Last night was the final birthing class, which made Jesse ecstatic. While the classes were informative, they were really long and tedious – 3 hour blocks was just too long.

Anyway, we did learn some interesting things. The first one being that we’ll probably end up putting Ian in with us for the first couple of weeks. Newborns want to be fed 8-12 times within a 24 hour time period. That means about every 2 hours, including at night. While that doesn’t sound bad during the day, that’s going to get old at night if I have to wake up, go into the office and get him, spend the 20-40 minutes feeding him, and then try and go back to sleep. By the time I get to sleep, he’ll want to be fed again. So, we’re looking at getting either a bassinette/cradle or a playard for the bedroom.

We went over a lot of “changes” – in Ian’s appearance, our daily lives, and other general stuff. Talked about some comfort techniques we could use when Ian cries and the possible meanings behind his cries (i.e. I’m hungry, I’m dirty, I want to play). We also found out that when a baby is alert and watchful, they want to play. We practiced changing a diaper and swaddling babies, but didn’t spend too much time on that.

One thing we did cover was the postpartum period. It’s been great not having my period for 9 months, but during this 6 weeks, it gets made up. Plus there is mastitis, lochia, constipation, and hemorrhoids that could happen. We also learned that if there is a history of depression in your family, then you are more susceptible to postpartum depression. That is something that Jesse and I will be keeping a look out for. Especially since it is very common and approximately 85% of women suffer from it.

So that was the last birthing class. Any questions?