So the week of Thanksgiving brought week 3 of our birthing class. We covered such fun topics as medication, drugs during delivery, nausea, spinal taps, and birthing balls. As exciting as all of those wonderful conversations were (especially the nausea discussion) the best part of class was watching "the video". Hopefully you all know what I mean by "the video". It's the no holds bared, graphic, realistic video making you understand that yes, a baby that big can actually fit out of there.
I was giving the advice from my mother ahead of time to not scream out loud in class while watching "the movie"...just to scream in my head. Well interestingly enough I didn't have to scream at all (out loud or in my noggin). The video wasn't as bad or as graphic as I remember from sophomore year of high school biology class, or from the recent baby birthing documentary Meggan and I watched the other day. I'm not saying that the video we watching in birthing class wasn't good, it just wasn't as scary as all the hype everyone seems to give it. Probably it also helps that my perspective while watching the video has changed a lot since high school too. No longer is it the scary "don't get anybody pregnant" scared straight type of video, instead it is the WOW what a beautiful miracle of life.
Isn't if funny how a couple years, tons of life lessons, and marrying the right person puts thing even as crazy as becoming parents into perspective?
Cheers,
~Keith
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
My first Birthing class...WOW!!!
So today makes 32 weeks along, only 8 left to go. Instead of one of those fun flash back stories, I've been asked to post about my first birthing class. As you saw below I was out of town for the first class to technically my first class was week 2 of the class. I'll start by saying I've probably never been that intimidated in my life as I was in that class. I felt like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Just think about it for a minute...who ever thought it would be a good idea to cram 14 pregnant women into one tight conference room should have been fired right then and there.
So while trying not to make a noise and upset any of the pregnant women in our class, I did learn a couple of useful things. The biggest thing I got out of the class is how well prepared Meggan is for all of this fun medical stuff. I do love that about her. I guess you never realize just how much you understand until you see others who are A LOT less prepared. One of the fun facts I learned in our class is that screaming just tenses the body and doesn't actually help during labor, while moaning is a more calming and relaxing way to vent the pain. Of course our instructor told us to try that one out at home later and I commented to Meggan, "Isn't that what got us here in the first place?"
Next week in class we get to watch THE video...instead of the doll and plastic pelvic bone we saw this week. Although I'm not worried about it, I am def. interested to see how some of our classmates handle the REALITY of the video.
On another fun note, laying in bed last night trying to fall asleep, Meggan says, "I could really go for some smarties." I think to myself, this is it, the first random pregnancy craving and I'm going to have to go get smarties? Where am I going to find smarties at 1215am? Luckily for me Meggan didn't want me to go out and get them - thank the lord! 8 weeks left and I'm wondering when will I find myself in the supermarket randomly trying to find peanut butter and a grapefruit?
Cheers,
~Keith
So while trying not to make a noise and upset any of the pregnant women in our class, I did learn a couple of useful things. The biggest thing I got out of the class is how well prepared Meggan is for all of this fun medical stuff. I do love that about her. I guess you never realize just how much you understand until you see others who are A LOT less prepared. One of the fun facts I learned in our class is that screaming just tenses the body and doesn't actually help during labor, while moaning is a more calming and relaxing way to vent the pain. Of course our instructor told us to try that one out at home later and I commented to Meggan, "Isn't that what got us here in the first place?"
Next week in class we get to watch THE video...instead of the doll and plastic pelvic bone we saw this week. Although I'm not worried about it, I am def. interested to see how some of our classmates handle the REALITY of the video.
On another fun note, laying in bed last night trying to fall asleep, Meggan says, "I could really go for some smarties." I think to myself, this is it, the first random pregnancy craving and I'm going to have to go get smarties? Where am I going to find smarties at 1215am? Luckily for me Meggan didn't want me to go out and get them - thank the lord! 8 weeks left and I'm wondering when will I find myself in the supermarket randomly trying to find peanut butter and a grapefruit?
Cheers,
~Keith
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Reflections of finding out the good new
So this Thursday marked 31 weeks, which doesn't sound all that bad, until you count the other way. When you say only 9 weeks left, WOW...that's single digits. It's crazy to think it feels like yesterday when I found out Meggan was pregnant.
(insert cool wayne's world flashback sound effect here)
It was the beginning of May and I was sitting in Shapiro Field House on campus waiting for Commissioning to begin. I was already sitting in the back just in case I had to sneak out for whatever reason. Just as the show gets started I get a text from Meggan saying, call me as soon as you can. Of course at this point I'm standing up, everyone is marching in, National Anthem, color guard, all that fun stuff. Once I finally get the chance to sneak outside, on my way out the door Meggan calls me and says, guess what? My gut reaction was that she was pregnant, but what if she wasn't. I didn't want to say that and get her all worked up about it, so I think I said something silly about us ordering pizza for dinner.
