Ready? Push!

Geof almost got in big trouble at last week's childbirth class. Almost. :)

He had gone to Ikea in Charlotte to purchase two new bookcases for our office and had just enough time to make the 3+ hour drive back from the Queen City to Rex Hospital for class #3. Or so he thought.

Our teacher, Caro, likes to start class at 7 p.m. Sharp. I was there. Geof was not.

Caro announced that we were going to spend the evening practicing labor and the different methods used to deal with the different kinds of contractions.

I furiously texted Geof. "Where r u?" There was no reply.

Two minutes later, he came bursting through the classroom door, looking a little sweaty and slightly out of breath. He knew being late was not going to be good, so he had run all the way from the parking lot to the classroom.

He looked at me, smiled and said, "You were going to be mad at me."

"Uh, yeah," I said. "If you do that when I actually go into labor, I will kill you."

With all future parents now present and accounted for, we began the process of pretending to have our babies.

Each student read a scenario that described the time of day, the type of contractions and where they were occuring (home/hospital). We then acted out the appropriate breathing patterns and positions to best deal with what we were "experiencing."

I frequently reminded Geof that whispering nice things in my ear was okay, but getting up in my face was not.

I have a feeling I'm going to be a little tense during this process and don't want to instinctively head butt him if his attempts to help drive me crazy.

We also went over things like "back labor," which is when the baby's head is pushing against mommy's spine/tailbone. Apparently, it hurts like all get out.

When practicing ways to relieve the pain of back labor, I asked, "How do you know you're having back labor? Does someone see it on a monitor?"

"Oh no," Caro said. "You'll know!"

Yikes. Let's hope we don't have to go down that road!

We have our fourth childbirth class tomorrow, which is also our 7th wedding anniversary. Learning about the babies seems like a perfect way to celebrate!