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2004-09-01 - 10.20am��previous entry��next entry
30 weeks, 5 days - First antenatal class, and nappy photo
I had to update this morning to tell you about our first antenatal class last night!!!
It was sooooo good!! We both really enjoyed it and found it great fun. I was so excited to be doing something so "pregnant" yet again, and it kept seeming way too amazing to be real that I was actually sitting there with bump-clad women all around me, looking at those classic antenatal class pictures of babies descending through the cervix. I can't believe it's me!!!! I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant!!! And what's more exciting is that attending an antenatal class means that I'm nearly there, because they are pretty much reserved for the 3rd trimester - even the 2nd half of that trimester most of the time, so it means it's nearly time!!! Yay!
I have 65 days till my due date. Isn't that amazing? I am so so so excited. I can't wait till Arthur's here. Can't wait.
The class was 2 hours long, and there were 18 couples!!!! Only one lady without a partner there, but her partner was out of the country and will be back for future classes. The NCT lady said that this is the largest group they have ever had! The women are due from late September through to the end of November, so quite a good spread. Actually I'm pretty glad that there aren't 18 women due to give birth in the 2 weeks around my due date, because that would make me worry about whether we'd actually have a midwife available when Arthur chooses to arrive!
It was great to have all the men there too. They all asked a ton of questions, way more than the women did. Neil asked a lot of questions, just general ones that we were asked to shout out if they were on our mind. He asked about how to look for signs of postnatal depression in your wife, loads of things about breastfeeding, and other stuff. I love that he's so into this! :)
We had a general introduction from the two ladies running the class. One is an NCT (National Childbirth Trust by the way) birth class teacher, and she's really lovely. She is so knowledgeable about every aspect of birth, it's great. She is also the most open-minded person I ever knew, about different choices for birth and feeding, etc, which is great, because everyone there was so different in their wishes for the birth and things. She had all her babies at the local hospital (2 decades ago!). The other lady was a wonderful surprise to me, because she turned out to be a lactation specialist!!! Yay! She will be available for us to phone at any time from 6 hours after the birth, if we are having any feeding difficulties. She said to Neil that because we're having a homebirth and won't be in hospital for lactation support if we need it, Neil could always phone her and go and pick her up from her house (!) and bring her to our home to help us breastfeed. Wow. And she said to call day or night too, because babies don't restrict their screaming and difficulty feeding to 3pm on a Wednesday afternoon! This lady also had her babies a couple of decades ago, and she had ALL of hers at home!!! Yay!
At the beginning we all had to say our name in turn, and the women had to say their due date and where they were having the baby, and the men had to say if they were planning to be at the birth, and any other thoughts they had about the birth. So it turns out that I am the only person booked for a homebirth! Every single other couple is booked at the local hospital. I'm also the only person planning to have more than one birth partner (Neil and my mum), but probably because the hospital doesn't like more than one to be there. Neil said he was definitely going to be there and was looking forward to it! Two of the men said they had absolutely NO intention of being anywhere near the birth! I hope their partners are okay with that. I don't think I would be.
Some of the women are planning to bottle feed from birth, and others are going to "try" breastfeeding. I am GOING to breastfeed. I truly don't believe in there being such a thing as not being able to breastfeed, though you hear a LOT of it these days, and many women are told they can't after a struggle to try and establish it. If there was such a thing as really truly not being able to provide milk and breastfeed, there is no way the human race would have survived before the invention of the bottle and formula! I mean, c'mon. I DO believe there is a huge issue with difficulties in breastfeeding, but I think it's possible to overcome anything with the right support and perseverance. My mum and my granny were both told they couldn't breastfeed, or that their milk was inadequate, and they gave up quickly on that basis. My mum had considerable trouble feeding me, and I got very thin in the process, but I still think if she had been supported properly and allowed to feed me on demand and start out with the first feed within an hour of my birth, she would have been fine. I mean, I know that adoptive mothers are capable of breastfeeding their adopted babies (with some serious hard work and preparation!) so there is no way a woman who has just given birth cannot feed her baby, given the right support and action. I don't know anyone else on my first-time-mother pregnancy boards who is confident about breastfeeding their baby. Not one. They are all saying they'll "try" breastfeeding and they say how they're anxious that it won't work or they won't be able to. I think that is so sad and it makes me cross that women have this picture of breastfeeding. I have never had the experience but I am 110% confident that I WILL breastfeed my baby successfully, whether we have difficulties at the start or not, for as long as he wants my milk. And that's that.
