36th Week of Pregnancy Update

36th Week of Development

It's hard to believe that today is the final day of my pregnancy before I am considered full term. It seems like it went by too quickly to me, but we are feeling prepared for Mattimeo's arrival at this point. The nursery is all set (I am going to save pictures of that for the next post) and we have everything we need; I just have to pack my hospital bag and have that ready. This is all very exciting and unreal.

Lots of fun things thing report from over the last week or so. To start with, last Friday Robbie had a "dadchelor party". This was something I read about in an article online (http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/06/15/dadchelor-parties-first-time-fathers-party-hard-before-babies-arrive/) and shared with Robbie. Of course he thought it sounded like a great idea, and made plans right away. Basically a dadchelor party is one last time to hang out with all your guy friends, get drunk and do whatever the heck you want before you become a father (a lifetime and life-changing commitment). It as not as though he still won't be able to hang out and have fun with friends once he is a father, but it is a pretty cool way to celebrate the end of an era and the start of a new one. Our awesome friend Gib agreed to host a party at his house, and Robbie had great time hanging out, drinking, eating yummy snacks and playing video games with his best friends. He drank himself into quite a stupor, and I ended up picking him up at 2:00 in the morning because he wasn't in a state to walk home (I didn't mind because I had just got up for a snack anyways). When I talked to him in the morning though, he reported that he had an amazing time, and I am really glad he did that. I am also glad he had the party sooner rather than later, because the last thing I need is to go into labor when my husband is off somewhere too drunk to drive me to the hospital!

On Sunday, Robbie and I went to one last class at the Birthplace- Safe starts: Infant safety and CPR. The class was about four hours long and covered a ton of material. First we went over home safety. We watched a video about all kinds of safety issues in the home, then had to fill out a form to rate how safe our homes are for babies.The teacher gave us some great handouts that outline all the things we saw in the video which will be a great reference when we need to childproof our apartment. The second part of class focused on CPR and foreign body airway obstruction techniques. We all had our own dummies to practice giving CPR to babies and small children, as well as to assist with choking babies and children. They have really simplified things since the last time I took a first aid class which makes the thought of having to rescue someone a bit less daunting. Now, no matter if you are giving CPR to a baby, child or adult, you are supposed to give 30 compressions, check their airway, and give 2 breathes. We practiced lots of different scenarios, which if nothing else, helped us to remember those numbers to start to make it second nature as to what needs to be done in an emergency. Finally, we discussed car seat safety. A lot of the stuff about car seat safety was review for Robbie and I since we already went to a car-seat safety check a couple of weeks ago, but it was still nice to go over. There is so much information about infant safety, it's almost overwhelming. For the most part though a little common sense will take us a long way. I think that class was really great and gave us important information that we wouldn't necessarily have thought of on our own...I am glad we went.

Thursday I had another appointment at Back Cove Midwives. This time Robbie decided to work from home for the day so he could go in with me, which I was really happy about. Part of this visit was to have a Group B Strep Test. This just involved me going into the bathroom and taking a sample with a sterile swab of inside my vagina and along my perineum. Group B Strep is a bacteria found in some people's digestive systems, but because of the relative closeness of the anus and vagina, sometimes this bacteria can pass to the vagina. This bacteria is harmful to infants, so if pregnant women test positive, they are usually set up with an IV the pumps antibiotics into them while they are in labor to prevent the baby from getting sick (For more information: http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancycomplications/groupbstrepinfection.html). Only about 25% of women test positive for the bacteria (and it seems to be random who has or doesn't have it), so hopefully I test negative. I would really rather not go through labor with an IV hooked up to me, as I hate needles and it freaks me out to have things stuck in my arm. I will find out next week what my results were. The rest of the appointment went well. Robbie and I have written a birth plan, which outlines how we want different situations to be treated through labor, childbirth and beyond while we are in the birthing center. It's main advantage is that any new person who comes into my room knows that we are planning on having a relaxed, natural birth and prevents people from asking me millions of questions while I am focusing on birthing a baby.We went over our birth plan with the mid-wife and she helped us to cross out things that are unnecessary to write down because they are done automatically at Mercy, as well as offer any suggestions she had. Now I will make a final draft, and I will give copies of that to the midwives next week to keep in my file as well as bring copies to the hospital. The normal part of the appointment went well. Both the baby and I are healthy. The height of my fundus this week was 35 inches, and the babies heart rate was normal. She noticed that he had dropped down quite a bit. She said he is not fully engaged yet, but definitely low and flirting with the idea. She told me to try to keep him in there until at least 38-39 weeks because even though 37 weeks is full term, there can still be complications.

