birthing class graduation

Last night we have our last birthing class. The energy felt good and spirit seemed high. One couple is expected this Friday so we were afraid they wouldn't make it to the last class but Baby held on!

One exercise we did was to make lists of the following topics related to that postpartum time:
1. Important People
We listed people who we would feel comfortable calling upon for help if needed. Then we starred the people who would be our 3AM people: the people who we might call in the middle of the night. "Even though you may never call them at 3AM, it's nice to know who you can go to if you need it." Our teacher made an interesting distinction between guests and visitors. She suggested that, in the beginning, we see people who won't expect or require to be entertained, but rather people who feel comfortable helping themselves to a drink or would like to help do the dishes while they're there.

2. Food sources
She asked us to make specific lists of resources for food. Mike and I decided it may be time to buy a freezer for the basement in hopes of recruiting both Grandmas to help us build up a collection of frozen homemade meals.

3. Bliss List
We made 3 separate lists of things that we love to do (with or without baby, with or without each other). For us this ranged from going on walks, visiting farmers markets, going on hikes, drinking coffee, visiting friends in SF, to traveling. And then she asked us to just think about when we will be able to get to these things. Some might happen soon in Baby's future and other might have to be put on hold for a little while.

4. Challenges and Solutions
List of things we think might be challenges to us and potential solutions. We shared out and the most popular was to invest in having a housecleaning service for that deep-clean type of care. This: very tempting. Mike and I also talked about how we are going to communicate with each other when life will feel so different and we will feel so different. Our teacher said the number of arguments/conflicts increases from 30-80% postpartum. Yow. So we talked about practicing mindfulness and communicating intention (if one of us is feeling testy, acknowledging it and maybe not engaging in discussion right at that moment). I was also reminded of the 1-10 scaled that was recommended to us at our wedding shower: using a scale of 1-10 to communicate how important something is to one of us.

COPING PRACTICE
Again, the buckets of ice came out so we could practice coping strategies (ice simulates contractions). This was intense. I had to stick both my hands in (up to the wrists) and Mike and I had to figure out how we were going to cope with my pain. Things I learned:
- Keeping my eyes open much better than closed! Being able to focus on something was helpful.
- Mike rubbing up and down my back to match my breathing was very calming.
- Mike's voice was very soothing. It was helpful to hear him talk about sensations around us: what we were seeing, hearing, smelling, touching. We also tried visualizing our recent trip to Yosemite.

GRADUATION
Inspired by Mike's suggestions, the group hung out afterwards and got ice cream/frozen yogurt nearby. It was a nice time to just chat with other couples. There is one couple that we've hung out with a few times before, so we got a chance to meet the other ones as well. I made the mistake of eating too much ice cream and had a sugar crash afterwards...bad mommy.