Baby Boot Camp: Why are these classes so helpful?

Today, Sean and I attended baby boot camp. These classes can be extremely helpful if you haven’t spent too much time around newborns, or it can be a refresher if it’s been awhile since you’ve had a child. These are normally taught by registered nurses that have vast experience in labor and delivery and the postpartum period. For me, it wasn’t too much new information since I’ve spent quite some time as a nurse helping take care of infants and mothers, but it was an eye-opener for my husband that’s only held one baby in his entire life.

The class went over going into labor, what to expect at delivery, and the postpartum period. Some things that you may want to discuss are:

• What should I expect in early labor, and when should I go to the hospital?

• What will I need to bring with me in my hospital bag? Will the hospital provide a lot of the essentials to recovery and send me home with some?

• What are my pain management options - pharmacological and non-pharmacological? When’s the latest the anesthesiologist will give me an epidural?

• What will my diet be leading up to labor? Will I still be able to eat or is it going to be just clear liquid or ice chips?

• Are there other methods of delivering baby rather than just being in bed on my back? Water births? Squatting?

• What are your c-section rates or thoughts on episiotomies versus tearing during birth?

• If you’re having a boy - should I expect to have baby circumcised before we leave or at a later appointment?

• Are there lactation consultants to help me with breastfeeding afterwards?

• What’s not normal during postpartum recovery?

• Are there support groups I can attend during the postpartum period?

• What to expect from baby during feeding and how to tell if they’re hydrated and fed? (Importance of diaper counts!)

• Help on learning to swaddle a baby, change a diaper, and how to hold baby

• What are the signs that my baby blues is starting to develop into postpartum depression? (Because mental health is SO IMPORTANT!)

Preparing for baby is more than just making sure you have enough diapers, wipes, and onesies ready for baby at home. The nursery and gear can be totally set up, but if you aren’t mentally ready to take on baby, make sure you’re asking the right questions. There’s no such thing as a dumb question when it comes to the care and well-being of your child. Even as a nurse that’s helped a lot of moms after delivery, there’s still so much that I don’t know about when it comes to baby being at home.

Disclosure: Sometimes these classes can be giving outdated information, or they just haven’t “updated” with the times. There’s so much advancement in childbirth from the early 2000s, that it’s still best to discuss with your provider on what their recommendations are. With that being said, here are some photos of Sean learning what it’s like to carry around a belly and how to be a new daddy!

Sean had no idea what to expect from the class, but by the end of the class he said that it was becoming more and more real for him! As you can see below, he becomes very protective over our make-believe simulation baby.

This is the kind of face I expect to see in the first few weeks postpartum with the baby. A daddy who is lost, a baby that’s half naked, and me behind the camera laughing. I can’t wait to see you be a daddy!

Baby Sison coming March 2020!

WE ARE EXPECTING A BABY COMING MARCH 2020!

New adventures awaiting us in March 2020!

This has literally been the hardest secret to keep from the public, although I’m sure many of our friends have already had their suspicions for quite some time now. Here’s to the first blog dedicated to my baby and how I have been crawling my way through my first trimester.

Sean and I had been trying our entire year in Korea, and with every month that passed, and every visit from Aunt Flo, it became harder and harder for me to handle every month. So when July 2019 rolled around, I wasn’t expecting much. We were gearing up to take leave to attend a wedding in Mexico, when I joked to Sean saying, “wouldn’t it be funny if I got pregnant? The one time that I’m going to prepare myself to party, and I can’t even do that?” We laughed and were lighthearted about it, but as the days passed, I started to feel different.

I track my cycles like the Mayans track the days using the Clue app. I know when I’m ovulating, I know when my period is coming. Every leg cramp, every stomach ache, every pain in my boob. Maybe that’s TMI, but hey, I’m going to be a mom and privacy is going out the window with every appointment! The symptom I couldn’t wrap my head around was my boobs feeling “heavier”. Ever since we started trying to conceive, I’ve read almost every article possible on “how to tell if you’re pregnant'“ and breast tenderness was my #1 suspicion for baby. I told Sean I didn’t feel right, and he said that we should wait until the day before we leave for Mexico to take the test. He went back to work down South for one day, and that day I got up and still didn’t feel right. I got up out of bed and took the test by myself.

It took him awhile to look at it, but when he saw it, his reaction was everything to me <3

TWO. FREAKING. LINES. CHANGED. MY. LIFE.

I was stunned for a second. My heart was racing and I just didn’t know how to take it all in by myself. I knew that I wanted to take it without Sean because I never get to surprise him, and this was one helluva surprise! I told him that I wasn’t feeling well, and asked him if he could come home that night. It was a giant mess trying to get him home because of a story I’d rather not go into detail with (in short: he was conned by a Korean, asshole.) But before he got home, I got everything set up for a reaction video which will be posted soon. Our lives changed that day. Everything I thought I knew about wanting to become a mom flew out the window. All my nursing knowledge, all the information I read before on how to conceive no longer mattered, because I was pregnant now! It was a new level, I had to read new things.

It’s been one crazy, emotional roller coaster. I’m not lying, Sean has a running list of the things that make me cry. This includes a bubblegum commercial, pancakes, and a stuffed hedgie. Everything makes me cry. I’m just glad that I’m not going through this alone. Sean and I are finally going to live together here in Texas, and it’s been so nice having him around every day. All day sickness has not been kind. Dizziness is sometimes unbearable. Living in the giant oven that El Paso is has been killer on me. But I’m not alone. I’m never alone now. I have my little babe in my tummy, and every day we grow a little bit closer together.

Photography: Northern Lily Photography