Reflections on Prenatal Class

Hubby and I attended our first (of 6) prenatal classes last night. One of our really good friends teaches it so that just made us all the more comfortable. The most interesting part of the evening was observing the other couples in the room with us. We don’t know any of them, but some of them seem nice. One of the couples is from India. Its kinda fun to listen to their accent. They seem very sweet. He was so intent on the class he was taking notes at a furious pace. In introductions he told us this was their first baby and he was quite nervous. I thought it was all very sweet. One of the other couples is not due till January (though hubby pointed out she was at least as big as I was so he now thinks I am small). The girl giggled through the entire class - especially the breathing/relaxation exercises. I’m not saying it wasn’t mildly funny - but she snickered and snorted for at least 20 minutes straight. They are both quite young and not married. And while I am not passing judgment on them, I honestly can’t imagine being in that situation. Hubby has been such a support to me that I know there were times when he literally held my emotions together. He’s like one of those Glad Force Flex trash bags. I mean that in the nicest way. The class was fun in an odd sort of way. It wasn’t a laugh-out-loud sort of fun (unless you were the girl next to me). For me, it was more of a feeling like "finally!" We tried for a number of years to have a baby. We had some really hard times during those years. We shed many tears and shared a lot of heartache. So when we got pregnant this time around, every day was a victory of sorts - and still is. Every doctor appointment is celebrated as another step closer to meeting our little one. Every trimester passed is cause for joy. And all this time I kept thinking, if we can just make it to prenatal class, then we will be doing good. It was almost unreal to be sitting there. And it was especially fun to share it with Hubby - the one who has cried my tears with me, the one who has encouraged me, the one who has celebrated with me. He could hardly wait to go to the class because he felt it too - another milestone. And when they asked him in his questionnaire what he was most looking forward to in the class he wrote the following: sharing this experience with my wife.