Childbirth Class- day 1

Well it was interesting, folks. First of all, we have a local celebrity in our midst....our morning news anchorwoman is in the class! She got married about a year ago, and I've been wondering for a couple of months whether she is pregnant (hard to tell since they hide the belly behind the news desk.) A few weeks ago I decided that yes, she definitely is pregnant, and now obviously it has been confirmed. It was funny to see her in her yoga pants, sequined-emblazoned "diva" shirt, hair & make-up a mess, etc. Since I watch her every morning, I kept feeling like she should recognize me too! Obviously she does not. Although she did offer me a chair when I looked like I was about to pass out....

Wondering why I was about to pass out? Yeah, I figured.

So the class didn't quite go as planned. It was supposed to be in the waiting room of our OB/GYN's office. We arrived a couple minutes early to find three big carpet cleaning vans out front, and a panicked-looking instructor standing out in the freezing cold. Apparently someone didn't check the calendar when they scheduled the carpet cleaning. The instructor decided that we would go ahead and do the tour of the labor and delivery wing at the hospital, which normally we would have done on day 2. So we drove over to that section of the hospital, and had to wait about 30 minutes until she was able to get everyone over there to the new location. (It was amusing to watch every single pregnant woman- starting with me- walk in the waiting room and immediately go to the bathroom. I lost count after a while, but I'm pretty sure we were at least 7 for 7 in terms of immediate bathroom visits.) Once we started the tour she took us to a labor and delivery room, which I really thought was pretty nice (bonus points for the jacuzzi tub!) Unfortunately there were about 5 chairs, and 10 pregnant women. Since most of the other women looked quite a bit more pregnant than me, I decided I could handle standing. Bad idea. After about an hour and a half of standing crammed with 20 other people in this little room, I was regretting my decision. One other girl had already given up and plopped herself onto the floor, but I just didn't feel quite right about sitting on the hospital floor (yuck.) I don't really know why I started feeling so bad, but I was starting to sweat, feel queasy and lightheaded, and basically just fighting back tears because I wanted to sit down so bad. Eventually my anchorwoman (who had been sitting but stood up to get a better view of something the instructor was showing) saw me shake my head at Stewart with a look of mild-panic in my eyes, and offered me the chair. Once I sat down I was fine. I felt like a bit wuss, because I swear some of these other women are mere days from popping out their babies, and they seemed to do much better than me. Oh well. Stewart has since advised me not to be a martyr anymore and just take a chair when I see one.

Anyway, in terms of the class itself, I'm glad we got to have the tour, and I'm expecting we'll get more in terms of actual information/education on day 2. I'd better go wake up my sleeping husband and get ready for more childbirth fun!