Getting Ready

OK, here is another little pregnancy secret that no one bothered to reveal to me: at some point the baby will get wedged in there somehow so that no matter which way you try to bend there is no possible way to use toilet paper. Yes, it is true. Several times now I have been stranded on the toilet, bouncing around, poking my belly saying, “C’mon kid! Move!” Oh, how I wish I had a bidet.

On Tuesday we had our second childbirth class. It was a long day since we drove back from Ft. Drum and then had class. It lasts from 1930 to 2130 – and ours always seems to go long because we have a couple of ESLs in the class and one granola guy and they are always asking questions. The class isn’t that bad, though. We both expected it to be totally lame but it is pretty informative. Of course, we still have 4 classes left. It is the one offered by the Childbirth Education Association so we are actually learning about the birth process, not how to be a patient (like the classes offered by the hospitals teach you.)

Last night we had a meeting with our doula. I finally got our birth plan (or birth preferences so as not to offend the nurses or whoever) squared away so she could go over it with us. She said it was pretty good – a lot better than some of the ones she sees. She wants me to put U’s in the words, though (like labour) so that the nurses don’t think I just copied it off some US website. I don’t know if I can do it! (You know how Canadians are: all hopped up on their maple-glazed donuts, running around on their 3-down football fields, adding extra u’s to words…) She also told us that our next-door neighbors just hired her, too. That will give me something to talk to her about next time I see her in the driveway.

That is pretty much it. We bought a car seat and a highchair down in NY. They are last year’s models so they were on sale. We got the car seat for $55 and the same model sells for about $180 up here. We got the high chair for $48 and the cheapest one I’ve seen up here is $80 – so we did pretty good. Now “we” just have to put together the crib and changing table that we bought at Ikea. The only big thing left to buy is a car, but we have to wait until the posting messages come out at Jack’s work before we do that. (I don’t want to jinx it, so I’m not talking about it until the messages come out!) We have been doing research on station wagons, though. We would both rather stab our eyes out than drive a mini-van and since gas costs $80 a gallon up here we don’t want an SUV – otherwise I would get a Dodge Ram kingcab pickup (with a hemi.) I was reading that the Dodge Magnum wagons have a hemi…. oh well, I’m sure we will end up with whatever used wagon is on sale here at that time!