Feeding and pooping and diapering and caring

When we took the childbirth course, we also got a package deal on two other one-night classes. We registered ourselves for breastfeeding and baby care basics. And, we attended a seminar on cloth diapering. Here are the highlights:


The breastfeeding class was really great for both Dads and Moms. I the top three crazy things I learned were:

• I am about to become a milk sprinkler.
• When this baby is hungry it will try to get milk out of everything--including non-human objects.
• I'll most likely be hooked up to a machine that looks vaguely like something I last saw in a barn in Linton, ND: 

only mine will look like this so I can happily work at my desk like a sane business woman:


The diapering class was taught by lovely woman, Katrina, who runs a store called My Sweet Pickles. Here are the top tips Dan gleaned from that evening:

• Diaper services are like magical storks. They bring clean diapers to your house and take the stinky ones away forever. This service would make a great gift for someone expecting a child. ;-)
• There are a billion choices. Some are made of hemp, bamboo, cotton, etc. Some have flaps, some flip, and some snap. We'll stick to Bum Genius brand, thank you.
• Baby's poop varies in texture and color. The number of diapers used in a day increases every day until they are 10-12 days old. It's good to track all of that. Don't worry, there's an app for that.
• We already knew 90% of what was talked about, so it felt good to go to this course. We feel like we know what we're doing on Poop patrol.

FYI: For what it's worth, this is the only class where we did not see someone's boob in a video.

The baby care basics class was equally as enlightening. We learned 

• how to swaddle our kiddo, like when it's cattle-branding time 

• how to bathe it while it flails about in the sink or tub
• not to say to a class of parents-to-be that "our due date is a joke" (Oops. Too many nervous  type As in the room. We were the second people to introduce ourselves and I could practically feel the stress level rise after we explained why...)
• having contractions in a public space filled with nervous type A personalities is interesting in its own right
• having contractions in a public space with birthing experts present is comforting;they put me at ease because "everything is as it should be"
• we're pretty much ready for our baby to come--especially as we compared ourselves to the wide-eyed folks sitting around us. This was most comforting news.

The contractions and the birthing symptoms stopped after I got a good night's sleep on Thursday. I haven't had a day like that since.