Baby Birthin' Class

Hi guys—we're at 35 weeks now. 2-4 more to go. I say 2-4 because I just learned that 37 weeks is considered full term. Sweet. Don't get me wrong, it's not like I want to kick Sophia out of my warm and comfy uterus before she's ready, but after last night's eye opening birth class, I see several advantages to having a smaller baby!

The class was both educational and seriously entertaining. We had so many funny people in it, (including the teacher), that it was a blast. They're 3 hours long, and we meet once a week for a month. So much of what I thought I knew about birth simply wasn't true! Take for example that when a woman has contractions, her uterus bears down with 120 pounds of pressure to lower the baby down, little by little, into the birth canal? Meaning, you don't have to “PUUUUSSSSHHHH” until the very end.

And that the whole reason why active labor takes as long as it does (between 12 and 18 hours) is so that our bodies have a chance to stretch naturally? How about the reason why women's feet swell during pregnancy is because our bodies instinctively know that we're about to go though the birthing process and lose a lot of blood. Our bodies wouldn't be able to produce blood as fast as it'll be needed, so it actually stores it in our extremities. Is that amazing or what?!