(no subject)

[sanpaku_backup]

So we spent all day in the childbirth class. We couldn't get into one that met every week, so we got the whole thing in one long fell swoop.

It was something we had been looking forward to for so long -- there's a lot to learn about -- but I was also dreading it. It did not dissapoint. I think like most men, I am a wimp about pain and especially about internalizing other people's pain. They showed the video of inserting the catheter into the spine for the epidural and I could feel the blood pooling in my feet. (I think I could handle the whole thing, actually, but for the needles.) I have a real terror of hospitals -- something about the institutional environment hits me on a pre-rational level. If Mrs. S. will be doing all the hard work, I know I will have my own job to do -- not freaking the fuck out for 12 hours. I'm just not a good person in an emergency situation.

I think I would have been OK with the 1950s dad thing -- pacing in the waiting room for 20 hours or whatever. (And Mrs. says she would be happy if they would just give her a lot of drugs already, without any pretense to "natural childbirth." So we are two of a pair.)

One month from today.

Comments

[flw.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you need a cardigan and a pipe and a handful of cigars. Unfortunately, the record with that intrusional style of delivery is pretty poor. Can't science find a better way? Apparently not...

[librarygrrl.livejournal.com]

My friend got through the childbirth ordeal by clutching her husband's hand and making him chant with her, "natural childbirth is for assholes." You might try a similar tactic.

Oh, and...have you heard about Dash?

http://www.keljan.com/

Re:

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Holy flurking shmit! That is unbelievable.

Were you at the wedding or something? I didn't realize you were even still in touch with her.

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

And I should clarify, by the way, that Carolyn and I used to carpool together to Hebrew school and you know that they lived about 500 feet from us in Mount Lebanon. So it's just really weird.

[librarygrrl.livejournal.com]

I told you about CK's happy event when we talked on the phone a few months ago, member? Dash was due in the middle of October. What's really weird is that I saw sonogram pictures of both of your kids for the first time in the same week. They didn't know girl or boy until the kid was born, which I think is cool. Not that I think I could stand the suspense myself...

Re:

[sanpaku.livejournal.com]

Yeah, some people like to not know. We have friends who did that. Girl every time.

You did tell me about Carolyn and in fact of course I know about it because wasn't R--, er, "Frank" there too? But it is one thing to hear that someone you used to know a heckuva long time ago got married, another to see a spread in Bride Magazine like that. Or the site as a whole.

Nevertheless, for all that I basically grew up with Carolyn, I only remember two salient facts about her: that she went out with Mike Berman for a long time, and she once referred to me as Frank's "apostle." Which was kind of true. But not especially endearing.

Whatever.