Newborn Basics

Brad and I are all about taking classes that Thomas Hospital offers on labor, newborns, whatever. We started our "Moving Through Labor" class a few weeks ago (more on that later!) and last night we went to Newborn Basics.

Neither of us really knew what to expect. The instructor for the labor class likes to scare you each week so I was thinking, "what am I going to be scared about tonight". Plus, the labor class is 4 weeks long, 2 hours each session and the newborn class is one night for 2 hours. Brad and I both wondered how you could learn about newborns in 2 hours but it took 8 hours for labor? We don't know much about labor or newborns!!

After last night, I can say that we both feel better about bringing Paige home! Not that we are experts by any means, but the information that was covered was very useful for clueless people like us.

One of the most interesting things I learned (and most of you are probably thinking, "you didn't know this??") was that "sshhing" your baby is actually soothing to them. I always wondered why people were telling their baby to be quite and thought it was kind of rude, but now it makes complete sense - the sshhing sounds like the womb. The same reason goes for why they like to swing, they have been swinging in your belly for 9 months and then all of sudden the swinging stops when they are born. So many of the things covered were common sense things that just needed to be brought to light for us. I can definitely say that last night's class was well worth the 2 hours away from home after a long day at work for each of us.

Tonight is our 3rd class on labor - should be interesting!!