December 11, 2004

world of poop

There is an funny dichotomy in the congrats emails from our friends who are parents vs those who aren't... The non-parents tend to say things like "isn't it wonderful" or "are you so happy" whereas virtually all the parents say things like "hang in there" or "pace yourself...it will get easier in a few days".

Well for us it's been both, exhilarating and darned taxing and all the emails have been great. Sorry for the lack of phone calls, we'll need a few days to streamline the operation here...

I'm still working on that blow by blow report of the labor. As a new dad I don't think there are enough nitty gritty labor stories around on the web to refer to to really get a sense of what labor really looks like from the dad's perspective. Thank goodness we took classes at Realbirth. I had a pretty good grasp of the medical realities of birth, but only in a textbook sort of way. The classes did a good job of going through all the various stages as they are actually played out both emotionally and physically. In a way I think that the classes are more helpful for the dads than the moms. The moms are so in their bodies that in the moment of labor they often have the urge to do the right thing somewhat naturally. But as the dad dealing with the doctors/hospitals/etc who sometimes push the moms in directions they don't want to go, it was important to know what was going on, what was normal, and what the options were. In our case knowing those options I believe helped us prevent a c-section.

Believe it or not I don't have a picture today. Must change a diaper. More tomorrow.

posted at 02:04 AM by raul

Filed under: