How to birth a baby - Lamaze Jamestown, North Dakota

After a whorl-wind weekend of Lamaze childbirth educator class I needed to decompress. As we were wrapping up on the last day the instructor (a woman) said she usually gets her period after she does one of these classes. I honestly thought, "that won't be me, I'm on the pill." But guess what, I got it, which is very strange because I am in the middle of my pack of pills. Now the question is, will I get it again when I normally get my period? It will really suck if that happens. Really though, it was an emotional weekend and I'm sure the hormones that started flowing with all the birth videos we were watching triggered my body's natural response and overrode the hormones I'm getting from the pill. With every birth we watched I felt myself reliving the birth of my kids and the flood of emotions that went with it. The pain I felt and the relief I felt when it was over. Hormones are a powerful thing and I've realized that even just watching other women

After today I feel like I couldn't watch another birth video. This Lamaze Childbirth Educator class has officially become a bit overwhelming! At lunch I walked out of the building and needed to decompress a little. And I still had another 4 hours to go. This class has been a flood of emotions. I think because birth is such a journey for a woman and every discussion that comes up I am constantly thinking back to my own births and how that can relate to the topic we are talking about. Then we will talk about problems and issue that can arise during birth and labor and I have to think about how grateful I am that I didn't have that problem and try and empathize with women who have had to go that route. Now, all I want to do is veg out and go to bed, but I have to come up with a teaching lesson for tomorrow and I want to switch the direction of the topic I originally thought I'd do. It is 15 minutes. That doesn't seem that long in the grand scheme of things. But I'm

It was a long day but it didn't seem like it. The class went well and I took a lot of notes. Well...that is because I am a note taker and I was getting a ton of ideas for future blog posts. I learned that the instructor has "unschooled" her kids and then I got a feel for her teaching style. We watched videos and discussed various experiences. So there was some learning going on there, I'm just not sure if I can regurgitate anything, and I don't think that is the point. This is the facility where my Lamaze class is being held. A great resource for pregnant women. I was pretty shaky going into today. To the point of tears really. I was just thinking about the class and what it was all about and my eyes were tearing up. During my introduction I was almost crying when it got to the fear part. But the other women in the room were very open and welcoming and it made me feel a lot better. We all shared our fears and it turns out there were themes similar to mine i

Well, I'm in Madison and mentally prepping myself for what is to come for tomorrow. I checked my email and found an email from the instructor. I will quote what it read and let me know what you think. "I wanted to give you a heads up about introductions tomorrow. I know this can be a source of nervousness when it is sprung on you.  So, I want to give you a little time to think about what you'd like to say.  So, I will ask you to tell us your name, any relevant family information you want to give (do you have a partner, kids, etc), where do you live, what is your occupation, 3 interesting facts about yourself (hobbies, travel, interests, etc) and to tell us a hope and a fear for this weekend.  What are you hoping to get out of it or what are you hoping will happen because of it, etc.  What are you nervous about?  What do you think might hold you back, etc." Um...what? Ok, this goes beyond just the normal pleasantries. Do I need to take notes? Fortunately

I am super excited! On Thursday I leave for Madison for my Lamaze instructor training. I am super excited (wait I just wrote that again, can you tell I'm excited?). I have the "Call the Midwife" audio book to listen to on the way. I also have my Lamaze study guide ready to go and am super excited to begin this journey. I can't wait to meet the other people who will be learning with me. The instructor also emailed me to say we will be doing a practice teaching session and I can choose any topic I like. That is hard, because I'm not sure where to start. I do like the idea of teaching pain management but I also want to incorporate the sharing of birth stories into my teaching. I've shared the birth story of my second baby, but somehow skipped over my first baby's story. I wrote it down in my journal, but didn't post it on our family blog. I'll have to get to that. Anyway, I hope to do a couple of posts during the seminar to keep a memory of the t

I just learned about something called Hyperemesis Gravidarum . It is chronic vomiting during pregnancy. To the point where it is life threatening. I discovered a new blog that described what this illness entails. I had a friend who vomited throughout her pregnancy and was admitted to the hospital at one point for dehydration. Her baby was born healthy but she struggled. I don't know if she was ever specifically diagnosed with this disease, but I know she went through a lot of pain. I remember one story she told about the orange drink they give you for the gestational diabetes test they do on pregnant women. She could barely keep it down. She said as she was driving home she was focusing on not puking, then as soon as she pulled in the driveway she got out and was on her hands and knees puking in the grass in front of her house. Her son in a gesture of solidarity was right next to her pretending to puke with her. Myself, well, I was nauseous my entire pregnancy. There was a per