I believe this is what you would call "nesting"

The rest of the week was great. I got to see my good friend Josh on Friday, who I haven't seen since I became pregnant since he was working on finishing up his Master's degree in Florida and spent a little over a month visiting Zambia (where he had traveled to during the peace corps a couple years ago). We went for a nice, long walk to catch up and it was really great to see him again. Its nice when seeing an old friend feels so natural as though no time has passed at all. Friday night was the first Friday art walk in Portland. Our friend Gib recently acquired some studio space and was on display in a gallery. So Robbie and I went to go check it out and ended up hanging out there most of the night. While we were there we met up with another old friend that we hadn't seen since college, which was really great.

The state of our balcony garden as of now

The state of our balcony garden as of now: angel's trumpet

The state of our balcony garden as of now

The state of our balcony garden as of now: basil and rosemary

The seeds I planted at the beginning of the season are coming up

The state of our balcony garden as of now: begonias

Some of Gib's art up at the Dooryard

Finally, on Saturday Robbie and I made a trip to Waterboro to go strawberry picking at Doles Orchard. This is the farm I used to work at off an on: once for a summer, and then again in autumn a couple years later. The owners, Nancy and Earl, are really great people and it was nice to see them again and be back on the farm. They are having a really great year for strawberries fortunately, and we picked a flat of berries in about 1/2 hour. Robbie's mom and dad came with us, which made the experience even more enjoyable. After picking berries we went to his parents house to visit and do some laundry. The cloth diapers we got need to be washed a couple of times before use, so we wanted to do that in order to get ready for the baby's arrival. Robbie also helped his parents move wood down into their basement, then played Borderlands with his Dad while I finished up laundry and took a walk with his mom to the lake to dip our feet in the water and get some exercise. After visiting his parents, we went to see my Dad and Sue for a little bit, then went to see my brother and his family on our way home. My brother's in-laws are having a big campout at their house for the holiday, so we got to see lots of people and cute dogs. Our nephew Bryce is 8 months old now and is growing into a really handsome and happy little boy, it was good to see him as well as Brian and Nicole.

Robbie's mom picking berries at Doles Orchard

Robbie's dad picking berries at Doles Orchard

Robbie eating berries at Dole's Orchard

Me picking berries at Doles Orchard

Picking strawberries (36 weeks pregnant)

Strawberries at Doles Orchard

Strawberries at Doles Orchard

Robbie picking berries at Doles Orchard

Strawberries at Doles Orchard

Robbie and his Mom moving wood

Robbie transporting the wood

Robbie's dad bringing the wood down to the basement for their heat this fall/winter

Drying come of our cloth diapers on the line

Breastfeeding Class

Monday night I attended a free (free for anyone giving birth at the Mercy Birthplace) breastfeeding class titled "The Breast Connection". It was taught by the same nurse who taught the one-day child birthing class we took at Mercy last month, Linda. She is one of the three lactation consultants at Mercy and is really knowledgeable and enthusiastic. Even though I have already read a lot about breastfeeding, I still feel like I got a lot from the class and it was definitely worth going to.

We watched a 25 minute video that talked about what actually goes on inside of your body while breastfeeding, why it is beneficial, then got to see lots of examples of good latches and different ways to hold the baby, and learned how to tell if your baby is getting enough food. Most of the class though was spent by Linda teaching us. Some of the things that I learned from the class that I hadn't learned from books was very practical information. For instance, I didn't know that you are allowed to breastfeed anywhere in Maine (that includes all stores and restaurants). We talked about different kinds of pumps and who might benefit from investing in a really good electric pump (mom's working full time) as opposed to who will be fine with a manual pump. I will just be using a manual pump since I plan on staying at home and will not be working full time. I found out that the exact same pump that I asked for as a shower gift (and happily received) is given to every woman who births at Mercy who would like to have one: the Medela Harmony Breastpump (http://www.medelabreastfeedingus.com/products/breast-pumps/157/harmony-breastpump). I'm really happy about this because it's supposed to be a really great pump and is recommended by Ina May in her book Ina May's Guide to Breastfeeding. This means I will be able to return my unopened pump and use it to get some nursing bras or something, which is helpful. She talked to us about nursing bras and different types of items like nipple shields and shells and who might benefit from these as opposed to who might never need to use these items. We also talked about how important it is to use bottles with breast friendly nipples. Apparently a lot of bottles have really long, fast flowing nipples which babies love because they don't have to work for their food. Unfortunately, for a breastfeeding mother, this will probably lead to the baby preferring the bottle to mom's breast. Breast friendly nipples are shorter like real nipples. She told us some of the different bottle brands that mothers in her breastfeeding group recommended: Tommee Tippee (these are the kind of bottles we got), Adiare, Avent Breastfeeding Nipple, Playtex Original, and Breast Flow. We talked about what you should do if the baby is really colicky: apparently some babies get colicky if the mom is drinking a lot of cow's milk (though some drink a ton and the baby is just fine), so if our baby is getting sick a lot we should try switching to rice milk and see if that helps. We learned about our nutritional needs while breastfeeding. Finally we learned that breast milk can be stored for up to 4 hours at room temperature, 4 weeks in the fridge and up to 4 months in the freezer. If you aren't a breastfeeding woman, all this information probably isn't interesting to you, but I know a lot of other pregnant women and women who hope to have babies one day read this blog and might find this interesting.

Here are a couple of resources she highly recommended to us:

• www.kellymom.com (a link that you can look up any breastfeeding questions on)
• The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding (a book put out by La Leche League International- I actually already have this book and was planning on reading it soon).

Overall, I am starting to get really excited for breastfeeding and I hope that all the people around me will be supportive. Perhaps the thing I am worried about the most is that I will be embarrassed to breastfeed in front of friends and family, but I am hoping that they will understand how natural it is and how beneficial it is for the baby and help me to feel really comfortable with it. So please be supportive! Thanks :)

All about HypnoBirthing

There are so many different options for child-birth classes out there, it can be overwhelming to decide. I remember the first time I was looking through one of my pregnancy books at some of the different options and feeling burdened by the amount of research I would probably have to do in order to make the best choice. However, one day one of the awesome woman I walk dogs for recommended HypnoBirthing to me. She said that she had needed to use medication for her first baby but really wanted a more pleasant and natural birth experience for her second and that HypnoBirthing helped her succeed (she is a physician, which makes me hold her opinion in even higher esteem). Admittedly, my initial thought was that HypnoBirthing involved having someone come into the hospital room with you, waving a stop watch in front of you sending you into a hypnotic state during which you would birth your baby. Needless to say, I was a little skeptical. But then I did some research about it and was surprised to find that HypnoBirthing, or the Mongan Method, actually went hand and hand with what I already imagined my ideal birth situation to be. I ended up not needing to do lots of research on all the different child birthing methods because HypnoBirthing just seemed to make so much sense to me, I couldn't imagine trying any other method. Fortunately, Robbie agreed with me whole-heartily.

So what the heck is HypnoBirthing? Marie Mongan, the person who came up with HypnoBirthing, describes it best:

HypnoBirthing is as much a philosophy of birth as it is a technique or method for birthing. The basic tenet of the program is that childbirth is a normal, natural and healthy function for women. As such, birth can be accomplished gently and calmly for the very large number of women who are not in a high-risk situation.

Like the bodies of our sister creatures in nature, the bodies of healthy pregnant women instinctively know how to birth, just as their bodies instinctively know how to conceive and how to nurture the development of the babies they are carrying. HypnoBirthing helps mothers align with their own innate capacity to be able to give birth gently, comfortably, powerfully and joyfully. 

A HypnoBirthing mother learns to embrace her body's innate knowledge of birthing, to relax into her birthing process, working with her body and her baby. She trusts that each knows how to do its job. She wants this experience to unfold naturally without interruption. In doing this, she eliminates fatigue and shortens her birthing time. The result is a truly rewarding and satisfying birth experience, with the entire family, including the baby, being awake, alert and calm, yet energized (Marie Mongan, Hypnobirthing, the Mongan Method, 2005).

What truly convinced me that HypnoBirthing could work, that people can have relaxed and relatively painless natural births, was reading the chapter about how fear affects labor. I am going to include bits of her explanation here, because she just explains it so well:

Your uterus is perfectly designed to assist you to birth your baby. When we understand the way in which the uterus functions naturally when unencumbered by fear, the concept of easier, more comfortable childbirth immediately becomes obvious, and therefore, attainable.

There are three layers of muscle in the uterus. The two layers with which we will be concerned are the outer layer, with muscles that are vertical (aligned up and down with your baby), and the inner layer, with muscles that are horizontally circular (surrounding the baby). 

The circular muscles of the inner layer are found in the lower portion of the uterus. They are thickest just above the opening (cervix). In order for the outlet of the uterus to open and permit the baby to easily move down, these lower, thicker muscles have to relax and thin. The stronger muscles of the uterus are vertical fibers, with a stronger concentration at the top. They go up the back and over the top of the uterus. As these muscles tighten and draw up the relaxed circular muscles at the neck of the uterus, they cause the edges of the cervix to progressively thin and open. In an almost wavelike motion, the long muscle bands shorten and flex to nudge the baby down, through and ultimately out the uterus.

When the laboring mother is in a comfortable state of relaxation, the two sets of muscles work in harmony, as they were intended. The surge of the vertical muscles draws up, flexes and expels; the circular muscles relax and draw back to allow this to happen. The cervix things and opens. Birthing occurs smoothly and easily.

The negative physical effect of fear on labor can be traced to the function of the body's Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The ANS is the communication network within our bodies. Its main function is to interpret messages it receives, determine what action should be taken as a result of the message, and then immediately communicate that directive to the other systems of the body. There are two subsidiary systems with the ANS-- the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic systems.

The Sympathetic system is triggered when we are stressed, frightened or startled. It instantly creates the 'fight, flight or freeze' response within the body. It closes arteries going to to organs that are not essential for defense. It prepares the body to deal with emergencies and danger.

The Parasympathetic system keeps the body and mind in a state of harmony and balance. It maintains the body functioning in a state of calm, slowing the heart rate, reducing stimulation, slowing the firing of harmful neuropeptides, and, in general, keeping us in a state of well-being.

How does this relate to birthing? The Sympathetic part of the nervous system responds, not just to actual threats, but to perceived threats. In other words, the negative messages that a mother constantly receives are processed as being real. Over time, these negative messages become part of her relief system and compromise her body's chemical balance on a regular basis. They affect her emotional state and that of her pre-born baby. When the mother approaches labor with unresolved fear and stress, her body is already on the defensive, and the stressor hormone, catecholamine, is triggered. Her body is sent into the 'fight, flight or freeze' response.

When circumstances are such that neither 'flight or fight' are appropriate, as in the case of labor, the body naturally chooses the third option: 'freeze.' Since the uterus has never been designated as part of the defense mechanism of the body, blood is directed away form it to the parts of the body involved in defense. This cause the arteries going to the uterus to tense and constrict, restricting the flow of blood and oxygen. With limited oxygen and blood, the lower circular fibers at the neck of the uterus tighten and constrict, instead of relaxing and opening as they should. The upper vertical muscles continue to attempt to draw the circular muscles up and back, but the lower muscles are resistant. The cervix remains taut and closed.

When these two sets of muscles work against each other, it causes considerable pain for the laboring mother. The situation can also have an adverse effect on the baby. The upper muscles push to expel, forcing the baby's head against the tightly closed lower muscles that refuse to budge. In addition to the pain that this causes for both mother and baby, labor can be drawn out, or it can even shut down.

HypnoBirthing teaches you how to identify emotional stress before and during labor and how to release it. You will learn how to bring yourself into a deepened relaxation. When you are free of fear, you can achieve a relaxed state from the very onset of labor. Verbal and physical cues that you and your partner have practiced will help you to maintain a state of calm from the very start, as constricting hormones (catecholamine) are overridden by your body's natural relaxants (endorphins) (Marie Mongan, Hypnobirthing, the Mongan Method, 2005).

Robbie and I have had three HypnoBirthing classes so far, and they have been great. We spend a lot of time going through different breathing techniques, visualization techniques and other relaxation techniques that we are supposed to practice throughout the week so that we are able to bring ourselves instantly into a state of deep relaxation. We also talk about things we should be doing to maintain healthy pregnancies, discuss ways to bond with our babies, and hear birth stories/watch women giving birth so that we start to get rid of haing the preconception that giving birth will hurt. We are each given a CD to listen to: one track has birth affirmations (basically you listen to how you and your baby are healthy and you are built to have a wonderful, natural birth over and over) and the other track is for relaxation. I usually listen to the birth affirmations when I am driving in the car, and I listen to the relaxation part of the CD either before bed or when I take a bath. It's really very pleasant homework.

