Hospitals and Classes and Sitters, Oh My!

As an offering for my blatant lack of posting over the last week, I offer you, our readers, a multi-faceted update. The last week wasn't really eventful per se, but if I was logging a daily journal, there would've been at least 2 or 3 entries.

* Practice Makes Perfect. Thursday was a "dry run" of sorts, practicing a trip to the hospital and visiting the "Assessment" area, a.k.a. the initial stop in everyone's trip to labor and delivery. Leah awoke with some significant pains in her midsection, and it wasn't anything she had really experienced before. Hoping a hot shower would relax her, she stayed in a bit longer than normal, but with no positive effects. I took the dog outside, and returned to find her getting sick. Being that it was about 6:00AM, her only option was to contact the nurse's line of her doctor's office to get advice. Their suggestion was basically to head the hospital to have stuff checked out--after all, the docs probably wouldn't be in and available until about 9:30, which was over 3 hours away. So off we went (I realized during this trip through Walnut Grove/Humphreys Blvd that I hope Leah doesn't go into labor during rush hour). Blood work was done, urine tests were done, fetal heart rate was monitored, etc. All was OK. Not really sure what the pain was, but Leah took it easy for the rest of the day and seemed to be fine. Obviously this was all extremely precautionary, but at the time, it was the only option that set our mind at ease. Leah hasn't been pregnant before, so it's all uncharted territory when it comes to pain and discomfort.

* Back to School. Saturday we took 2 classes over at Baptist. The morning session was called "Expectant Parents", and taught us rookie parents basic stuff about baby's 4 needs: place to sleep, stuff to eat, place to ride, and what to wear. So many basic things seem so elementary, but yet we found ourselves saying stuff like, "Hmmm....Hadn't ever thought of that!". We got lots of great suggestions, and even some free goodies. The ladies that taught it were absolutely fabulous, and their light-hearted approach and sense of humor made the class an absolute blast. After a quick lunch over at Wendy's, we grabbed our seat for "Breastfeeding." Now, this one was quite interesting. You see, these two lactation nazis, er, consultants, not only proceeded to monotonously read the PowerPoint slides verbatim, but also proceeded to tell us that we are evil if we send the baby to the hospital nursery (might miss the subtle mouth-twitching baby sign language that he is starting to get hungry), or don't nurse exclusively for the first 6 months, or don't consider breastfeeding until the kid is 3 years old perfectly normal (heck, he can order his own steak by that age!). I really hoped that the class would cover more stuff like pumping, and returning to work, and all the practical stuff that relates to making this choice, but I was mistaken. After they finished telling us that the kid should be offered a breast every hour if he wants it (huh? can you say "schedule", boys and girls?), the sextegenarians thanked us for coming. Yeah, thanks. Too bad you accomplished much in turning us off of your cause by being so over-the-top wacko.

Meet the Sitter. After a couple of weeks of phone tag and schedule-juggling, Leah and I finally got to meet with, or "interview", our babysitter-to-be. It's really been amazing how things have worked out. Two months ago, she didn't have an opening, and we were facing the possibility of a $600+ month daycare bill. But thanks to a quick toddler exit due to dad's job or something, we now have an ex-daycare worker who provides much the same interaction, stimulation, and feedback paperwork that we'd get from the expensive folks. So I think we struck gold. Not to mention, a much more forgiving and flexible policy with regards to sickness, vacation, and extenuating circumstances. We left, totally confident in her abilities and our trust.