Needless to say the right answer wasn't pizza and I rushed home to my beautiful wife once I heard the good news. The next day at Graduation we let slip to a couple close friends why I ran out of commissioning and of course they were wicked excited for us. Then the time came to call my parents. I called to wish my mother happy Mother's Day on her cell phone and instead said Happy Grandmother's Day...she didn't even skip a beat. She said you serious, I said yep, and she screamed out "I'm gonna be a Grandmother!!!" I will say being an only child (read as the only source for grandchildren) my parents were great about never pushing us to have kids. Still it felt awesome to finally give my Mother the grandson/granddaughter she's always wanted.
Ok so I'll post more soon about everything that happened between finding out and where we are now. To hold you over until then, here are some cute belly pictures of Meggan over the early weeks.
Cheers,
~Keith
Week 7
& Week 8
Week 9
& Week 10
(insert cool wayne's world flashback sound effect here)
It was the beginning of May and I was sitting in Shapiro Field House on campus waiting for Commissioning to begin. I was already sitting in the back just in case I had to sneak out for whatever reason. Just as the show gets started I get a text from Meggan saying, call me as soon as you can. Of course at this point I'm standing up, everyone is marching in, National Anthem, color guard, all that fun stuff. Once I finally get the chance to sneak outside, on my way out the door Meggan calls me and says, guess what? My gut reaction was that she was pregnant, but what if she wasn't. I didn't want to say that and get her all worked up about it, so I think I said something silly about us ordering pizza for dinner.
Needless to say the right answer wasn't pizza and I rushed home to my beautiful wife once I heard the good news. The next day at Graduation we let slip to a couple close friends why I ran out of commissioning and of course they were wicked excited for us. Then the time came to call my parents. I called to wish my mother happy Mother's Day on her cell phone and instead said Happy Grandmother's Day...she didn't even skip a beat. She said you serious, I said yep, and she screamed out "I'm gonna be a Grandmother!!!" I will say being an only child (read as the only source for grandchildren) my parents were great about never pushing us to have kids. Still it felt awesome to finally give my Mother the grandson/granddaughter she's always wanted.
Ok so I'll post more soon about everything that happened between finding out and where we are now. To hold you over until then, here are some cute belly pictures of Meggan over the early weeks.
Cheers,
~Keith
Week 7
& Week 8
Week 9
& Week 10
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Child Birth Class
Last night was our first child birth class. I had to go by myself as Keith is in Maryland for work. I was a little anxious about going by myself, mostly because I was scared of what everyone else would think, but it wasn't like that at all. I was the only one there by myself but was able to explain myself during introductions.
Overall it was a really great class. There are about 13 couples in the class. No one I know really well but I can see some friends coming out of this and I am excited. The class meets every Monday for seven weeks from 7-9. The nurse who is teaching has 30 years of OB experience so I can already tell there is a lot to be learned from her.
I wish Keith had been able to be there with me because there were things I wanted him to hear, mostly because they were funny and I never seem to remember these things. Hopefully they will come up again.
We learned some partner stretches to do and we are supposed to do them every other night. I told Keith we will start doing them when he gets home. He sounded excited about it, I know I am because it felt so good when we did them in class. We ended the class with a relaxation session which was so awesome. They turned the lights down, and put on a tape and we all laid on the floor with our pillows and blankets that we brought with us. It was a great way to end the class except I didn't want to get up and drive home, but I did and I slept great last night so I might have invest in one of these tapes. It would be worth it for the great sleep.
Hope everyone has a great day.
Overall it was a really great class. There are about 13 couples in the class. No one I know really well but I can see some friends coming out of this and I am excited. The class meets every Monday for seven weeks from 7-9. The nurse who is teaching has 30 years of OB experience so I can already tell there is a lot to be learned from her.
I wish Keith had been able to be there with me because there were things I wanted him to hear, mostly because they were funny and I never seem to remember these things. Hopefully they will come up again.
We learned some partner stretches to do and we are supposed to do them every other night. I told Keith we will start doing them when he gets home. He sounded excited about it, I know I am because it felt so good when we did them in class. We ended the class with a relaxation session which was so awesome. They turned the lights down, and put on a tape and we all laid on the floor with our pillows and blankets that we brought with us. It was a great way to end the class except I didn't want to get up and drive home, but I did and I slept great last night so I might have invest in one of these tapes. It would be worth it for the great sleep.
Hope everyone has a great day.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
30 weeks of catching up
Ok so I totally realize that I mentioned getting this blog up and running long before now. Tomorrow Meggan will be 30 weeks along...that time just completely flew by...where did it go? Well I'll try to cover that in my next couple of posts. For now I'll just let you know we are both wicked excited about having a baby and a big big thanks goes out to everyone for their continual how is Meggan doing questions. You all rock!
Cheers,
~Keith
Cheers,
~Keith
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