What I think is really cool about HypnoBirthing is how it flows so naturally from my yoga practice. In yoga, we always practice having relaxed breathing, no matter how strenuous the pose. We learn how important it is not to tense muscles in your face, otherwise your whole body will reflect that tension. We learn to find peace within ourselves despite the distractions in our minds and in our surroundings. The skills I have been learning regularly in yoga are exactly the same skills I need to find deep relaxation in HypnoBirthing. Plus, the skills I am acquiring in both yoga and HypnoBirthing are beneficial in everything I do in life. These skills are helping me to be a more peaceful and happy person. I love it, and I know my baby must love it too. For more information about HypnoBirthing, check out this website: http://www.hypnobirthing.com/default.htm

To end a very long, but hopefully very informative post, here is a video of a giraffe giving birth. I only hope that I will be as calm and relaxed when I birth my baby.

Walking our cat

I love the weekends! Mainly because Robbie doesn't have to work, so I get to hang out with him all day. We usually do a variety of things on the weekend ranging from going for a hike somewhere or walking around Portland and hanging out at coffee shops, to visiting family or relaxing at home watching movies, reading books or playing board games. Lately our weekends have been pretty busy trying to get our apartment ready for the new baby.We have two bedrooms, one of which we had been using for an office. Now we are going to need a room for the baby so we won't be able to have an office anymore. Unfortunately, our bedroom is too small to fit a bassinet near our bed, so we are going to have to switch our room with the office, get rid of the office completely by downsizing and moving a desk into the living room, and make a nursery out of the remaining room. So we have been busy picking out paint colors, figuring out which furniture we are going to keep and where we are going to put it, and sorting through all the stuff that has accumulated in our apartment this past year. We got a lot done this weekend, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us!

In spite of doing lots of chores this weekend, we still made time to do some fun things. On Saturday, Robbie went to "Daddy Bootcamp" at Mercy. There they teach an all men class about how to take care of infants, how to adjust to becoming a father, and how to be supportive to your wife. The Dad's who taught the class brought in their newborn babies, so Robbie got to practice holding them which he loved. He said the class was really great and he's really glad he signed up for it.

While Robbie was at bootcamp, I spent some time reading and exercising. I got this really awesome prenatal belly dancing dvd (which I'll tell you more about later), so I spent a good hour dancing in the living room. When Robbie got back, we spent the rest of the day cleaning out the office closet, but we had fun that night ordering delicious Leonardo's Pizza (we usually get the GORGONZOLA GOURMET: Olive Oil Garlic Sauce, Cheddar/Mozzarella Cheese, Green Spinach, Plum Tomatoes, Marinated Artichoke Hearts with Gorgonzola Cheese on whole wheat crust) and watching a movie. Then we played some board games and took turns reading chapters from Mattimeo before falling asleep.

On Sunday, it was beautiful out and Robbie and I both woke up really early for some reason. We made a yummy breakfast of eggs and fruit. Both of the cats have spring fever and wanted to go outside. We always let Theta out onto the balcony where he loves to lay down in the sun and watch to birds eat from our bird feeder. Unfortunately, we can't let Pi out there unsupervised because he is a bit more acrobatic and can climb off of the balcony. So I felt bad for Pi; I could tell he really wanted some fresh air! We decided to take him for a walk since he hadn't been on any adventures in a while, so we took him to Mackworth Island. They have a trail that goes entirely around the island along the water (a little over a mile long) and it is one of my favorite places to go walking. Pi was super excited, and was such a great little walker! For the most part, he walked all on his own. There was just a couple of times when Robbie had to carry him, like when he wanted to explore the bushes instead of stay on the trail, or when we crossed a big, windy field and he was too nervous. I was surprised how well he did because we hadn't brought him out on his harness for a while, but I guess he remembered just fine!

