Locke finally has a nursery! I'm pretty excited about how it came together. There are still some things I need to do to finish it off (there are no decorations on the walls, for example), and a few more things I need to buy (pad for the changing table, clothes hamper, etc), but for the most part, it's done. I could bring him home today and make due without any other changes, I think. Especially since he'll actually be sleeping in the bassinet next to my bed, and will be unlikely to actually spend much time in here for, oh, the first four months or so. ;) 
I'm 32 weeks now. Just when I had gotten used to the idea of being 7 months along, all of a sudden I'm 8! Yeah, yeah, lunar months don't exactly equal calendar months, but it's going to take me long enough to get used to the 8 months idea that I may as well get started now. I have it on good authority that the obsetrician group that I'm seeing pushes pretty hard for induction if I've reached/passed my due date, so it's pretty much a guarantee that Locke will be here sometime during the next 8 weeks. Another 8 to try and get my head around.
Daunted? Errr....yes. Yes, I am.
The hospital where I'm delivering offers free classes on various topics for us deer-in-the-headlights type moms (oh, and I guess those who just want to be informed, too ;)), and I had the first of those this week. The topic: breastfeeding. I tried to go into this with an open mind. Like every pregnant woman I know, I've received all kinds of conflicting advice and anecdotes on the subject, ranging from breastfeeding being an onerous, painful, difficult pain in the patoot to its being pretty much the closest a woman can aspire to achieving earthly goddess-hood, and just about every shade in between. It seems like the scales tip slightly towards the people who hated it, though, but I can't say whether that's a function of numbers, or just of the fact that people who are miserable about stuff tend to be more vocal about it than people who are happy. (Work in retail for as long as I did, and you accept this basic tenet of life.)
So, while I was trying to be open-minded, I was aware that there is a part of me that was flatly unconvinced that I can manage it at all.
After enduring two hours of slides and a no-holds-barred video (I lost track of the nipple count in the first 2 minutes), I can admit to having felt a bit shellshocked when I left the class. It took a day or two afterwards (and re-reading the handouts) for everything to sink in. Even knowing as little as I did about breastfeeding when I went in, I was surprised by how much I didn't know. The evils of pacifiers? The best shape/design of a nipple on a bottle if I plan to pump and let daddy have a turn feeding? How much alcohol I can drink before the dreaded pump-and-dump? When to start an exclusively breastfed baby on food other than breastmilk? Even how to properly hold the baby while breastfeeding? All news to me. But I feel more informed, and as GI Joe taught us long ago, knowing is half the battle. ;) Now, of course the woman who taught the class fell into the earth goddess school of thought on breastfeeding, so I'm aware that she trumpeted all the positives while minimizing any potential negatives, but the end result is that I'm feeling a bit more optimistic about my chances of success.
Though there was one glaring problem with the class, in my humble opinion. When we took a break, they had snacks available...but all they gave us to drink was orange juice. A room full of 50 or so third trimester preggos, all of whom are probably fighting acid reflux to some extent, and at 8:00 at night the only option they gave us to wash down those stale graham crackers was citrus??? Just wondering who thought that one through. ;)
The next class is next week, and this time the husband is getting dragged along. Topic: basic baby care. I almost didn't sign up for that one, but after the breastfeeding class, I'm glad I did. You never know what you'll learn, right?
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