childbirth classes and other things

Well, Steve and I have finally emerged from the disaster that was our apartment post-renovation. We have new paint in the kitchen and bathroom, new doors, and unleaded door jambs. However, our landlord appears to have hired someone without the first clue about working with leaded paint, and the place was a dusty, dirty mess. We have cleaned everything we own, as well as the walls and floors of the apartment. Twice. Sometimes three times - Hepa vacuum, soap and water, Hepa vacuum. It took probably four solid days of both of us working. (On a happy note, we bought our first ever vacuum, a Miele Sirius, and it's so cute and light and awesome that we love it.)

phew. We're so glad that it's over and we are finally able to enjoy our home again - particularly the kitchen. Two weeks of eating out was more than enough for us - we had homemade white bean and kale soup yesterday and it was so wholesome and yummy.

We had our childbirth classes this past weekend. We opted for the intensive weekend edition - 6 hours on Saturday and 6 on Sunday. Saturday was really helpful and informative. We really liked our instructor and learned a lot about the process and our options and what to expect. I had done some reading, but the class definitely answered some questions that I had. We also watched 3 birth videos, which I found really tough going - I know that they're supposed to demystify the process and thus empower you, but they had sort of the opposite effect on me. I felt more anxious afterwards - but not in the sense that I needed more information, just that things looked really very painful. (I'm not saying this came as a surprise, but I don't know if I found it helpful to be so reminded of the fact that something painful is in my near future.) And then on Sunday... we skipped class entirely. We didn't really have any more questions, and we didn't feel we needed to practice various breathing techniques or positions, and it was such a beautiful day...

We went to Rockefeller State Park instead. It was a gorgeous autumn day, with the leaves just beginning to change colors and fall onto the paths. We wandered around for over an hour. I was so happy to be out and enjoying the air and the forest - very peaceful and soul-restoring - much more what we needed from the day.

We've now had classes in newborn care, breastfeeding, and childbirth. I won't say we feel ready, but we certainly feel more informed. We were talking yesterday about how interesting it is that these sort of paid classes have, for a certain segment of the population (urban upper middle class?), effectively replaced the more organic and ad-hoc and historically common way of learning what to do from friends and family. It makes perfect sense, but it's still sort of odd.

Anyway, back to work. Happy Columbus Day!