by the way...

...I am just huge now. Everything is way out in front. There is no way that my shirts fully cover my belly these days. In fact, it's a little embarrassing and I constantly have to yank on my shirt to pull it over my pants! At the same time, the stretchy panel of my pants has to constantly be yanked back UP and OVER...! And, to think, we still have 5 weeks to go and the baby is supposed to double in weight! Holy cow.

This poor kid can't possibly have any more room to grow.

baby care class #3

Last night's session was about swaddling, bathing, and changing the baby...and a pediatrician also came in to answer questions about such things as circumcision, jaundice, frequency of doctor's visits, etc., etc.

Unsurprisingly, we were in amongst a crowd of non-circumcisers...one lady even was, in fact, pretty judgmental of the whole thing, loudly asking why *anyone* would circumcise their baby since the procedure just needlessly inflicts pain and suffering on the poor infant boy.

Of course, there could be cultural reasons for doing so...and, in the end, my personal feeling is that it -- like so many lifestyle/personal decisions in this world -- is really a matter of choice.

Anyway, we apparently live in an area where the percentages of circumcisers and non-circumcisers is about 50-50. That's pretty cool.

We also live in breast-feeding country...and, neat thing, we practiced changing the baby doll's diaper with cloth diapers!

On that note, when Tom and I got home from class last night, we looked up the cost of Tiny Tots Diaper Service and explored the bennies of using cloth diapers -- one of which is fewer baby rashes (the obvious one is environmental).

We've not yet made a decision, primarily because the diaper service seems a little expensive to us, but we may end up buying packs of cloth diapers on our own and washing them ourselves (eesh). Whether we go with the diaper service or not, we'd probably still use disposables whenever we were out and about and/or traveling....

our first baby class

To be honest, I don't even remember what the name of our baby care class is, but anyway, we went to the first session this past Thursday.

Got to see some pictures of "effacement" and "dilation" and saw a couple of videos of women giving birth (egads!).

We were told that the average labor for a first-time pregnancy is about 8-12 whopping hours! After seeing the video, I was a little more anxious...and, oddly enough, watching these videos was even more intimidating to me than having witnessed Tyler's birth! I realize now how remarkable Cindy was during labor -- I know she was in pain and labored for a good long time before they finally induced (and gave her the epidural), but she didn't scream or shout obscenities or anything...and, looking back on it all, she seemed remarkably brave!

In sharp contrast, the thought of the pain of labor and of having this little head sticking outta me until the next contraction finally pushes the thing completely outta me, is really beginning to freak me out.

Anyway, the nurse seems to think that knowledge is power and has no intention of sugar-coating the whole labor and delivery process...and The Complete Book of Pregnancy & Childbirth seems to think so, too. I, on the other hand, am thinking, "maybe ignorance really is bliss....

In the meantime, boy oh boy, is this baby active. We can definitely see the thing moving here, and zyggy seems to move a lot! During class and during last night's dinner at Millennium (with Mark and Yuchien, Ken and Jean, and David), it didn't even pause to listen to our conversations!