It's with great expectations that we wait for the arrival of our little girl. It seems like every night now B and I smile at each other in bed and wish out loud we had our girl with us already.
In the meantime, for the past few weeks, every Wednesday B and I have been taking the "Great Expectations" class at University Hospital. Though I am glad it has ended, I must say that I really enjoyed it. Even though I've been reading and trying to learn as much about parenthood on my own, it was nice to have this service provided for us.
Over the past few weeks, this is what we learned in class:
- Do not hold your breath during labor.
- Bring maternity clothes to the hospital to wear after delivery. I will not be back to my normal body quite yet :s
- Must drink about 12 cups of water a day! hmmm...
- A normal labor time is 12 - 14 hours.
- If choosing to get an epidural, a good time to do this is when contractions are 3 - 5 mins apart (4 - 7 cm dilated).
- Each contraction is about 45 - 60 seconds long.
- Take deep cleansing breaths at beginning and end of each contraction. Take shorter breaths in between.
- You time each contraction from beginning to beginning.
- You can have a true or a false contraction. A true contraction will not stop when sitting down.
- If my water breaks before I begin with contractions, I don't need to hurry to the hospital quite yet. I can take it easy.
- After an epidural is given, it's very tempting for the mom to stay in one place. You must try to change positions about every 30 mins.
- A way to stop pushing is by blowing.
- If you are fortunate to have a mom or someone help you out the first few days after delivery, a good thing for them to be responsible for is cooking, cleaning and laundry, not just sighing and watching and holding the baby all day long.
- They taught us how to bathe a baby, but it's too long of an explanation, so I am going to skip it.
- Do not use lotions or powders on babies. Lotions clog their pores and powders hurt their lungs.
- Use Dr. Karp's 5 S techniques to help soothe your baby.
What other good bit of information would be good for me to know ahead of time?
3 comments:
This is what my best friend told me 32 years ago when our first child was born... "listen to everyones "advice¨about what you should and shouldn´t do with calm and a smile, then do what you and your husband are comfortable with."
Every baby is different, every couple is different... in the end you and B are baby girl´s parents. This is your time to become a family! Love ya! Noreen
All I can say is you will be a wonderful mother and B a wonderful father! You have an idea of how awesome this will be but you won't really know until the day she comes, it is better than anyone can ever describe! My only input, be flexible and know that no matter what you have not failed! I always rested (and still do) in the fact that God gave me this child and that it is beyond anything I can ever do on my own so what better than to have a PERFECT Father to be my guide!
I agree with the above. Just because someone tells you that you should do something, doesn't mean it's right for you and your baby. I had family tell me that "I was going to need to let Olivia cry to go to sleep on her own." I didn't like that idea, despite the fact they told me that she would never learn to sooth herself to sleep. She's never cried herself to sleep and she goes to sleep JUST fine. If she's crying, I know SOMETHING is wrong. She's either hot, in some sort of pain, or not feeling well. Everyone is different and has different viewpoints. You'll figure out what's best for your family.
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