Tonight, Jude and I "graduated" from our child birth education class. We attended our sixth and final Wednesday night class at Baptist Hospital. Upon reflection after class, we agreed the past six weeks have gone by in the blink of an eye. Jude would disagree with me, I'm sure, but the whole pregnancy seems to me to be flying by us.
The instruction in tonight's class involved caring for your newborn baby. As each couple arrived at class, we were given an eerily lifelike "newborn" baby doll, clothed in a diaper and a blanket. We took turns holding the doll throughout the class. Among other things, we learned how to hold, bathe and feed a newborn baby. The fathers in the class learned how to change a diaper (a "dry" run) and swaddle a baby.
We've been fortunate to have Christi Nelley as our instructor. She's a nurse at Baptist Hospital and a certified instructor at the Family Learning Center. Christi has a wonderful demeanor for someone who is instructing first time parents on how to actually be parents. She's calm, soothing and kind natured. Really, just a wonderful, helpful person and a credit to her profession.
A word about last week's class, when we toured the labor and delivery floors at the hospital, along with the nursery. We lingered quite a while - the whole class did, really - at the nursery. Everyone was enthralled by the the newbors babies, some of whom were less than five hours old. It was amazing to think these squirming, crying, sleeping babies - these living creatures - had been safely tucked away in their mothers' wombs hours before. I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful and frightening sight!
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