8 weeks left?! Holy cow! ANyway.

Last night was the newborn care class, which was the best one so far. Dave found it especially useful, since the other classes are very mother-focused, and how he can support me through labor//delivery/recovery/breastfeeding, but the actual physical care is something HE can actually DO, just not cheer on.  He has no experience with babies, so he feels much better about diving in head first now that he’s learned to swaddle and change a diaper. Heh.

The instructor was GREAT, for us anyway, her motto was "less is best," ("Don’t get that 30 dollar plastic baby tub! You’ll use it three times and put it in the attic, use a rubbermaid tote! Or a dishtub!" Hee.) and she included homemade wipe solution and breastfeeding in that equation.  She even asked if anyone was planning to use cloth diapers, and Dave and I moved another step away from everyone else in the direction of ‘crunchy parents,’ when we were the only ones to raise our hands.

At this point, everyone in these classes I’ve seen elsewhere — last night there was a girl from the Y and her mom (her husband is in Iraq), two couples that are in our Sunday class, one couple that was in the GD and breastfeeding class, and us.  And in all those classes, we’re the only ones that are breastfeeding, aiming for unmedicated delivery, not circumcising, and cloth diapering. FREAKS! And it’s weird, because, seriously, Dave and I are not that crunchy! We don’t eat an organic vegan diet, we watch tv, we shop according to price and not principle, for the most part. But DAMN, compared to the rest of the pregnant population, we are like the Hemp Barons of the Queen City or something. So …. odd. I digress.

Baby care class had a doll about the size of a 4 month old to work with, so part of the class was to observe a newborn sponge bath on the maternity floor.  We all trooped up, and a family had volunteered their 2 day old daughter, Gracie!, who was all red and wrinkly and 8lbs, 13 oz of baaaayyybbeeee.  We took over the waiting room, and the nurse-instructor lady wheeled in Gracie, along with her 5 year old sister and parents, and we all circled round to get a good view. Gracie was so obliging as to actually produce an informative diaper — as it was removed we got to see the elimination of meconium AND urine, LIVE. The nurse also pointed out what to leave behind in a girl-baby, which was really good to know, as my recent experience has been with baby boys.  The whole time, the 5 year old big sister was right there, handing stuff to the nurse, just BEAMING with excitement. While Dave was all touched by seeing a tiny baby, I kept looking at Big Sister and remembering when Daed became a Big Brother, and I got all choked up, because now Daed is all BIG and shit, and in middle school, and his little brothers are big too!

We went back to the classroom to see a video and discuss other newborn care things. One was circumcision, and everyone there but one is having a boy (and we don’t know, but we doknow our position on circ’ing) and they are all planning on circ’ing, and the instructor did a whole presentation on "the AAP doesn’t recommend it, only 2% of the population of the world IS — the nation of Israel, and the US –, it’snot covered by your insurance so be sure you know that, etc" and then handed around a book of pictures of the procedure, and everyone was cringing… she was very obviously anti-circ "but, it’s up to you…" She asked if anyone had any experience caring for intact babies, so I shot my hand up and brought up that I couldn’t think of a baby in my circle of friends that was circ’ed, and from age 12 on down, none of the intact babies had had any problems that they say might happen.

On the way out, a couple that is taking all the same classes as we are asked us about the cloth diapering thing, with the ‘you’re so BRAVE!" and I did my spiel about liners and it being a financial motivation (the instructor must’ve CD’ed, because she laid out the expenses of disposables when she talked about the expense of formula), and gave her a few websites to look at. So I guess we aren’t TOTAL freaks, if someone else at least expressed interest…

You know, a lot of these classes aren’t new information for me, they really aren’t. People were asking about what kind of carseat they should get (and we’re all due in May), and I’m biting my tongue from being all "The Graco Snugride is the highest rated infant seat!  But you need to make sure it’s installed correctly for it to be most effective!" because I’m just SUCH a researcher, as you all know.  Dave felt he learned a lot about breastfeeding that he didn’t know, and saw what it looked like, which, I forget, he really hasn’t had any exposure to that, whereas I have seen tons of women nursing in front of me.  What I am finding, though, is that I’m feeling more at ease about the hospital I’m delivering at. I do wish they had tubs, dammit, but I feel like I’ve been steeling myself up to defend our choices, and that’s okay, I’m a stubborn woman. But the more I hear from the educators, who are also nurses or former nurses on the floor, I think that MY wishes will be supported completely, especially when it comes to breastfeeding and rooming-in. I’ve had this idea of all the nurses being owned by Enfamil and trying to sneak formula into the baby while I’m sleeping, and if anything, if I were planning on formula-feeding, I’d be feeling a little intimidated by the classes. Every instructor/nurse has been all about breastfeeding, walking the line of "it’s your decision" but adding "But even if you just nurse after birth, or for a day, just to get the colostrum, that’s a benefit… but it’s your decision…"  And with circumcision, two of the three educators have been very obviously anti-circ, and the third has older teen boys, so talked about it being unnecessary, but probably DID circ because that’s just what you did. That’s the vibe I got, anyway.  It’s just — weird, to find that we are allied with the hospital staff more than the other classmates, you know? And knowing that, it makes me feel much better about having to deliver there.