Breast Feeding

On June 3rd, I had a life changing event. I didn't win the lottery or have a near death experience - Nope.... I went to a breast feeding class!

We scheduled this class weeks ago, and when I put it on my calendar from 6pm - 9pm, I chuckled knowing there was no way that we'd need 3 hours to learn how to do this. I mean seriously, is it really this complicated? Somehow for thousands of years the maternal instinct of a mother and her child have worked just fine without complicated books and classes. After all, it's a pretty simple concept:

1 - Expose Breast
2 - Put Baby to Breast
3 - Feed Baby
4 - Repeat as needed

How could this possibly consume 3 hours of our lives? I was about to find out.....

We arrived early to make sure we'd get a good seat. I was surprised to see how many other couples were also there. I was even more surprised to see the 75 page book going into more detail that I ever knew was possible about breast feeding a baby. I was starting to get worried.

Anywhere else, if the word "sucking" and "breast" were used so many times in the same sentence, you'd likely get arrested. But here it was the norm and there were moments when things felt slightly uncomfortable. Perhaps the women felt completely fine with this, but looking around at the other suckers (no pun intended) - I mean other men in the room, I could tell they too were feeling the uneasiness of this situation.

After almost two hours of our instructor telling us just how difficult it could be to get the baby to drink from the breast, I think she finally felt sorry for us and gave us a 'brief' break. Fortunately they had comfort food there, and I had definitely worked up an appetite by this point. They were kind enough to provide us with freshly baked brownies and apple juice (seems to me like they should have given us milk under the circumstances) but what do I know.

Before I had time to finish my brownie, the instructor was back at it, but now it was time for a volunteer to come to the front of the room and 'demonstrate' the technique. Of course no one would volunteer because everyone was terrified of what might happen being in the spotlight. As the instructor peered across the room hoping to find a willing volunteer, I could see everyone looking away making sure as to not make eye contact with her for fear of being selected.

But like a true champion, Dawn rose to the occasion and in the name of science and education, she volunteered to go in front of the class and help the instructor. Dawn was a real sport and fortunately she didn't have to do anything too absurd, but it was still entertaining to watch her teach us all how to hold the baby in various positions to maximize the chances of a good feeding. I took the opportunity to sneak out my phone and capture some quality video and pictures that will surely provide a good laugh one day later in life.

Remember the 75 page book I mentioned? It was well after 9:00pm and we were roughly 50% through the book. Our instructor was so passionate about educating us on the 15,000 things we needed to know (Refer to my list above - Remember, I thought there were only 4 things ), that she could have easily continued another 3 hours. Fortunately around 9:15pm, she could tell she had beat us into an overwhelmed and unqualified state of mind, that she dismissed the class.

I left that night thinking to myself - "Thank God there is not a class on how to change a diaper", but at that very moment I remembered, we had signed up for that class which would be coming up the following week - But that's another story.

I had nightmares later that evening. I was being attacked by an array of bottles, nipples, breast pumps, formula, crying babies, and our evil instructor laughing and pointing at me saying "I told you so". It was a horrible dream and I woke up drenched with sweat. I went to the kitchen to get a drink, and opened the fridge and poured myself a glass of milk. Somehow my natural instincts took over, and without any complications I put the glass to my mouth and enjoyed every last drop. I'm sure my son too will do the same, and everything will be just fine; even if we just use the four step method that has been used for centuries.

Registering for Baby, Easy? I think not !!!

I thought picking out his name was hard, registering is just as hard. I could easily register for what "I" want, that would be easy, a maid service for a day, massage, facial, mani-pedi and my car detailed for the little one's arrival, but, it's not for mommy !!
We have been fortunate to receive a lot of "hand-me overs" from Amy and Sandy, thank you ladies, that has made it easy as well as for the yard sales Bryan and I hit and have a ton of newborn clothes. I think Bryan is hooked on this yard sale thing since we're going again this Saturday in hopes of finding a changing table and a dresser.
We're having a tough time with the carrier/car seat, why can't they just make ONE !!!
I can't decide if we need a carrier then a care seat or just a car seat that will last from 5 to 100 lbs, will need to make very sure to keep it clean for that long, may have to keep the plastic cover on it like some people keep over their furniture!
I only wish there were a master list somewhere of everything one needs for their little new addition !
Can we just go back to the good old days when you just held the baby while driving and later letting them play or nap in the back space @ the back window, just kidding, I always had fun doing that myself!!! I don't ever recall wearing a seat belt, just remember riding in the back of my grand parent's car begging them to turn on the radio and their answer was to start singing their own song !!! Not what I wanted, of course I'd love to hear them sing now if only that were possible!
Anyway, I think our only BIG task is to decide on the car seats and the rest will fall into place, RIGHT??!!!

Baby "stuff"

I'm so excited to have some baby things around the house. Met my Aunt Amy today in Columbia, to pick up a cradle, pack-n-play, baby tub, lil rocking horse, bedding, towels, and some misc. toys. My friend Kerry rode with me for company and to let me know it was ok to eat a ham & cheese biscuit, blueberry biscuit and most of her hash browns, Amy helped cheer me on too!
As soon as I could get everything in the house, I started putting things together, starting with the pack-n-play without directions!!! I decided to google for the instructions and there it was, on You Tube, yippee ! This one was a little different but close enough, it wasn't easy trying to figure it out before the google search! I would get one side up, work on side 2 and side one would fall, this went on for about 30 minutes before I decided to google!
I decided to put the things together since Babies R Us almost made Bryan have a mental break down, I need to take it easy on the man!
I guess all I get to do now is stare at it and shew the dogs away from it when they try to chew it! It's going to be interesting when we have baby toys around the house, Chingy is the worst when it comes to toys!! I'm hoping to get some more on Saturday !!!