Now take a deep breathe in....and release.

Ah Labor and Delivery/Childbirth/Lamaze/Get this kid out of me class...whatever you want to call it I was looking forward to it on one hand but dreading it on the other. I was excited to learn what I needed to know going in on game day (because I'm pretty sure I've never been more nervous about something in my life than I have this) but I KNEW Justin was NOT looking forward to it. What gave it away you ask...oh maybe the fact that he let me know a guy at work had 3 kids and they never went to some class...he said we should "wing it" like they did. Right...easy for him to say. :)

As I prepared myself for how to handle Justin and this wonderful part of the experience I just decided I wouldn't fill him in on any of the details I had gotten from hear say (mainly the oh so graphic videos) and just not really talk about it until we had to leave for class that first night. So as planned I got home two Monday's ago, changed and grabbed the two pillows we needed and told Justin to get dressed so we could go. Naturally, he was ready to go and we got in the car to drive to Wichita...for those of you who have dogs, I kind of felt like I was in the car taking Moose and Remington to the doggie daycare to stay for the weekend...you know they don't want to go and fight it the whole way there. That's how our 24 minute and 38 second ride to Wichita was.

Now, for those of you who know Justin well, you know that he is really great around people but new situations with new people in very uncomfortable settings are by far NOT his favorite thing. That's exactly what we walked into. Walking into the room we put on our name tags and took our seats, flipping through our massive packet on everything you could possibly want to know about having a baby. I just prayed the instructor wasn't going to START the class off with "THE" video. That would be disastrous! We would definitely not be back if she did that.

As the instructor walked in the room, she introduced herself, all of us "students" introduced ourselves and then....she walked towards the video player. NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As she hit play my stomach dropped and thought "how am I'm going to ever know how to have this kid because we for sure won't be back next week and that's if he doesn't make me leave right now. Much to my surprise (and relief) the video was a comedy act of Bill Cosby talking about his encounter of child birth. WHEW!

The rest of the night went fairly smooth. There was no graphic video (we are still anticipating that) and we learned a lot about what little baby Mills was doing inside my tummy. We did get to learn the stages of labor and the different faces/moods I might be in at each stage. My question is who really would expect a pregnant woman dilated to a 10 to be in a happy, I can do this mood? I mean isn't that just common sense that I'm probably going to be screaming, yelling, telling Justin "you did this to me" and possibly biting???

As class wrapped up (Justin was quiet but well behaved most of the time) the instructor told us we were going to practice some breathing techniques. I'm thinking, great, THIS is what I need to know. As she dimmed the lights, put on some soft music, she asked all of us (ALL of us, including dads) to take a deep cleansing breath in then start our long breathing pattern. Inhale, 1, 2, 3, 4...again. After about 5 minutes I was feeling great! I wasn't really paying much attention to anyone but myself...including my husband.

As we walked out of the class, we didn't even hit the front doors and Justin was going off on what a liberal class that was (liberal is his term he uses for anything he doesn't like and probably needs a new adjective to describe things) and how he was doing everything he could to not bust out laughing during the breathing exercises. JUST what I needed...to be kicked out of class for the misbehaving kid laughing at all of the other kids in class. Thank goodness he held it in and we are allowed to come back next week.

Watch for my next post and I'll fill you in on what happened our second week of class and you can find out if we had to watch "THE" video and if we are returning another week. :)