The Journey of Parenthood…

Prepared Childbirth Class: Night Two

Last night was the last of the series of prepared childbirth classes. While the first night was all about the gory details, last night was about how to DEAL with those details which was so much better for me! Skip the bad parts and focus on how to cope with them! I’m a planner so give me a plan and I’m happy 🙂

Somethings we learned included:

  • A little something personal about my birth! I was “the wrong way” when I was born so they used forceps on me…I now know that the real term for facing the “wrong way” is that I was in the posterior position! And if it happens to our baby they now have a better method of flipping the baby to the proper face down position by use of a vacuum extractor!
  • I will have to have an IV no matter what (dreading it!)
  • If I stay firm on not wanting a c-section and the baby is okay, I can push longer than two hours and they can’t make me have a c-section (yay!)
  • However, 1 out of every 5 births does result in a c-section delivery (boo!)
  • While breastfeeding I’ll actually need to eat more than I did while pregnant! For pregnancy you only need 300 extra calories, it’s 500 while nursing.
  • I can eat anything I want while breastfeeding just in moderation and I will be able to tell if what I’m eating is affecting the milk within 4-24 hours (SO GREEK SALAD from Giulio’s HERE I COME! Load on that feta!)
  • Zach needs to be sure to tell the nurses in the delivery room not to give our baby a bottle or pacifier and to bring the baby to me for every feeding!
  • Visiting hours at the hospital are from 8:30 a.m until 8:30 p.m then after that only Zach can stay with me (and yes, we’re staying the full two days for sure)
  • Right after delivery they will give me time to breastfeed (and freshen up!) then allow some time (like around an hour I think they said) for everyone to visit then they will take us to our room and the baby to the nursery for up to three hours. We decided this is a good time probably to let everyone leave (or watch the baby in the nursery if they are that hardcore) so we can get settled and rest!

This was the typical pregnancy class everyone invisions. We had to bring our own pillow (and got stopped several times on our way in by people making cute comments about the parenting class). And we sat on the floor. And we learned about breathing!
Yet again I have an awesome husband! He’s so into it! He already said that he wants to set aside some time on Saturday for the two of us to practice what we learned. They barely skimmed over it during the class but the gave us a book on TONS of methods so I’m pretty interested to see how that goes!

We also got a tour of the hospital (I thought it was hilarious because the Parker’s go to the hospital so much that Courtney said she skipped the tour when she took the class because she already knew where everything was haha). It was good to see the delivery room, postpartum room and the waiting room where everyone will be awaiting the news! They used to be allowed to stand outside the door (and could therefore hear everything) but now they don’t let anyone so that’s good!

We also covered a lot of stuff to bring to the hospital with us…I think I’m going to start making lists of things to make sure we pack now! There really is a lot to remember!!!

Overall, I’m so glad we took the course! Even though nothing was gone over in a lot of detail and I was the ONLY student to EVER ask any questions (and of course I had one at each section we covered haha) it was still very beneficial!

Emily Parker
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1 Comment

  1. Anonymous
    January 8, 2009 / 3:40 am

    I will email you the list I made for my hospital bag. I bought some “travel size” stuff, and I also got down to the end of my deoderant/toothpaste etc and threw the almost empty stuff in my bag to take and just bought new stuff. I felt a lot better knowing I only needed 4-5 things like my straightener that I needed for my bag. I was dreading the IV too, and it was a NIGHTMARE to get it, partially because I was having absolutely nightmareish contractions but also because they stuck me so many times. My veins were collapsing because I had had NO WATER ALL DAY! I was super dehydrated, so make sure you remember to drink lots of water. The IV wasn’t as bad as the blood pressure cuff. It seriously pumps up like… every 5 minutes I think for a while right after you give birth. It was more annoying than the IV. When I was breastfeeding I ate everything in sight and was drinking TONS and TONS of water. After I stopped, I only eat like… one meal a day. I just am always asleep or forget! This is so exciting!Rachael

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