we are prepared! (or that's what we are taught)

after the second all-day hypnobirthing intensive class on saturday and then the all-day birth prep class at alta bates today, our heads are bulging and filled with everything you need to know to birth a baby.

now the next time someone asks me, “so, are you ready?” i’m going to look them squarely in the eye and scream “YESSSSS! WOOO WOOO WOOO!”

i think the comforting things were:

1. we are not the least prepared. of the nine couples in our birth prep class yesterday, at least two of them had due dates earlier than ours.
   
2. we have actually done a surprising amount of homework. i keep feeling that we’re not as educated as some of the other couples we know, but in comparison to some of these people, we’re pregnancy literati. they’re asking questions we already got past like months ago. i think we need to start hanging out with less ambitious parents.
   
3. many of the scary and uncertain things people are concerned about, we already either have resolved or don’t apply to us with our lost angeles superdoctor and his set-up. see, everything actually is better in lost angels. except for being in lost angels.

as for the hypnobirthing classes, aside from the new-age leap of faith aspect, it did help in terms of giving us something concrete to say and visualizations to rely on when i’m trying to help hmc relax and do deep relaxing breathing during the contractions. we’re hopeful that it will be sufficient to avoid drugs, but of course even if she needs them, it should help her focus and it helps us go into it more prepared and aware of the possibilities.