First Lamaze Class

Kayla and I attended our first lamaze class last week. It was a neat experience I must say. Our instructor has been teaching these educational classes for over 30 years. I really reccomend you men to go. There was a few women there that were either alone or brought there sister. If you are planning on being an active participant in your childs life, does it not make sense to learn everything you can to help him/her enter this world? There were six other couples at the class, each with there own story. For this post I will describe how this first class went.

We started the class with an introductory about ourselves (name, age, gender of baby, etc...). After this we moved on to the meat of the class. Our teacher held a large circular sign up that said "pain" on it. Then she proceeded to add pizza shape sections onto the board as she described that each of these pieces (medication, breathing, comfort etc...) are your tools to reducing the amount of pain mommy will experience during birth. When she finished there was just one section about 1/8th of the original circle that now said pain. She described how much of a role the "supporter" (me) plays during the actual child birth. No matter what she stressed that it is important to do everything within our realm of control to ensure this expirence will be a pleasent one for both mommy and me.

Obviously some women want to have medication (epidural) and some may wish not too. Chosing against this will only increase the pain another 1/8th of the chart. Now this is a general chart that does nothing more than describe how these "tools" can help you during birth. I must say it was a very effective approach for me as a visual learner. Though she should have added a chart that demonstrated how much pain discomfort her damn uncomfortable chairs were causing me.

The rest of the class we talked about the basics of breathing, fears associated with child birth and basic warning signs of labor. Also, she described the differences of true labor vs. false labor, and how they can mimick one another.

Since I have more than likely bored you to death I will save the rest for my Wednesday post. I will highlight these differences and shed some light on the beginning stages of labor.

So Do You Wan't a Boy or Girl?

So do you want to have a boy or a girl? This is probably the #1 question I was asked leading up to our first ultra sound. My answer... I would love to have a boy someday but as long as he/she is healthy then that is all I can ask for. Can you blame a man for wanting a boy? No way! It is in our DNA to not only reproduce but to have our name survive, to live on and ultimatly conquer... Okay maybe not that far. I think you get the idea.

Not to say that I was not super excited when I saw the "it's a boy" picture on the TV screen. The key to answering this question is to tread very lightly. It depends on the person asking the question. Are they your in-laws? Your friends? If it is your in-laws then you have some upstream navigating to do. Make sure they know you will be pleased with either outcome but it is okay to have a preference. This news will undoubtedly reach your wife/girlfriend. So don't dig a grave you arn't willing to lay in.

In the end it's all about having a boy healthy baby is it not? If you are truely disapointed in the outcome then shame on you! It is a blessing either way, unless you happen to live in China then you only get one shot. That is a different story.

Either sex has it's pros and cons. Both can be taught to play sports, play pranks on mom, and someday drink beer. Depending on your geographical location the latter would not be considered very "lady like." My end point is this, be happy either way. This is not like Walmart where you can make exchanges. If you are having a different gender then what you expected then find something you can have in common, whether it is fishing, cooking, sports, school, dolls, sewing you name it. But then again maybe you are a dad that really want's to have a girl, that is awesome and more power to you! I know that if we are so blessed as to have another child I would love to have a girl. I really dont think that it is a big deal either way for you to have your preferences, just do it tactfully.

Learn to be a crafty dad if you have too!

I will post our 1st ultrasound pictures later this week, so stay tuned!

What Kind of School Will my Child Attend?

As you get closer to your having your darling bundle of joy, you may want to think about an important question. What kind of schools will my child be attending? I know this is far off in the future, but if you start talking about it now you may decide that you arn't in the best school district (academically, safe, etc...) Where I am from we have 3 cities all linked together called the Tri-Cities, one of these cities does not have the kind of environment I would want my child growing up in (basically because of gangs and sketchy neighborhoods.)

Thinking about this early on will give you a few years to plan on moving to get your child near a school that would be better suited for them. I don't know about you, but I want to feel safe about my children walking home from school (distance permitting.) You're baby is going to be spending half of his/her day at this school, a good parent would make sure that it is a safe bet. Granite you can't see the future but you can still do everything possible to error on the side of saftey. If you do dedcide to move into a better school district this will give you plenty of time to find a place to live without being slammed for time.

Santa Claus

An important subject that you may have never thought of yet. Will you choose to tell your child that there is a Santa Claus or not. This is a topic that has a good argument for both sides. And I am the perfect person to cover it. I was brought up believeing in Santa untill I was about 5 or 6, my wife was never really told if there is a Santa or isn't and was free to decide on their own ( wich pretty much answers the question for them).

Growing up with Santa in my heart was one of the coolest things I could of believed when I was a little guy. All of the "Christmas spirit" in the air in December and the joy I would get just thinking a jolly fat man was going to be in my house dropping off presents and drinking the milk I left for him. I remember calling the hotline to find out where Santa's sleigh was last spotted, and getting so excited. I must say that I always sort of knew that the "mall Santa" was a phony he just seemed like a stand in for the real guy. When I found out the truth I never really thought of it as my parents lying to me. I think I  saw it coming when my friend broke the news to me one day.

My wife was free to make her own descisions and she had basically told me that she would have liked to believe in Santa but when ever they asked there was not really any definitive answer either way. I understand that they didn't want their kids to think that they have been lied to, wich is an awesome thought for a parent to have. I don't think of it as lying but more of introducing an idea. An Idea that may be true or may not be true but introducing it anyways. It's not like i'm going to send my 16 year old to school still thinking there is a Santa Claus.

If nothing else Santa Claus gives your little one a reason to be reminded to behave and get on his nice list. My wife and I will bring our kids up with the idea of Santa Claus. When the day comes that they get smart to the idea I won't lie to them and the idea of Santa will be no more. If you decide to tell your child that there is no Santa then he will probably end up being the one to ruin it for all the kids in his school who want to believe :). No pressure just stating some facts here!

What do you think?