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Natural Childbirth and Cupcakes

9:51 am CDT April 17, 2008
Last week, some friends of ours that I work with had a baby shower for us at our favorite after-work-happy-hour spot. Friends from both of our offices came, and it was so nice to get to catch up with everyone outside of work. The boy got some adorable gifts, and we got adorable "It's a Boy" golf balls and delicious cupcakes! I actually had a dream about those cupcakes the other night. No lie.
On Saturday, Eric and I had our all-day Childbirth Prep class at Northside (the hospital where we're delivering). There were a few clips from actual childbirths that, as you can imagine, we could've done without. Overall, though, it was a really great class. We talked about the signs and stages of labor, all of the different possible medical interventions and a lot of different pain management techniques. I was worried that the class might scare me into changing my mind about wanting to try to deliver naturally, but it actually had the opposite effect. I left with more confidence and an even stronger desire to give it a shot (no pun intended). A lot of our friends and family tell me I'm crazy, and I've decided that I'm okay with that. I know it's going to hurt. And I know that I have no idea just how much it's going to hurt. It's not that I'm AGAINST having an epidural at all (if I decide I want one, believe me -- I'll have one), but I can't imagine not at least TRYING to do it naturally. I have many reasons for wanting this (as, I'm sure, every woman has for whatever birth plan she decides to go with), but I won't bore you with the list. Throughout the decision process, Eric has been extremely supportive. The nurse who taught our class told us that husbands have a really hard time seeing their wives in that much pain, but I think Eric's even more nervous about the fact that I won't be allowed to eat anything once I'm admitted to the hospital. All that matters, though, is that at the end of the day, we're going to have a little wrinkled, oddly-shaped boy to call our own. And cupcakes! And margaritas!
We met another young couple in our class who live about a mile away from us, and they seemed really cool. She's due a little after me, but they're having twins, so we'll likely end up delivering around the same time. We exchanged email addresses and talked about meeting at the neighborhood park while we're on maternity leave. The highlight of our day, though, was our lunch break (surprise, surprise). Our friends Eden and Itai (who had a sweet baby girl in November) told us about a New York deli near the hospital. Having lived in NYC for a few years, they swore that the deli was legit, and we were eager to try it out. Eric has been complaining about the lack of a decent deli in Atlanta for as long as I've known him, and now he's finally found a place to take care of his (and my) egg sandwich cravings. The carrot cake wasn't bad either.
On Sunday, I used the prenatal massage that Eric had given me for Valentine's Day, and it was AWESOME. I'm hoping to squeeze in one more before this whole pregnancy thing is over. We also got a lot done over the weekend, and I was able to cross a lot of items off of our list(s). Yay! We had our entire alarm system redone and bought a new printer/ scanner/faxer/copier for our office so that we can both do some work from home and so that Eric will have fewer late nights at the office. This way, he can come home at a decent time and get some good diaper-changing and baby-burping sessions in before finishing up with work. I mean, isn't that every man's dream?
Tomorrow we're hoping to leave work a little early to hit the road for the 7-hour drive to Orlando (which will probably be more like 8+ hours with stops). We're so excited about our friends Andrea and Chris getting married -- and almost as excited about enjoying a little pool time on Saturday. It's supposed to be 85 degrees and sunny. Let's hope the cute little dress I bought (okay, so it's not exactly "little") still fits after all of those cupcakes….

yummy!

Eric and his work crew

with Lauren, one of the lovely hostesses

with Leah and Juls, the other two tipsy -- I mean lovely -- hostesses

POSTED BY meaganhop

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