Information overlaod (possible TMI)

3 word: energetic, contemplative, excited (writing in baby boy blue!) We attended child birth preparation class over the weekend. WOW information overload! It was great for me, I got everythingI wanted to out of it and was not at all feeling like I'd wished we could break it out into more sessions, in fact I wish we could go back and get more info! Our instructor was great, and she and I are on the same page on a lot of things. She has 2 children and 1 was born in the hospital with a doc, the second was born at home with a midwife. We got a book of information we still have not completely combed through. We did a lot of exercises that were very beneficial including weighing our "goals" for the birth and our desires. Examples: Narcotics vs none, Epidural vs none, C Section vs vaginal birth, boy vs girl, ect.... The exercise was to choose your preferences and then rank them so that, for instance, if you prefer no IV fluids, are you willing to acept an IV to raise your blood pressure so that you can have an Epidural? Things like that. We are mostly on the same page, and thankful didn't have to worry about the boy/girl or circumcision or not since we are already set on those 2 things! Evan now knows what my ideal birth experience is and I need to clear it with the doctor (which I'm assuming he'll veto so all this could be for not) and then all we need to do is pray that things go exactly as I want them to. That's normaly how child birth goes, right? Maybe I'll share when doc and I have finalized what I want but I'm not niave enough to know that things don't always go as planned so even having an idea in my mind on what I want, that could all change in the heat of the moment and I'm prepared to eat my words at that time, and hopefully I won't feel like a failure if things don't go as planned. So what did we learn:

• The epidural and/or drugs are for pain management during contractions, not the pushing
• An epidural does not numb your entire lower body
• some argue that narcotics are safe for the baby
• the worst part of labor is the transition stage going from a 7-10 and that is typicaly when an epidural is the most beneficial
• it takes on average 30-45 minutes for the epi drugs to kick in, which could be the end of the transition stage by the time you get it, if you wait.
• Contractions last from 45-60 seconds in their strongest
• an epidural will not eliviate the pain of an episiotomy.
• A babies head looks like a purple walnut when it makes its way "out" (we saw this to be true in multiple situations)
• Laboring in the hospital does not sound like fun at all, walking the halls over and over again.
• low blood preasure could disqulaify you for narcotics and/or epidural.
• The nurses, although there to help you, wish for your birth to be as easy as possible so if at any time you seem to be in too much pain they will offer you an epidural unless you specificly state not to at any time.
• no matter how much this seems like it is "my" birth experience, it is Evans too and the decisions I make will also greatly impact him. I need to consider his wishes as well because it will also be an exhausting experience for him. Therefore I really want to have someone else there to help take part of that burden from him.

My whole birth plan is going to depend on how the doctor answers a few of my questions on Wednesday and then I'm going to write out my plan so it's in my chart at the hospital. So today I'm almost positive the baby dropped. I also lost my mucus plug (sorry if that's TMI, I was pretty excited). I called Evan to share (he's home sick today) and he is not as excited for me, in fact I think it scared him! Not scared that something is wrong, it's too early, scared that this is actualy going to happen and maybe sooner than we planned, but either way it is going to happen! I assured him it probably won't happen before October but it could happen at any time, so we should probably be ready! So very cute and yet proof that maybe we need to talk a bit more about how we can get ready for this a little more. It never dawned on me that he wasn't as ready as I am for this! Finaly note, i'm due 4 weeks from today. How crazy is that?!? Where's that crystal ball when I need it? Will baby make his way early? Will he decide he's not ready (like daddy) and hang out for a bit. Life would be so much easiers (but a lot less fun) if we knew for sure! (if I knew for sure though I would know weather to make a haloween costume or not!)