Hmmm, that was a rant. So much so that I forgot where I was before that! But I feel strongly about feeding issues. It's all so messed up in this "modern day". Tsk. Poor women and babies. Ooh but I should say that I'm not a huge anti-formula freak. I don't think it's the best thing to give a baby, but if someone CHOOSES to bottle feed then fine, that's up to them. I just hate when women would have liked to breastfeed but end up stopping because of some sort of "inadequacy" or apparant inability. Because that's just balls.
Okay, rant over, sorry!
Hmmnnnmm, where was I? Oh yes, the class! So it was interesting to see so many different opinions and choices. We did get talked to a LOT during the pee/drink break, because of our choice to have a homebirth. Three different women talked to me about it - they all said, "Good for you!" which confused me as they were booked into hospital but seemed to think I was fab for choosing a homebirth??? Anyway it was nice! And when I got back to my seat, Neil said 2 couples had immediately gone up to him and asked about the fact that we are having a homebirth. Not questions as such, just - "So, you're having a homebirth?!" that kind of thing. It was good to have a talking point for us to get to meet people on the first class :)
Then the lactation specialist (Hilary) talked to us about breastfeeding a bit, and answered a billion questions. She will be taking a full 2-hour session on breastfeeding in a couple of weeks, so we'll have plenty of opportunity then. Next session is Thursday (tomorrow!) and we'll be covering labour and pain relief options, etc. We get to see a video of labour! I can't wait. I know some of the men said they didn't think they could deal with seeing that, but I hope they still turn up, because birth is just sooooo cool. Once you just SEE it, you realise how amazing it is. It's too amazing to be grossed out, especially if you have a personal interest in it (ie, it's your career, or your own child, etc).
So yeah, it went great! :) I can't wait for the next session. I'm glad it's tomorrow! Arthur kicked and wiggled like crazy throughout the class. He's a sweetie.
My noggin sucks. I had 3 hours of very broken sleep overnight, so I am just up to eat some breakfast and update my diary, and then I'm going back to bed to try and catch up a little. I can't sleep for very long with my nose like it is. I have started to have a naff sinus headache, so I hope it's not blocking the opening to my sinus already. I know that is the next thing it will do as it continues growing, and once it does that it will leave me at risk of developing bad sinusitis. So I was hoping it wouldn't quite get to that before I got it sorted. But ow. So hmmm.
2 days till my ENT appointment though! :) I am getting by with that thought in mind. I slept in the spare room last night. My nose whistled and creaked all night and I couldn't sleep anyway so I figured I'd rest better if I wasn't worried about disturbing Neil. I want to sew more Cuddlebuns today but I'll have to get some more sleep first. Ooh I finally opened a photobucket account, so here is the photo of the Cuddlebun I made! Actually it's 2 Cuddlebuns. The red one with white stars is the practise one that turned out really well. It has the same knit fabric on the inside, and burley knit terry in the soaker. And white snaps :) And the other one is my first real attempt at a Cuddlebun with more expensive fabric and that. I am so pleased with them! Here's the photo:
I went crazy buying overlocker thread for serging nappies last night! Now that I know I can do it, I would like some proper threads to make my nappies look great. I have that red thread so far and that's it. Oh and a bit of blue and pink. So I bought some variegated threads last night (not cheap!) and I found a few bargains on eBay too. That should be enough thread to keep me going for a long time! I love to sew nappies for Arthur!! :)
Okay Arthur is now awake and wiggling and bumpling, and my ribs are aching at the back from how I'm sitting, so I will finish for now and have a drink, and go to bed with my baby boy and enjoy his wiggles until I hopefully fall asleep :) I love being pregnant. I hate my noggin. But I LOVE being pregnant!
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