woo hoo, I'm at 29 weeks! Almost 3/4 way through (or maybe already, depending on when BabyX decides to make her appearance). So far, I still say it's not as bad as I thought it would be.
The childbirth class through our hospital IS as bad as I thought it would be, and maybe worse, unfortunately. And I signed up for the 7 week series thinking it would be better to spread it out. Sigh.
We spend part of the time pretending like we're in labor and contorting ourselves into different positions on chairs, exercise balls, and the floor. On the bright side, our partners rub our backs. The other part of the time is spent staring at various posters around the room with pictures I'd rather not see, "sharing our feelings" in stupid small group exercises, or watching disgusting movies. And this is after only 2 classes... I can only hope it gets better.
This week's topic is "pushing and delivery of baby", plus as an extra added bonus, episiotomy (if you don't know what that is, do yourself a favor and DON'T look it up), and medication. I will say I am genuinely interested in DRUGS, so I'm wondering if it might be worth showing up late. Because there is no way I am going to watch a movie of women giving birth. Last week's movie of women writhing around in labor pain (with no drugs!) was bad enough. TJ and I actually left the room at one point (and we weren't alone.) Ick.
In a few weeks we'll actually cover some useful topics like "hey what do I do with this thing now that it's here?" and "hey, how do I feed this screaming bundle of joy?". That I'm actually looking forward to.
My company also offers a short list of FREE baby-related classes, so we're signed up for those. The feeding one was surprisingly useful and non-touchy-feely and not disgusting, despite the unsettling presence of a reversible anatomically-correct plush model of a breast. But I did take about 4 pages of notes there (in my awesome new pink Moleskine notebook!) so I'm glad we went.
Once again, I respectfully request that no one leaves any childbirth stories in the comments, unless it is something like "it was so easy, and better than Disneyland". kthxbai!