Since I have been working for Portland's Paws, I have been bring a lot of dogs to the house. Now Pi is somewhat of a dog expert, and really has no fear of meeting new dogs. So when we were walking on the trail yesterday and passed by other dogs, Pi wasn't afraid at all. Instead, he would try to pull us over towards the dogs so he could go meet them! He did this to a cute golden retriever, and the dogs was so confused and excited that he started lunging towards Pi and barking. Pi still didn't get scared (he didn't puff up his fur or try to run away), but he agreed with my insistence to continue walking. It's also really funny walking Pi anywhere because people aren't used to seeing cats on leashes, and they always have little comments. Then they continue to talk about him amongst themselves after we've passed them, but they don't bother to lower their voices so we can always hear them; it makes Robbie and I laugh. Pi is such a good boy; he got lots of compliments about how good looking he is and how he is such a great walker. He even got a few much-welcomed pets.

The water looked so delicious, I almost wanted to go swimming

Spring is here!

Robbie walking Pi

Pi says, "I hate the snow!"

Me walking Pi

My boys

Birth Journey Preparation Class

Today Robbie and I went to an all day child-birthing class at the Birthplace in Mercy Hospital (which is where we will be having our baby). The class was called "Birth Journey Preparation", and because we are registered to birth at Mercy the class was free. This is outstanding since childbirth classes usually range from $200 to $300! The class is offered either as a four-week series or a full one-day workshop. While I can see why having the class spread over four weeks could be really beneficial (more time to bond with other moms, easier to digest information if it's broken into smaller chunks, etc.), we opted for the one day workshop because the weekday series is always at the same time as my prenatal yoga class. Fortunately, the same amount of information is covered in the one day workshop.

The nurse who taught the class, Linda, was really great. She has been helping to birth babies for longer than I've been alive I think, and it was really interesting to hear about the advances and changes some hospitals have made for laboring women. Mercy has a really natural approach to birth, and so do the nurses there. This makes me really happy because more than anything (besides a healthy baby), I want a natural birth, which is the main reason we are having a midwife instead of a doctor. I feel happy and relieved knowing that not only the midwife but also the nurse at Mercy that will be with us will both be rooting for a natural birth and will do everything they can to help make that happen. Another nice thing is that not only will we be able to stay in the stay in the same room the entire time we are at the birthplace (labor, birth, postpartum) we will also have the same nurse the entire time. So we will be able to really get to know that nurse and be comfortable with her. Mercy has an over 90% success rate of women leaving the birthplace being able to breastfeed comfortably and part of that success comes from the nurses training and dedication to helping new mom's with positioning and acquiring a good latch within the first 30-60 minutes of the baby's life. I was also very impressed to see that the nursery in the birthplace was completely empty...that's because the babies always stay in the room with the moms and dads. The nurses even have you learn how to give them their first baths and to change their diapers among a huge other list of newborn care skills so that you feel prepared when you leave the birthplace. Overall, I was very impressed with the philosophy of the birthplace and the care that we will be given while we are there.

The class itself covered a broad range of topics. We started by going through the anatomy and physiology of a pregnant women and the changes that occur in the body during birth. Then we talked about birthing positions and relaxation techniques. The fathers all learned how to give the moms massages, which was lovely. We had an exercise in deep relaxation and visualization through contractions. Perhaps the funniest thing I witnessed during the day was when Linda had all the fathers lay down on the floor, fold up their legs into their chest and push as though they were giving birth. She had them do this to demonstrate how silly and difficult it is to push lying flat on your back; pushing against gravity. We then got into positions that were more suitable for pushing; ones that allow gravity to work for you, which was neat to experience.

Other things we went over were the types of pain relief that is available to us. A lot of the pain relief options are not medications: such as taking a hot shower, going in the jacuzzi (there is one in each room complete with mood-lighting and jets ), using a birth ball, etc. We talked about and got to handle the different types of instruments sometimes used to assist in birthing, such as vacuums and internal fetal monitoring. We also talked about under what circumstances we might have to have a Cesarean section (although their c-section rate is low at 12%) and what that entails. We saw a birthing videos for three vaginal births and one Cesarean.  Finally we had a tour of the birthplace, which included being able to see an adorable newborn baby girl. The rooms are really nice, and I know we will be very comfortable there.

I am very happy with the class, and I think the instructor did a great job. I am excited to look through the book she gave us that goes over all the materials she covered in more detail. I feel more excited than scared for childbirth at this moment, which is a very good feeling to have.