Childbirth Class # 5: The Big Adios

Believe it or not, childbirth class has come to a close. We lost 2 soldiers out there to labor and delivery. We got the report on Tara, who went into labor right after class #4 and told Mary Jane that labor was way easier than the pregnancy. There is hope! Thank you, Tara, that is what I needed to hear. The other couple that did not appear (you remember Henry from my first blog...) I can only assume are now holding their bundle of joy. During class #4, the Mom-To-Be gave me lots of details about her...ahem...conditions "down there" that led me to believe she was hittin' those stirrups in no time.
Class was great, as always. We learned about the final part of our entire pregnancy and delivery experience. That, my friends, is pushing. Mary Jane gave us lots of tips on the best ways to push to be most effective (important as I'm sure I'll be completely out of breath and out of energy with my lack of ability to exercise for the past 7 months). There are also several ways you can deliver, and we learned about that as well. One of the girls in our class who is delivering naturally (God love her) is apparently delivering in a squatted position. Did NOT at all look comfortable, and I will gladly take the teeny-tiny hospital bed. Her poor husband had to wear the empathy belly and assume the position. Bless his heart.
Class came to a close and in order to actually pass, each couple had to be able to put a diaper on the baby Mary Jane used in class for instruction. If you could not diaper the baby, then the deal was that you had to give your actual baby to her once it was born--a tough pill to swallow since we now knew everything there was to know about our little one. This is the baby who, until this class, never looked like it would fit through the pelvis model she carried. Each demonstration with the baby's head going through the pelvis made me a little sweaty as she never showed us exactly how that was possible. But I soon realized, she was saving the best for last. The baby-through-pelvis demostration was completed with great ease and resulted in only a mild twitch on my part which only lasted about 24 hours.
After Britton successfully diapered the newborn, Mary Jane gave all of us a precious Baby's First Bible as a going away gift. It was so thoughtful, and really touched my heart. We were almost the last to leave that night because we were so sad to see it all end!
We hugged Mary Jane and gave her the highest compliments on her teaching style, and her ability to engage the entire class. Britton and I are SO lucky to have taken this class! We feel so much more prepared and ready to go into the hospital when the time comes. A BIG shout out to Mary Jane, who we truly became attached to--we *heart* childbirth classes!!!!