The Pain and the Tiredness

Oh, this is a rough morning. Thursdays are, nowadays, because we have Childbirth Prep classes on Wednesdays. The classes last from 7-9PM, which means that the earliest I get home and in bed is 9:45, which is like, so an hour and a half past my bedtime. I can't really sleep in, either, because my stomach and the baby in my tummy are set to a internal clock of about 5:30. It makes for some VERY sleepy Thursdays.

Anyhoo, childbirth classes are going well. We are learning all about the gross and disgusting stuff (or, "the perfectly natural stuff," as Aaron, who I think is deluding himself, says) that comes out after the baby. Fun! We are also learning some breathing techniques to help get through the contractions. It's interesting enough. I don't know...maybe I should be more worried, but as a girl who has had gallstones, kidneystones, and migraines, I've been through my share of pain. It turns out that I used Lamaze breathing through most of those, without actually ever having taken Lamaze.

We did an exercise last night where Aaron had to pinch the underside of my arm for about a minute to simulate a contraction while I did the breathing. Afterwards, I yelled at him for being too soft on me and not squeezing hard enough. I mean, it didn't hurt at all. Then, when I was NOT doing my breathing, he showed me exactly how hard he had been squeezing, and holy cow--it really hurt!

This is not to say that I have a high pain tolerance, because I DO NOT. I hate pain, even the littlest bit, and I am generally good about letting people know when the least little thing hurts. Because I hate pain so much, on those big pain things--like gallstones or kidneystones--I learned early that the more you think about it, the worse it hurts, so it's better to just concentrate on something rhythmic (like breathing) and stay calm.

Anyway, I suppose that all my practice with pain is good because I don't respond well to pain medications. I fight tranquilizers and sedatives (when I was getting my wisdom teeth out, the doctor said, "You'll never remember any of this," so in my stupidly sleepy state, I stayed awake through the ENTIRE thing just to prove him wrong, and could actually feel him taking out some of the teeth, but was too tranquilized to say anything about it). Almost all narcotics make me sick (either I throw up, break out in an itchy rash, or my blood pressure drops precipitously). So, that leaves us with, what? An epidural? Well, it's a possibility. I'm going to see if the super-breathing can work, but I'm not going to insist on an all-natural delivery just to satisfy some deep-seated need to prove how tough I really am (answer: I am not tough. At all).

The other lovely thing that has happened since our last post was my first baby shower! Hooray, baby showers! We actually have stuff! For the baby! Granted, none of this stuff is out of the boxes; all the clothes are heaped in a gigantic pile that I keep threatening to wash one day (don't worry--so far the clothes are safe because I am too sleepy all the time); and we still don't have our dresser that we ordered weeks ago (now they say it will come in sometime next week. I am wondering which will get here first...the dresser or the baby).

Regardless of our sloth at putting things away, thank you so much to Aaron's entire family for making sure that our little one will 1) be able to sleep downstairs, too, in a Pack n' Play; 2) be able to leave the house since we now have a beautiful new travel system; 3) not be traumatized by the smell of its own dirty diapers thanks to our new Diaper Genie, and many other wonderful gifts that I know are going to help out a lot. You guys are the greatest!

My many pregnancy chins and I open presents at the Wolfe/Meredith Family baby shower

Several generations of Aaron's family were in attendance.