as I would like to, so it was quite a wake up call for both me and Sean. I’m hoping that I’ll find some inner strength that I never knew I had (God will provide!), and Sean is a little worried about me during labor, but I know we will both be fine. He told me on the way home today that he prays for me every morning, and I almost burst out in tears. Here come the hormones! We learned about the stages of labor, breathing techniques, pain management, postpartum and newborn care, among other things. We also got a tour of the labor and delivery suites and postpartum rooms. They give you a fancy room for labor and delivery, and then will move you and the baby to another room for the remainder of your stay shortly after the birth. The baby never leaves the mother, which is critical for successful breastfeeding, so we are really pleased with our hospital and its approach to the whole birthing process.

During class, we also talked about when to come to the hospital, discussing our birth preferences with our doctor prior to delivery and creating a family birth plan on how we want our birth experience to be. Knowing I will be in a lot of pain and am already having a lot of anxiety, Sean and I have decided that he and I will be the only ones in my room during labor and delivery. Our instructor told us that most first-time moms will push for about two hours before the baby is actually born! YIKES! Why didn’t I exercise during pregnancy?! We will also be unplugging the phone in our room. Sean will handle all of the phone calls through his cell phone for me, so I can focus solely on delivering a healthy baby. Once the baby is born, we will have only our parents and siblings at the hospital to visit. We are only there for 24 hours after the birth, so we have decided to wait and accept other family and friends once we get home and settled in.

Tomorrow, we are 36 weeks (9 months) into the pregnancy. It’s hard to believe how quickly time has passed since I first took that pregnancy test and called Sean on his business trip to tell him we were having a baby. We both got pretty emotional about it today in our class. (I didn’t let him see me fighting back tears when we watched the birthing videos.) Sean kept joking about how he needed some testosterone pills to “man up,” but I love that he loves his son so much already before he has even met him and that he is just as excited about this little man as I am. It IS emotional, and the closer we get, the more emotional both of us feel.

I’ve started feeling a lot of the anxiety that my pregnancy books have been talking about. I’m not completely freaking out or anything, but I do find myself thinking a lot about when I’ll go into labor, how labor will be, if my epidural will work, seeing our baby for the first time, recovery for me, breastfeeding my baby and how it will affect my day-to-day life, if breastfeeding will weird out my friends, visitors at home while I’m learning to breastfeed and taking care of a newborn, etc. Sean assures me it will all be ok and work out just fine, and I know it will. I have developed a very close bond with my baby over the past month. I find myself being very protective over him even now. I worry about visitors taking him from me when I just want him to myself, even though I know that probably won’t happen. I look at everything Sean and I have learned over the past nine months and worry about someone else not knowing to put the baby on its back to sleep or giving him a pacifier when he can’t have one for at least a month (until breastfeeding is well established). I know it seems ridiculous, but I guess every new mom goes through these things. So, I’ll ask in advance for your patience, understanding and support when it comes to this first-time mom being way too overprotective and neurotic. HA!

So, I guess that’s about it for now. Sorry for the long blog and rambling. I’m still trying to process it all, and it’s got me thinking too much. Don’t forget to “spring forward” tonight and move your clocks up an hour! Have a great weekend!