Graduation

Jered and I are official graduates of our B.A.B.I.E.S. class (I think it stands for Birth and Bonding Infant Education and Safety). Tonight was our final class and after 12 weeks I would say that we did pretty well for ourselves. We started the class the week we had our “big” ultrasound, hard to believe that was 12 weeks ago! Along the way we learned lots of useful information including how to work through the pain of childbirth, how to swaddle Uni, how to baby-proof our home and how to perform infant and child CPR. I’m glad we took the class when we did, many of the couples we started the class with did not finish because they had their babies. It was strange being the least far along of all the women there (don’t they say you can’t be just a little bit pregnant?)- but I am glad we started early and were able to attend all of the classes.

Tuesday evening we took a breastfeeding class that was incredibly informative, if not a bit anxiety provoking! I had no idea how complicated breastfeeding can be. The class also acted as a reality check for me. Until just recently Uni’s due date has seemed far away and somewhat abstract. June still felt far away in March. Now that it’s April and we’ve finished all the education classes we wanted to take it is really sinking in that this little one is almost here. At the breastfeeding class on Tuesday that reality sunk in a little more for me. Breast pumps and football holds, swaddling techniques and babyproofing- all things that were not even part of my vocabulary 7 months ago. It’s not that I didn’t anticipate how much of a life change having a baby would be, but now that our little life change is almost here it’s all starting to sink in. In two months it will be the three of us, instead of just the two of us. We will be parents, and we will have a child who is dependent on us for all of his or her physical and emotional needs. Heavy stuff.

Having said all that, I am at once terrified and at the same time incredibly excited about this new chapter in our lives together. I suppose a few pre-partum jitters are normal for first time parents! If any of you out there experienced feelings like this I know Jered and I would love to hear about how the experience of becoming a parent was for you. Feel free to leave comments or send us an e-mail!

Filed under Pregnancy by esther |